Visage and Ultravox
were the quintessential new-romantic bands. Ultravox turned the
movement to an ideology, and Visage were their down-to-earth
counterparts. Ultravox made for music for the heart, while Visage made
music for the clubs. Coincidentally, Midge Ure and Billy Currie participate here, as do John McGeoch, Dave Formula and Barry Adamson from Magazine.
The
tracks can be roughly divided into two categories. The elegant ones,
with the symphonic synthesizers, the futurist attitude, the dandy poses,
the romantic classicism ("Visage", "Fade To Grey", "Blocks On Blocks"),
and the playful, glam influenced ones (the galloping "The Dancer", the
wild beats of "Malpaso Man", the robotic "Tar", the metallic disco "Moon
Over Moscow").
The album ends surprisingly with "Visa-age" (that nods to the spare minimal-wave of John Foxx),
and the apocalyptic instrumental "The Steps". The combination of the
cerebral wavers from Ultravox and Magazine, and Blitz-kids Steve Strange
and Rusty Egan, has come up with the goods. Get it here.
Ιn their debut, the Numbers offer an update of late 70's no-wave (particularly James Chance & The Contortions) and synth-punk (particularly Crash Course In Science).
However, the update is limited only to production values, and not to
form. A touch of glam and power-riffing ("Driving Song", "I'm Shy")
liven up the proceedings, while the factory-noise of "Prison Life" is
probably the most significant track here. In the end, however groovy
their spastic vignettes are, you can't help noticing how derivative the
whole thing is. Get it here (updated link).
Echoboy's, Volume Two begins with "Turning On", an Electronic Kraut
neurosis circling around your brain to the point of mental exhaustion.
Then "Telstar Recovery" picks up the scraps and sets in a maniacal orbit
in what can only be described as vital electronic Punk. Anybody who fell in love with Primal Scream's Xtrmntr is gonna love this.
The Dub Techno
"Kelly's Truck", setting in motion an obsessive merry-go-round,
explores this anguish from another perspective. In comparison, the
atmospheric Lounge "Siobhan", despite offering a melancholic tone, is a disappointment. Ditto for the unassuming Electropop "Make The City The Sound".
The escalating theme "Schram And Sheddle 262" is much better, as if an uneasy mixture of Public Image Ltd. circa This Is What You Want.. and an Ennio Morricone spaghetti-western score. On the other hand, "Südwestfunk No. 5" sounds like a softcore version of Big Beat. This hot/ cold shower continues with "Circulation", a twisted Synth Pop with Reggae overtones that conjures images of This Heat produced by Black Uhuru. Not bad at all.
A record which warrants a listen. Get it here (updated link).
Calla's unlikely mix of Slowcore and Garage Rock comes into it's own in the atmospheric peak of Televise, continuing a tradition that started in the 80's with The Dream Syndicate,
and providing music for a new generation of punks, whose interest is
not in destroying the establishment, but rather camouflage themselves
and blend with the flickering environment around them. Get it here (updated link).
One of the best kept secrets of Calexico's discography, this collaboration between them and the Amor Belhom Duo finds them at their most eerie, fatalist and mystical, with several short Ambient-Chamber tracks which give new guise to their cursed desert auras, and approach the abstract requiems of the Boxhead Ensemble
("La Valse Des 24 Heures", "En Route To The Blanchisserie", "Orange
Trees In The Yard"). Funnily, the nadir is the pointless doodling of
what one would expect to be the centerpiece (the 14-minute "The
Wrestler's Masque"), while the zenith is the 11-minute pointillism of
"Le Savon Se Dissout Dans La Rigole" (despite an awkward and irrelevant
coda). Get it here (updated link).
Despite their evolution as performers, by
this point A Certain Ratio had removed any sort of tension or angst in
their music, and they were left with a generic Disco-Funk sound, which did them no favours. The vaguely more meaty "Hot Knights" and "I'd Like To See You Again" were the highlights. Get it here (vinyl rip, includes pictures of the sleeve, inner sleeve, and vinyl).
