Europe after the Rain - John Foxx

After the emotionally distanced and anxiety-ridden Metamatic (Underpass and On the Plaza are anti-advertisements for the modern world) John Foxx reconnects with his romantic side and goes all exuberant for Europe after the Rain.

Reasons why the saxophone is not the work of the devil No 2

Japan - Methods of Dance

"Then out of the blue / you're here by me"

Japan always seemed so incredibly serious about their music; even in their pre-fame glam rock poseur phase they seemed so earnest to get it right (even if everyone else thought they got it terribly wrong).  Their music is so expertly crafted it is often difficult to find anything wrong with it, unless you enjoy nit-picking.  It is not surprising therefore that if anyone can, Japan can do great things with the saxophone.

1980's Methods of Dance from the album 'Gentlemen Take Polaroids' is one of the finest moments in Pop, rock, whatever.  It starts with the lonely wail of the saxophone over low rumbling synths, joined effortlessly by delicate 'piano' and David Sylvian's moody and obscure singing.  I think there is a glockenspiel in there somewhere.  It is the chorus which grazes magnificence however, the music falls only to rise on raptures of synth, voice and sax, all merging into each other, the woman's voice lending it an air of exoticism which Japan were to stamp all over this, and successive album, 'Tin Drum.'  The percussion sounds like the beat of angels' wings.  But it does not stop there, the sax solo in the middle bit (wow I am so un-technical when it comes to songs) manages to show how this much maligned instrument can be graceful without overwhelming, before we are treated to another rendition of the chorus to fade.  Whilst Japan's music continues to beguile and astonish with its apparent simplicity, Methods of Dance cannot be matched for sheer atmosphere and troubling sense of melancholy.

Reasons why the saxophone is not the work of the devil No 1

Ultravox! - Hiroshima Mon Armour

 

"Somehow we drifted off too far / communicate like distant stars"

Tucked away amongst songs filled with the bile, aggression and horror of the emptiness and banality of modern life is the wonder that is 'Hiroshima Mon Armour', possibly one of the most achingly beautiful songs of the post-punk age, a paean to everything innocent lost.  Beginning with the soft, melancholic chunter of the drum machine, then the meandering and eerie synths kick in before the saxophone makes its entrance.  But what a soft and affecting entrance it is, low and subtle rather than the the honking devilish solo that was to become the staple of the 80s.  John Foxx's strangely disaffected croon only adds to the atmosphere as the song rumbles along at a slow and stately pace (the lyric 'riding intercity trains / dressed in European greys' is for me the best description of the images that the rhythm evokes).  Even the lengthy improvisation on sax at the end manages to preserve its dignity - this is the most Polite and English of sax solos, never becoming unrestrained and not Getting Too Carried Away.  This song was notable for me in that it proved to me that saxophones were not always Bad and that Ultravox pre-Midge Ure were infinitely superior.

In Remembrance of Billy Mackenzie

I forgot that yesterday (22 january) was the anniversary of the passing away of Billy Mackenzie (The Associates) so here's to his memory and his wonderful soaring voice

Magic Magic

A band and an album of the same name, Magic Magic are obscure characters being almost impossible to locate on the 'net and with their album only available from Rough Trade (I had the fortune to visit the Rough Trade East shop recently and it was well worth a visit, although my bank account would not agree).  This was one of my attempts to buy an album on the strength of the review alone (I did this with Interpol and it worked very well) - a gushing review in the Sunday Times singing the praises of these young men from the US who have two drummers and use banjos and sing whimsical songs about jellyfish, alongside a picture of them covered in what looked like blood but could be strawberry jelly.  I think it was the picture that enticed me, after all it suggested they would either be very twisted or quirky.  It turns out that Magic Magic are more quirky than twisted after all, their lyrics describing fantastical scenarios sung in a childlike and naive fashion, very sweet in fact but without being cloying.  It took me a couple of listens to get into it properly as it is far more folk orientated than the post-punk fest I have had of late.  Now I love it and will urge everyone I know to rush to Rough Trade and purchase a copy!

Crispy Ambulance - The Plateau Phase

With so much stuff sloshing around in our culture these days it has been remarkably easy to find new avenues for exploration.  It must have been so different for earlier generations, without TV, without cinema, without the enormous printed media, without the Internet.  Sometimes finding stuff so easily does seem like cheating in a way, there is the small thrill of the initial discovery and then it becomes just another bit of stuff along with all the rest.  I try to gravitate towards those albums which have a story behind them, a story that I have often concocted to 'tell' the way in which they were found.  As it is with Crispy Ambulance (a name which seems revealing somehow even though it is nonsense) who first came to my attention whilst watching the film Control about the life of Ian Curtis (I ended up not learning much more really than what the NME has told me).  The singer of Crispy Ambulance, Alan Hempsall, stood in for Ian Curtis once when the latter was unable to perform.  I thought then, what a bizarre name for a band.  I remembered it though, which is how I came to listen to their one and only 'proper' album, The Plateau Phase.  At the time of release in 1982 (I am coming to the conclusion that 1982 was one of the greatest years for music) Crispy Ambulance seem to have been unduly affected by the music media's continuing obsession with Joy Division and were condemned for 'slavishly' copying said band.  I have always thought the praise for Joy Division was somewhat fanatical; Joy Division, to me, on record come across as distant and aloof, rather bleak (live it seems they were far more aggressive), Crispy Ambulance on the other hand feel so much more alive, even if their subjects are as melancholy, and the album throbs at times with a primal power.  Take Are you Ready? which builds slowly and slowly into a mantra, developing the suspense... then unfortunately things falls flat with the dirge-y Travel Time but never mind, they tried.  We are back on track with The Force and the Wisdom, Hempsall howling over minimal keyboards, the bass echoing eerily in and out, conjuring visions of dark forests and night-time.  Although inspired by Sex Pistols and Magazine like most bands at that time, Crispy Ambulance also seem to be closet hippies, I am not sure exactly why I think this but there is something far looser in their sound than the jerky rhythms of the post-punk leaders; that they take their inspiration from nature as well as from the Modern.  Hempsall's voice, whilst flat at times, is unaffected and 'real.'  The repetitive, driving rhythms echo hypnotic 'tribal' rituals (but might also be where the charge of being 'turgid' came from depending upon whether you like that kind of thing).  Take The Wind Season which, close to the end, breaks down into chants of 'oo ah oo', and We move through the Plateau with its refrain 'Nature attacks you and Nature heals you.'  Whilst Death from Above sounds like they were trying to capture the feel of the Arctic, something which Joy Division also excelled at, however Crispy Ambulance's effort comes across as slightly wistful, suggesting there is some optimism beneath the froideur.  

So much music, so little time...

It's been ages since I posted here and so many albums I have neglected to even compose the beginnings of a review... in order to catch up I am going to cheat and keep everything to a sentence, hoping to capture the essence somehow.

PS Except for The Cure all of these albums are from the 1980s

The Crackdown - Cabaret Voltaire
Grimy and forbidding, the sound of steel shutting down, nihilistic shopping centres and underground car parks, not to mention wildly innovative.

Head on The Door / The Top / Disintegration / The Cure / Faith / Japanese Whispers / Pornography / Wish / Seventeen Seconds / 4:13 Dream / Mixed Up - The Cure
In the search for the perfect emotional rush - be it happiness, heaven, gloom, despair, optimism, hope, fear, boredom, tension - The Cure just about nails every one you could ever imagine; they are more than essential, they are vital.

Voice:The best of Eyeless in Gaza - Eyeless in Gaza
Two men, a synthesiser and effortless amounts of quiet creativity


Immigrant / Promise / Voodoo Dollies: The Best of Gene Loves Jezebel - Gene Loves Jezebel
Perfect before they decided to go all Bon Jovi, the Welsh coalfields meets melancholy meets two oddly-coiffed brothers makes dark, wild fairy stories


Life in the Gladhouse: The Best of Modern English - Modern English
Bizarrely labelled as 'Goth' more agitated popsters producing some interesting tunes (some which appear to have inspired LCD Soundsystem), unfortunately remembered only for their soppiest offering 'Melt with You'

Swimming / Spectators of Life - The Names
Finally a group to dispel notions that the Belgians can only produce good beer and chocolate, lovely dreamy, wobbly pop to fall in love with - 'Life by the Sea' going onto my list of the most beautiful songs ever

For all and none / Pindrop - The Passage
Britain seems to be good at producing dramatic, if obscure, intelligent pop, The Passage are no exception even if sometimes they come across like a typical English day, wet and murky

If I Die, I Die - The Virgin Prunes
There is no justice in the world that the flamboyant, sarcastic, entertaining, over-the-top 'Prunes should not be as famous as their childhood friends, U2

Garlands - The Cocteau Twins
Before they started cooing of elle megablast burls and itchy glowbos, the Cocteau Twins exercised a darker imagination, captured here in all its stark beauty

Here Comes Everyone - The Wake
Etheral vocals, woozy sounds, lovelorn lyrics and dainty guitar, The Wake represent the template for many an 80s / 90s twee Indie band; there are many moments of sublimity e.g. 'All I asked you to do' which sets a high standard for tugging at your heartstrings

In the Flat Field - Bauhaus
Help! this is scary stuff, the desperate sound of a band struggling to get out of the East Midlands (I know how that feels...)

Double standards who me? LOL

Hmm  remember a time not so long ago when the 1980s were universally reviled for their incredible lack of palatable music and general hilarity in that anyone would ever be seen dead in legwarmers and a ra-ra skirt.  Yet how soon we are to forget... or maybe it was all a media confection anyway, as is much of the so-called popular imagination of the 80s.  So I have to admit that I was surprised to find that some of my now favourite bands existed in the 80s and produced surely some of the most compelling music ever committed to vinyl and cassette, now CD and iPod (perhaps even mini-disc if that cute format had not been relegated to the Betamax pages of technology history).  It seems that others have been thinking along the same lines and now the lies have been swept away.  Saxophone solos are not necessarily the work of Satan as we are discovering - although not strictly from the 80s, Hiroshima Mon Armour by Ultravox! showed that saxophones can be tasteful, it was only over-use by Trevor Horn and others that destroyed its credibility (perhaps).  Over-indulgence in the studio (drugs as well as music) would not necessarily result in a cringing unlistenable mess as long as the creative impulse was not completely shot to pieces - step forward Sulk by Associates which is near as dammit the most perfect album ever and it comes out of the 80s ha ha!  And so a new generation of young persons are reclaiming the good elements of the 80s that have so long been subsumed beneath the dross loved by the media - so instead of Japan we have Duran Duran, instead of Propaganda we have Frankie Goes to Hollywood, instead of Associates we have Wham and instead of Ultravox! we have Ultravox (okay this is where it gets confusing so post-Foxx Ultravox to be more precise).  Why can't we have them all?  I say we should fight for an alternative history of music!  And fall in love with those falling in love with the true spirit of the 80s... Ladyhawke, Late of the Pier, Ladytron, These New Puritans, Wild Beasts.  That should be enough to get the Recession party started...