...Norman Wisdom, Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, good times.
Good songs never die, they go on to have a long and healthy existence way beyond the expectations of the writers. The Human League's Things That Dreams Are Made Of from the classic pop album Dare! is to be given another shape in the form of an updated version by the fashionista's DJ choice Kissy Sell Out (left). Hooj Choons, a dance label with an impressive pedigree, is releasing Kissy's remix along with millions more (well, probably about eight in total, a little excessive in my view, but hey). Tiga gets a look in (doesn't he always) as does the original producer of the track, Martin Rushent. But confusingly, four of them are already on iTunes, where you can buy Rushent's urgent Moroder-ified version. Clicky here.
This song is ingrained in my mind. Every word, syllable, Linn drum handclap and synth brass chord stab. "Like fun and money and food and love" Phil sings and it could sum up the track and what was to follow, the rest of the Dare! album. I have posted before about what the whole album meant to me as a child. Philip Adrian Wright (the strawberry blonde one) penned these glossy pop lyrics in a list-like manner, perfectly fitting the dance backing track and they still sound a la mode today.
Hooj Choons stick-man dresses up as Phil Oakey and his famous lop-sided do.
Until the Kissy and Tiga remixes, here's a mix de glamour from early this year by Manhattan Clique - the NY producers who've done a fantastic job with Soft Cell's Bedsitter(Clicky here for a listen) for the forthcoming album of remixes. There's also the League and Martin Rushent's 1982 dub version below, originally produced for the Love and Dancing album.
This week saw a very special jiffy bag of delights pop through the door chez moi. After months of having to listen to the wonderous Parralox via TheirSpace the first track on their new album, Electricity summed up its arrival: "Congratulations that we've come so far/It's a pleasure to meet you finally". And singer Roxy, writer/producer John and their LinnDrum don't disappoint. Their debut is as sparky as Summer Heights High and as confident as Dare. Each track is a perfect pop song. There's melody, succinct lyrics and radio-friendly vocals all held together within a verse/chorus format, and like Dare, the only instruments are a synthesizer and drum machine (although the digi effects are very much 2008).
[Click on the titles for a sample] Opening track Europa is fittingly anthemic, a paen to a new start while Black Jeans then cuts in with a Sound of the Crowd swagger to bring us back to earth. Third track, Electricity, is dedicated to the godfather of synthpop, Martin Rushent and like his own productions is as joyous as Altered Images and as glossy as Leisure Process. The stonking I Fell in Love With a Drum Machine, a clear single, has a male vocal reply vocal, a la Matinee Club, which sings: "I love my Linn Drum". How 80s! The single Sharper Than a Knife is Top Ten material: it's accomplished pop with a compelling story of emancipation. How Noughties!
The songs on Electricity could easily sit within other artists' canons: You and Me Both, a Yazoo tribute could be a Kylie track; X Minus One wouldn't be out of place on a Marsheaux album; and given the Xenomania treatment, We Believe in Electric Love could be a Girls Aloud numero uno. The End of Summer, cleverly recreating Pet Shop Boy's Rent drum track is definitely Madonna, circa Ray of Light.
It's clear there is a lifetime of influences on Electricity. Here, Roxy and John explain the music which has shaped their sound.
Buffalo Gals - Malcolm McLaren
What was the first record you bought? John:"The first actual record I bought was Buffalo Girls by Malcolm McLaren (7" vinyl single). Although by this stage I had already discovered the joys of electronic music. I was an avid fan of Mr McLaren for many years to come and proudly purchased more of his songs, such as Madame Butterfly, Deep In Vogue (I'm surprised Malcolm didn't sue Oldfrapp), Something's Jumping In My Shirt and Double Dutch." Roxy: "Soooo embarrassing, but it was an album from a tv show called Young Talent Time which featured little wannabe child-stars singing super cheesy songs (and the one which started the Minogue dynasty). I was traj way back!" [Clicky here for a miniscule Dannii on YTT!!]
What was the first song that made you first sit up and notice music? John:"The song that really catalysed it for me wasThe Things That Dreams Are Made Ofby League Unlimited Orchestra. It was a lovely Saturday afternoon in December 1982 when I heard that song come onto FM Radio and I just sat there between the speakers transfixed at this perfect union of the synthetic and pop. Of course I was already a massive Kraftwerk / Klaus Schulze / Jean Michel Jarre fan (all this at only 13 years old!!) but to hear electronic music in this format was something brand new. Unless you were there at the time it's hard to understand the cultural and technological context in which this music was being created." Roxy: "I can't say any song in particular but I used to love my Walkman. I had it right by my bed - the top bunk - and used to listen to tapes and radio surrounded by garish green wallpaper."
Who has your favourite voice? John:"I can only pick one? Ok then...Randy Crawford. I have listened to her for as long as I can remember and she really is one of the greats. I recommend all readers to grab a copy of her album Secret Combination as it contains some wonderful vocal performances and songs including Rainy Night In Georgia and You Might Need Somebody. I had the priviledge of meeting her when she toured Australia in the 90's (I was working at the Hilton) and I have to say her voice is phenomenal. She sounded just like she did on the CD. No autotuning there! Other vocalists that deserve a mention are Annie Lennox, Dave Gahan, Patti Page and last but not least..Divine. Yes, that's right..Divine..just listen to Alphabet Rap and tell me you haven't been entertained ;)" Roxy: "I love Mary J Blige. She is amazing and there's a heartfelt passion there – it’s almost uncontrolled. Although I imagine she is very much its master."
Is there a song that makes you cry? John:"My heart was replaced with a microprocessor in the late 80s so unfortunately I don't cry anymore. Seriously though, I do get very emotional when I listen to The Winner Takes It All by ABBA. It has to be one of the most heart-wrenching songs I've ever heard. It's emotional resonance is all the more powerful when you understand that subject matter mirrors the divorce that Agnetha and her husband, Benny Ulvaeus, were going through. The pain that they all must have been enduring can be heard in Agnetha's voice when she sings this song. Of course she is a brilliant vocalist regardless, but it's one of those magic moments where everything falls beautifully into place (unlike their marriage...whoops). Roxy:"I’ve cried when I’m writing songs that are really true to my heart...you know when you manage to just get that match between a melody and a lyric to express a feeling."
Is there a song guaranteed to get you dancing? John:"Oh yes...Michael Jackson's Don't Stop Till You Get Enough." Roxy:"Anything anthemic always works. I loved that vid for Rock With You with Michael Jackson in a sparkly jumpsuit with a green screen created starry sky behind him."
Whose songwriting do you admire the most and why? John:"That's a difficult choice, but in terms of modern composers I'd have to say Martin Gore of Depeche Mode. Songwriting is an art that you develop over time, although some people seem to be born genious songwriters. I'd say that Mr Gore has certainly matured as a songwriter and you can trace this evolution from Speak & Spell right up to Playing The Angel. Mind you, Tora, Tora, Tora was a great start! He has such a unique approach to lyrics and melody and his exploration into the darker side has given his songs a much deeper meaning and a real edge. Also, Alan Wilder of Depeche Mode. One of my all time fave Depeche songs is The Things You Said, but also Enjoy The Silence and Black Celebration are masterpieces as well. His songs are just lovely." Roxy:"I thought that the Robbie Williams/Guy Chambers partnership was a good one. It changed song-writing in the 90s and took it to a more complex self reflective place."
Which song of yours made you think, "We've cracked it. This is a proper song"? John: "In hindsight I'd have to say Sharper Than A Knife, although I also think Factory Friendsis the most meaningful song I've written to date. It's a real challenge to ensure that our music doesn't fall into the cliched 80's revival movement (though a few tracks like We Believe In Electric Love are the exception. But that's just between you and me, gentle reader) so I really work hard to make sure that the production and lyrical content stays somewhat grounded in reality. In the case of STAK it was one of those fluke moments where the music and lyrics fell into place and you end up with a song that translates well in any genre, and could potentially have cross-over appeal. It takes time to distance yourself from your own creation and see it like other people do, although it never really happens that way. What I mean is - as a songrwriter and producer I will never experience the song in the same was that someone who is hearing it for the first time. But I can appreciate that it is a good song (IMHO) and probably the one of the strongest pop songs on the album." Roxy:"Sharper Than a Knife. It was our first potential crossover song. John, who does the writing on this project, can be a little left of centre, bless him. But I’m a bit of a mainstream tragic so when we started recording Sharper Than a Knife and it was sounding like a radio song, that’s when my little 'you never know your luck, we may really have something here' voice started to whisper."
Parralox Myspace here. Electricity can be purchased here.
So the dates have been announced for the annual December Human League UK tour. But this year there is a twist. According to Electronically Yours they will perform Dare! in it's entirety! A. May. Zing.
This album has been a favourite of mine ever since my 12 year old mitts got a copy for Christmas. I played it day in and day out during my formative years and like any album held in such fond regard, it has become as recognisable to me as my own name. As a not yet fully-formed gayer, the androgeny of Phil with his make-up and Miss Selfridge clothes and the girls themselves, with their Boots No.7 make-up, were a perfect the combination to me. The design of the gatefold sleeve with its nod to the design of Vogue and tracks recorded using only synths and drum machines, meant that the album held weight and would stand up as the classic it has become.
I've seen the band live many times, and although they've never professed to being singers, they've never been dull and always entertaining. The girls will do at least five costume changes (Susanne's influence methinks) and if they slip up vocally, they will apologise and move on. Or in the case of Joanne, when she came in a bar too soon with a booming, off-key "Norman!" for the middle eight of Things That Dreams Are Made Of, they'll chastise themselves with a Yorksire tinged "Fookin' Hell" and move on.
Shhh! If we don't say anything, people might not realise Dare! is 26 years old...
They're playing Hammersmith Apollo in London on December 1st and around the country before and after. The dates are also on Electronically Yours' post, (scroll down to 21.06.07).
And because Kissymas is just around the corner, here's The League on the BBC's annual Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops 1981. They're performing their Christmas number 1 Don't You Want Me and there's a party atmosphere going down. Particularly at 2.55 in. Someone goes mad with the silly string and near chokes poor Joanne. It's a cracker!
Reading the words "best thing you will see on the internet" my heart sinks. But this BooTube clip more than lives up to them. The original version is here but it's this drum 'n' bass one I saw over on do1frood that tickles, especially at 1.30 when the girl in turqoise gets a little carried away and pushes over her fellow Holy Ghoster. There's also a severed link, on the do1frood site to Brandy's new track Right Here (Departed) which is full of her trademark beats and vocal filters but is a lot more tuneful than the last workout. Sterling stuff. Listen here.
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There are a couple of Human League covers doing the rounds. Well, one and a third really. The Sirens' track Dreams (clicky here for a BooTube stream) tacks the chorus of These Are the Things That Dreams Are Made Of onto a rubbish song. I'm all for mix 'n' match in music - anything is possible and all that - but the phrase 'polishing a turd' springs to mind. And the walking advert for Mane Hair Thickener, Tony Christie, has just recorded a version of Louise for his collection of tracks Made in Sheffield, (can you see what he's done there?). Now this is what I call a cover and it's produced by bloggers' delight Richard Hawley. Clicky here for a listen.
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Lorraine are back! Back!! BACK!!! XO has managed to prise them out from under their Norwegian rock and got Ole Gundersen, the singer, to talk about new recordings and how Neil Tennant has been buying clothes for him. Frustratingly though, there's still no actual date for the new album, only that there is one and it's called Pop Noir.
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Talking of disappearing acts, has anyone seen this man, Mylo? He's popping up as a DJ at today's Get Loaded in The Park 2008 at Clapham Common (couldn't think of a worse event and its equally worse attendees, quite frankly), but his recording version is nowhere to be seen. Destroy Rock & Roll came out four, yes FOUR years ago. Obviously his hit album spawned loads of work offers which kept him away from the studio, quite literally when he became a travel writer for the Guardian, but work on the follow-up started two years ago. My guess is that something will surface at the end of the year with an album in January. If you've heard any different, let me know! As long as someone tells me he's got brilliant singers with great vocal parts on the new stuff, I'll be happy.
The Human League @ Hammersmith Apollo, London, Dec 1st 2007
My friend texted me just as I arrived at the Hammersmith Apollo last Saturday night for the Human League gig: "We're in the upstairs bar and it's full of old farts". Nice. I thought. Stands to reason though. The League have been going in various formats for 30 years and in recognition of the feat, the breakthrough album Dare! from 26 years ago was performed in its entirety, in track order. That's a lot of time passed if you were a spotty 12 year old like me when it became the album of a generation. I wracked my brain to try to think of something to make this gig report 'current' but then realised there's no need. Dare!'s influence on pop music is so deep it's timeless. And it sounds just as fresh, glossy and glamorous as ever.
The Apollo was packed to the rafters and as the opening handclaps of The Things That Dreams Are Made Of began, the place went into uproar. Everyone danced like Jo and Susanne: dancing babies with hands flailing in the air. The image of Phil and the two girls either side is an iconic image and the set behind projected equally iconic images illustrating the clinical lyrics of Dare!.
Open Your Heart sounded monolithic tonight. It's sequenced pop was perfectly suited to a massive hall. And it it's always a pleasure to hear the line "Make a shroud pulling comb through a backwash frame/Find the copies in a carbon mount pass around" (!) from Sound of the Crowd sung live by the man himself. Darkness is apparently one of Phil's favourite League tracks as he said to eeveryone:"I've always loved that song and it's great to be able to perform it tonight".
Do or Die, with its infectious latin rhythms, was followed by the bleak monophonic theme to the film Get Carter (a very Oakey idea for the album originally). The booming I Am the Law together with still excellent Seconds keeps up the bleak part of Dare! but then we're back into hands in the air. Love Action fulfills Oakey's 1981 wish for The Human League to be ABBA with synthesisers, and of course I always sing loudest at the "But this is Phil talking" line.
The climax of the first half, the 'button', was Don't You Want Me; the last track on the album. Put out as a single in time for Christmas 1981, it was not a popular choice as far as the band were concerned who thought three hit singles were more than enough. Of course it went on to become one of the biggest-selling singles EVER. "Shows you what we knew!" Jo Catherall said later in interviews. And the crowd tonight knew every word. Smiles and drinks aloft, especially when Susanne stepped up to sing her 'reply'.
The second half was a greatest hits extravaganza starting with The Lebanon ("And where there used to be some shops!" hahahaha) which sounded strangely uplifting. The rest of the Hysteria was ignored (no Life On Your Own or Louise, slight boo) but Mirror Man sounded lush, Human simply lovely and (Keep Feeling) Fascination as fresh as ever. The encore was Oakey's solo effort Together in Electric Dreams, now firmly entrenched in the Leagues canon. The whole hall seemed to be bouncing en masse, and even the stage intruder lifting poor Susanne and swinging her around seemed in keeping with the feel-good moment.
It was a truly special event, as equal in affection and warmth as Marc Almond's 50th birthday concert in July this year. Phil Oakey was outstanding. The voice and its lusty croon is intact and stronger than ever. Pitch perfect, he had a massive 'who knew' energy, running about the stage weaving in and out of the girls. And, of course, without the girls it wouldn't be The Human League.
A Linn Drum to be precise. And it's all over the debut album of Ozzie synth duo Parralox. I first wrote about them in March when they were in the first stages of compiling a collection of tracks by recording one a week. That collection is due to released as the album Electricity next month and judging by the solid tracks on their MySpace it's going to be a stonker. John and Roxy have come up with an amazingly catchy electro pop sound, very radio-friendly and sounding like a cross between Girls Aloud and The Human League.
The League was an early influence on the techy John Von Ahlen, in an interview with Electronically Yours he explains: "The Human League's song The Things That Dreams Are Made Of made me think "I want to do that for a job". It was early December in 1981 when I heard that song on a Saturday afternoon and my mind was completely blown away. I was already a mad electronics and sci-fi fan and grew up on Doctor Who, Blake's 7, Lost In Space etc and then I heard this electronic noise coming from the radio and was spellbound. Something inside me connected with the clinical precision of this music. It was the perfect combination of great song writing and great production and I soon started to immerse myself in electronic music. And I haven't stopped". The full interview can be found here - scroll down to 11 June (there's also a great interview with very lapsidaisical Marsheaux!)
There's definitely something in the water in Australia at the mo'. The likes of The Presets, Cut Copy, Midnight Juggernauts and Antigone have all blossomed this year; and now we have Parralox. Oz-tastic.
Bona! This is a music blog. If there are any mp3 files uploaded which need to be taken down, get in touch! Also, email me if you have any music you want nice people to hear...
...Norman Wisdom, Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, good times.
the fashionista's DJ choice Kissy Sell Out (left). Hooj Choons, a dance label with an impressive pedigree, is releasing Kissy's remix along with millions more (well, probably about eight in total, a little excessive in my view, but hey). Tiga gets a look in (doesn't he always) as does the original producer of the track, Martin Rushent. But confusingly, four of them are already on iTunes, where you can buy Rushent's urgent Moroder-ified version. Clicky here.
Hooj Choons stick-man dresses up as Phil Oakey and his famous lop-sided do.
Thanks to Electronically Yours for the news. My source for all things League dontcha know!
