Black Cherry

Having spent considerable time and effort carving a niche for themselves as creators of soothing, chilled melodies - in fact, having become best known for the track Lovely Head, snapped up by British mobile phone companies for a range of adverts - Black Cherry, the second album by Mute-signed band Goldfrapp came as a bit of a surprise.

From the first, grinding electronic note of Crystalline Green, it was clear that Black Cherry was very, very different to Felt Mountain, something hinted at by Goldfrapp's occasional foray into gritty electronica during their live shows. Disco-dirty versions of Olivia Newton-John's Physical and Baccara's Yes Sir, I Can Boogie - stripped down and instilled with a bizarre, new charm - hinted at Goldfrapp's descent into Dot Allison style territory, a new, synthetic sound that would continue with the third album, Supernature.

Other tracks on the album played with the electronic theme. Train was a perfect tribute to glam rock, but eschewed guitars in favour of rumbling sawtooth synths and a pumping, twisted bass-line. A calmer period followed, in which the title track Black Cherry brought back memories of Felt Mountain's calmer, more ambient feel. The only other track, incidentally, to do this, is Hairy Trees.

And if Train and Crystalline Green weren't enough to convince you of how serious Goldfrapp were about this new direction, then the tracks Twist, Strict Machine and Slippage were bound to cement the idea in your mind. Twist, in particular, was as dirty as Nine Inch Nails' Closer but without the obscenity: a track the tabloids would undoubtedly describe as raunchy - a plain and simple ode to the pleasures of oral sex.

Black Cherry was released by Mute Records on the 28th April, 2003. Wonderful electric...

A brief history:

Formed in 1986 and hailing from Tromsø, Norwegian band Bel Canto use a subtle blend of electronics, guitars and vocals to produce ethereal, strange and beautiful music. Occasionally, traditional ethnic instruments or even classical arrangements punctuate tracks, or a heavier, synthetic feel might develop, perhaps showing the influences of Geir Jenssen, part of the original line-up, who later left to form Biosphere under the name Bleep. Geir's style is clearly visible on the Bleep remix of Dreaming Girl.

Following the release of the first album, Bel Canto became a double act, now consisting of vocalist Anneli Drecker (whose name may be familiar for recent collaborations with Röyskopp and A-ha) and Nils Johansen. Taking their name from the bel canto style of opera, the range and expression of Anneli's voice is undeniably deserving of such comparisons; bel canto means beautiful singing. Both the music and the vocal styles have been compared to the Cocteau Twins, though Anneli's lyrics do not generally correspond exactly with Liz Fraser's echolalic singing. More often than not, the lyrics for Bel Canto songs are in English, perfectly audible, multi-layered and sometimes rather odd: The reptiles escaped, who said boo? Was it me but who then was I? being a perfect example, closely followed by The dinosaur slipper man does the very best he can to make a living out of what he does. Other tracks, meanwhile, feature Norwegian, German or French vocals, such as those on Im Best'n Beihs, Le Temps Dégagé or traditional folk-story Die Geschichte Einer Mutter.

Albums:

White-out Conditions (1987)
Birds of Passage (1990)
Shimmering, Warm and Bright (1992)
Magic Box (1996)
Rush (1998; released as Images outside Europe)
Retrospect (2000; compilation album)
Dorothy's Victory (2002; only released in Norway)

Bel Canto's style has varied over the course of their career. The first album, White-out Conditions deals with the frost-filled fjords of Northern Norway. Ethnic instrumentation and repetitive percussion brings a feeling of bleakness to the album, and Anneli's vocals muse on the creaking ice, bodies floating in the cold sea, and the futility of vision under white-out conditions. The music may be beautiful, but the theme of the album strikes precisely at the point between beauty and danger; overall, a keen reflection of the beauty and danger of the white-out landscape.

The second album Birds Of Passage moves onto more varied themes, though still with a downbeat theme, shown in songs like The Suffering and Intravenous. Third album Shimmering, Warm And Bright is stunning; quite possibly their best, and certainly their most Cocteau-Twins-esque.

Magic Box features collaborations with Jah Wobble, and the following album Rush has a more synthetic feel. Following the release of a compilation album, Retrospect, Bel Canto returned to elegant, guitar-based instrumentation, backed by washes of synths and multi-layered vocals, producing Dorothy's Victory, sadly only available in Norway, but more than worth making the effort to seek out. Anneli's solo albums, beginning with Tundra (2001), are also worth finding.

Tracklistings:

White-Out Conditions:
1 Blank sheets (4:13)
2 Dreaming girl (3:04)
3 Without you (4:03)
4 Capio (2:20)
5 Agassiz (3:56)
6 Kloeberdanz (3:00)
7 White-out conditions (4:08)
8 Baltic ice-breaker (4:43)
9 Upland (6:59)
10 Chadeinoi (3:29)

Birds Of Passage:
1 Look 3 (4:34)
2 Dewy fields (4:04)
3 Continuum (4:35)
4 The suffering (4:07)
5 The Glassmaker (4:28)
6 Picnic on the moon (4:41)
7 Intravenous (3:18)
8 Oyster (3:07)
9 Birds of passage (5:26)
10 A shoulder to the wheel (4:18)
11 Time without end (5:01)

Shimmering, Warm And Bright:
1 Unicorn (5:19)
2 Summer (4:47)
3 Waking will (5:16)
4 Shimmering, warm and bright (3:18)
5 Sleep in deep (2:45)
6 Buthania (2:52)
7 Le temps dégagé (4:43)
8 Spiderdust (3:59)
9 Die geschichte einer mutter (6:54)
10 Mornixuur (7:51)

Magic Box:
1 The magic box I (1:21)
2 In zenith (5:29)
3 Freelunch in the jungle (4:14)
4 Rumour (5:24)
5 Sleepwalker (4:50)
6 Bombay (3:58)
7 Paradise (5:11)
8 Didn't you know it? (4:23)
9 Big belly butterfly (4:46)
10 Kiss of spring (4:26)
11 The magic box II (1:20)

Rush / Images:
1 Images (3:36)
2 All i want to do (4:52)
3 Spacejunk (3:57)
4 Verena (3:11)
5 Idly I de-ice (4:54)
6 Nornagest (0:43)
7 Rush (4:32)
8 99% of me (3:01)
9 The dinosaur-slipper-man (3:26)
10 Hearts unite (4:38)
11 Sun (5:45)
12 Here, in shadow (2:41)
13 Heaven (5:40)

Retrospect CD1:
1 Bombay (3:52)
2 Shimmering, warm and bright (3:13)
3 Didn't you know it? (4:11)
4 Images (3:34)
5 Summer (4:36)
6 Paradise (4:56)
7 Idly i de-ice (4:51)
8 Spiderdust (3:55)
9 A shoulder to the wheel (3:56)
10 Capio (2:09)
11 Unicorn (4:12)
12 White-out conditions (3:41)
13 Dewy fields (3:48)
14 Waking will (5:11)
15 Blank sheets (3:51)
16 Rumour (5:01)
17 The suffering (3:35)
18 Disappear club 5 (4:38)

Retrospect CD 2:
1 White-out condition (Demo 1986) (4:57)
2 Baltic ice-breaker (Demo 1986) (4:31)
3 Maaligaabidaa (B-side) (2:54)
4 Keena maareeme (B-side) (4:58)
5 Birds of passage (Live in Tromsø 1999) (4:47)
6 Heaven (Live in Tromsø 1999) (5:05)
7 Dreaming girl (USA Remix by Bleep) (4:02)
8 Shimmering, warm and bright (Alien nation) (6:03)
9 Ride the unicorn (Alien nation remix) (6:20)
10 Rumour (BandB remix) (7:46)
11 Agnus dei (4:46)

Dorothy's Victory:
1 Foolish Ship (4:32)
2 Feels Like I'm Already Flying (3:59)
3 You Rock My World Tonight (4:42)
4 Disappear Club 5 (4:34)
5 Night Lady (6:37)
6 Dorothy's Victory (4:22)
7 Tree (5:34)
8 Happy Time Fly Fast! (3:54)
9 Im Best'n Beihs (5:17)
10 Corals, Jade and Pearls (4:00)
11 Ladonia (5:15)

Beborn Beton

Beborn Beton are a three-member German synthpop band. Founded in 1989, Beborn Beton initially found success in Germany, although over the course of their career they have made significant advances into Europe and the United States. The band's line-up is simple enough, remaining unchanged since 1989. Beborn Beton are Michael B. Wagner, taking charge of keyboards and sharing composition duties with Stefan Tillmann, who also focuses on keyboards and percussion. Stefan Tillmann is generally known as Till, however, to avoid confusion with the third member, Stefan Netschio, who works on the lyrics and vocals.

With regard to the name of the band, while Beton is the German word for concrete, the official website tells us that Beborn doesn't mean anything in particular - the band's name came to one of the members whilst travelling on public transport and, after a little deliberation, was adopted despite initial concerns over its lack of meaning. The reference to concrete is explained by the band-members as referring to the urban environment in which they grew up, and the word appears once more in the title of their third album, Concrete Ground.

The Music:

Beborn Beton produce melodic, often melancholy, synthpop. The lyrics are sometimes in German, but usually in English. Subject matter ranges from the usual mundanities of love through to little lost robots, American patrotism, suicide and bloodsucking. There's a different but not too dissimilar cover of The Human League's Being Boiled out there, as well. If you're into synths, maybe VNV Nation, Depeche Modeor De/Vision, then Beborn Beton's music is all good stuff, with plenty of synth bass, pulsing melodies and a hint of industrial or future pop every now and then. Their debut album, Tybalt, actually appeared almost three years after the band's formation. Consequently, the album is more of a compilation than a cohesive work, featuring the best tracks from the band's first three years. Well-received in the electronic music scene, the 5-track single Twisted was released, and a follow-up album, Concrete Ground affirmed Beborn Beton's synthpop direction. A change of record label and Nightfall was released. In many ways, this was Beborn Beton's 'break-through' album, producing the club-friendly track Im Innern Einer Frau and achieving some measure of commercial success in America as well as Europe. The single Another World, a deceptively cheerful-sounding song about suicide, received considerable airplay in Europe and continues to enjoy popularity in synthpop and industrial nightclubs across Europe and the United States.

More label changes followed, accompanied by a slew of re-releases. A new album, Fake, with associated single Poison was released in 1999, following which Beborn Beton has gently slipped into a cycle of re-record, re-mix and re-release; the final two albums on their discography are both Best Of compilations with a number of remixed or re-recorded classic tracks included. A period during which the band appeared to be pouring their creative energy into plenty of touring and playing live followed the greatest-hits-lull, and since then... nothing.

So far.

Remixes:

Beborn Beton have also remixed a number of other artists' work. Their remixes usually remain true to the original song, but with a classic Beborn Beton feel. Their version of Apoptgyma Berzerk's Kathy's Song, for example, combines clean synthpop basslines with the original vocals and a classic DX7 bell sound to great effect.

Apoptygma Berzerk - Kathy's Song
Camouflage - I Can't Feel You
Claire Voyant - Majesty
Clan of Xymox - Something Wrong
Cleen - The Voice
De/Vision - Your Hands On My Skin
Funker Vogt - Under Deck
Infam - Limbo
In Strict Confidence - Seven Lives
Wolfsheim - Approaching Lightspeed

Releases:

Tybalt (1993) (Single release: Twisted)
Concrete Ground(1994)
Nightfall (1996)
Tybalt Re-release (1997)
Truth (1997) (Single release: Another World)
Concrete Ground Re-release (1998)
Fake (1999) (Single release: Poison)
Rückkehr zum Eisplaneten (2000)
Tales From Another World (2002)

Goodbye Horses

You told me, I see you rise...

But it always falls.

I see you come, I see you go.

You say "All things pass into the night"

And I say, "Oh no, Sir - I must say you're wrong."

Q Lazzarus, like Gina X Performance and so many other minimalist electronic artists, has all but vanished without a trace. Any hint of a popular revival comes from external forces - the electroclash synth revival, the odd left field cover version or perhaps an unexpected soundtrack appearance.

In Q Lazzarus' case, 1991's brief revival was due to the latter. Goodbye Horses, their one hit wonder is remembered most fondly for its use in The Silence Of The Lambs. Buffalo Bill dances before his mirror, his penistucked demurely between his thighs, gently mouthing the words to this minimalist, electro gem. It wasn't Goodbye Horses first appearance on a soundtrack, though - the songs first official appearance was on the soundtrack of Jonathan Demme's Married To The Mob. That was 1998, about three years before Silence Of The Lambs. Riding on the back of Hannibal Lecter, a single release took the opportunity to pair up the song with b-side White Lines.

The song itself, written for Q by William Garvey, exists in two versions - the original 4:20 version, and an extended 6:27, apparently produced specially to capitalise on the success of the Lambs. The lady herself, Q Lazzarus, can be seen briefly in another Jonathan Demme film, singing Heaven in the movie Philadelphia. The music is electronic, melancholy and minimalist. While the word simple is unfair, the song is in no way complex - a simple note fades into a drumbeat, and a single, sparse melody picks out the same note, an octave or two higher. The bassline joins in, repetitive and insistent, and finally the melody gains an extra note before Q Lazzarus begins to sing. The effect is aural perfection to rival Gina X's No GDM.

And the meaning - this flying over horses? A link to Eastern philosophy, we're told, rather vaguely. The horses represent the five traditional senses, keeping one tied to the physical plane of existence. The song concerns the struggle to rise above these earthly boundaries, to transcend and rise. And there - knowing that, how perfect is the song for Jame Gumb, as he struggles to rise above the boundaries of his physical sex?
Psyche, a Canadian electronic outfit, reasonably faithfully cover Goodbye Horses on their 1996 release, only getting a little carried away later on with an amateur-sounding synth solo. More industrial than pop, Carrier Flux offer their version freely on the internet. Sadly, tracking down the original is a little more complex. It's not on the Silence Of The Lambs soundtrack; divert your attention instead to finding a copy of the Married To The Mob CD. Finally, the compilation Retro-Active Volume 2 features the extended version, even going so far as to acknowledge the song's status as 'super rare'.

"I must disagree, oh no, Sir...

I must say you're wrong."

Won't you listen to me?

Goodbye horses... I'm flying over you.

Goodbye horses... I'm flying, flying, flying over you."

Army Of Lovers

Army Of Lovers - A Brief History

Bursting onto the music scene in 1987, Swedish band Army Of Lovers are a force to be reckoned with. The portrayed image of trivial self-obsession belies a series of album releases featuring songs covering a remarkably diverse selection of subjects and styles. Nestled amongst perfect nuggets of disco-pop lie highly polished dance tracks, screaming synthetic masterpieces and sensual, rhythmic grooves. How many other albums boast a song about Marie Curie's discovery of Radium and a vicious ballad about the death of Saint Sebastien, never mind an album where such historic epics take pride of place next to a 2-minute song about Michaela's poodles (and her belief that she should pray to God so that God will believe in her), and the five-minute voodoo extravaganza that is Walking With A Zombie?

Famed for their outrageous image, camp beyond words, even going so far as to employ their own fashion designer Camilla Thulin, the Army were unafraid to employ excessive make-up, inappropriate use of corsets,phallic objects, tons of gold paint and vast quantities of glitter. Everything was fake - even the live shows employed hair-brushes, toy microphones, plastic violins - anything the band could think of to make sure that everyone - absolutely everyone - knew that they were miming. In fact, Army Of Lovers positively adored controversy, such as the storm stirred up by their 1993 single Israelism, actually a pro-Jewish anthem, but banned in Israel for scenes involving a Madonna-like bra which squirted milk and a general feeling of utter confusion over the point of the video, apart from fun, fun and more fun, apparently at the expense of Judaism. It's all fun, however pithy that might sound. How else do you explain the Army's sudden retreat to a monastery for the song Judgment Day, where a suitably repentant Alexander gives birth to Åke, the Army Of Lovers dog? What other reason can there be for Jean-Pierre's leather nappy in the video for Crucified, other than this bizarre sense of controversial fun? Certainly, the Army killed off an entire dance-floor of party guests in their La Plage De Saint Tropez video, long before Sophie Ellis Bextor got her hands on a packet of matches and got it into her head she might want to burn the goddamned house right down. For more information, get hold of a copy of Videovaganza, The Army's collection of rather twisted music videos. It eventually appeared on DVD as part of the Grand Docu-Soap greatest hits album.

The actual Army line-up underwent a complex series of changes in the years following the release of the first album; originally a three-part outfit consisting of La Camilla, Jean-Pierre Barda and Alexander Bard, in its time the Army has swapped a couple of members around (exchanging La Camilla for Michaela Dornonville De La Cour), expanded into a platoon of four with the addition of Dominika Peczynski and then swapped the other two back again for the 1995 release of what was announced as its final album, Les Greatest Hits. Throughout their time Anders Wollbeck worked closely with Bard, writing and producing much of the material as part of the Army Of Lovers team.

Yet despite its 'definite' breakup it would seem that the Army lives on! Two years on from the offical breakup came the release of Master Series in 1997, also compilation album, the Army having entered that phase of their career which seems to consist of an ever-increasing number of compilation albums.

And so we arrive at 2001 - rumours abounded in 2000 about remix albums, more greatest hits releases, that kind of thing. But no-one really believed it - the whole thing seemed too good to be true... maybeStockholm Records' usual method of releasing things ("It'll be May... no - June... no - next year. Maybe.") would get in the way. But then Le Grand Docu-Soap appeared, albeit with the usual variable release date, and the song Let The Sunshine In (a reworked cover of the song 'Let The Sunshine In/ The Flesh Failures' from the musical Hair) was released on the 12th of March, almost one month after its illegal debut onNapster from the 13th of February. Hands Up, another cover, was also released, though rumours of a further release of Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes turned out to be incorrect. Maybe there weren't limited edition gold panties to go with this album, but there were posters of the album cover with the gang dressed up in their usual style, Alexander even going so far as to clutch a penis in a jar whilst enduring a particularly false beard, La Camilla standing disturbingly close to a large wooden cross, Dominika looking as top-heavy as ever and Jean-Pierre draped in so many beads and sequins it's a wonder the man could stand up. They were back, if only for a moment!

The main creative force behind the band is, undeniably, Alexander Bard, something of a personality in Sweden if only because of his unremitting arrogance, be it real or all part of the fun. It is ironic that utter doom and gloom forms the main impetus for Bard's first song, Life In A Goldfish Bowl, released under the band-name Baard. The track is pure minimal synthpop, almost remeniscent of Kraftwerk's Metropolis. The b-side to the track, which has recently been re-released on vinyl by Genetic Records, is of a similar ilk: A Saviour For The Nations deals with the death of a great leader, and the ability of a country to cope with such events.

Baard was not, it must be said, tremendously successful, although one must surely count as some measure of success the re-release of a song over ten years later by a different record company. At the time, however, Alexander had to move on, and this is where the irony comes in. Barbie was a musical drag queen with more than a little attitude. Squeaky, mischievous and certainly an acquired taste, Barbie's hit song Prostitution Twist is cheesy, synth-driven pop, and could not be more distant from the gloomy techno-misery of Baard. It makes no excuses - the whole point of the song is to teach you how to get your high heels on and learn how to make love, underneath the streetlights in the middle of the night.

Following the demise of Army Of Lovers, or at least their descent into cover-songs and re-released greatest hits albums, Bard, retaining Anders Wollbeck's co-writing skills, teamed up with Mattias Lindblom andMarina Schiptjenko to form the more serious band Vacuum, as well as working on various media guru sidelines and popping up as a businessman extra on Caroline Af Ugglas' video for Egoistic. Two albums of songs covering subjects as diverse as particle physics, distant galaxies, India's nuclear weapons programme and Zoroastrianism were released - The Plutonium Cathedral and Seance At The Chaebol. Vacuum continued to release songs for a while, though Bard left following those first two albums to write for and manage the more Army Of Lovers-esque band Alcazar. Eventually, Alexander's involvement with Alcazar ceased, and the band Bodies Without Organs, later known as BWO gave way to a new project for 2010, Gravitonas. There will, undoubtedly, be more from Bard, but whether there'll ever be any more Army Of Lovers, remains in the lap of the Gods of Earth and Heaven...

Army Of Lovers: A Brief Album Discography

Army Of Lovers released and re-released several albums as European editions, US editions, UK editions and just-plain-odd editions. Some of them had extra tracks, some had tracks missing, some had a completely different set of tracks entirely. The following is a general list of these releases with the more peculiar versions, like the Argentinian version of Disco Extravaganza (complete with Quiereme Como A Un Revolver Cargado), omitted for clarity.

Disco Extravaganza (1990) Album
1:10 Birds Of Prey
4:20 Ride The Bullet
4:09 Supernatural
3:33 Viva La Vogue
4:24 Shoot That Laserbeam (Re-Recorded Version)
4:57 Love Me Like A Loaded Gun (The 1990 Remix)
3:23 Baby's Got A Neutron Bomb (The 1990 Remix)
4:02 Love Revolution
4:32 Scorpio Rising
4:23 Mondo Trasho
3:59 Dog
3:27 My Army Of Lovers
3:47 Hey Mr DJ
4:12 I Am The Amazon (The 1990 Remix)
3:51 Planet Coma 3AM


Massive Luxury Overdose (1991) Album]
3:44 We Stand United
3:32 Crucified
3:08 Candyman Messiah
3:39 Obsession
4:01 I Cross The Rubicon
3:54 Supernatural (The 1991 Remix)
3:42 Ride The Bullet (The 1991 Remix)
4:26 Say Goodbye To Babylon
3:39 Flying High
4:09 Walking With A Zombie
3:27 My Army Of Lovers


Massive Luxury Overdose (1992) Album
3:54 Dynasty Of Planet Chromada
3:32 Crucified
3:08 Candyman Messiah (Radio Edit; unlabelled)
3:39 Obsession
3:44 We Stand United
4:26 Say Goodbye To Babylon
3:26 The Particle Song
3:18 Someone Somewhere
4:01 I Cross The Rubicon
3:39 Flying High
4:09 Walking With A Zombie
3:58 Judgment Day


The Gods Of Earth And Heaven (1993) Album (16 tracks)
0:41 Chihuahuas On Parade
3:41 We Are The Universe
3:32 La Plage De Saint Tropez
3:54 I Am
0:44 Le Portrait De Jean-Pierre
3:20 Israelism
3:32 The Grand Fatigue
4:04 Carry My Urn To Ukraine
3:33 Sebastien
0:45 La Storia Di O
3:16 Blood In The Chapel
3:48 The Ballad Of Marie Curie
4:10 Heterosexuality
3:02 Sons Of Lucy
0:35 Also Sprach Alexander
3:45 The Day The Gods Help Us All


Glory Glamour And Gold (1994) Album (13 tracks)
5:31 Hurrah Hurrah Apocalypse
3:45 Sexual Revolution
3:59 Stand Up For Myself
3:14 Lit De Parade (Video Edit)
4:02 Life Is Fantastic
3:10 Mr Battyman
3:31 C'est Démon
3:39 Shine Like A Star
6:10 You've Come A Long Way Baby
3:25 Ballrooms Of Versailles
4:18 Dub Evolution
4:02 Like A Virgin Sacrified
3:27 Lit De Parade (Radio Edit)


Les Greatest Hits (1995) Album (18 tracks)
3:54 Give My Life
3:30 Venus And Mars
3:29 My Army Of Lovers
3:28 Ride The Bullet (The 1991 Remix; unlabelled)
3:57 Supernatural (The 1991 Remix; unlabelled)
3:33 Crucified
3:41 Obsession
3:10 Candyman Messiah (Radio Edit; unlabelled)
3:58 Judgment Day
3:12 Everytime You Lie
3:22 Israelism
3:32 La Plage De Saint Tropez
3:55 I Am
3:28 Lit De Parade (Radio Edit; unlabelled)
3:58 Sexual Revolution
4:00 Life Is Fantastic (The 1995 Remix)
3:59 Stand Up For Myself (The 1995 Remix)
4:31 Requiem


Les Greatest Hits (1996) Album (18 tracks)
Re-release including the following track instead of the 1995 remix of Stand Up For Myself
3:57 King Midas


Master Series (1997) Album (18 tracks)
3:32 Crucified
3:27 Ride The Bullet (1991 Remix)
3:27 My Army Of Lovers
3:39 Obsession
4:57 Love Me Like A Loaded Gun
4:27 When The Night Is Cold
3:44 We Stand United
3:24 Candyman Messiah
3:58 Judgment Day
3:20 Israelism
3:32 La Plage De Saint Tropez
3:54 I Am
3:27 Lit De Parade (Radio Edit; unlabelled)
3:58 Sexual Revolution
3:59 Stand Up For Myself
3:54 Give My Life
3:30 Venus And Mars
3:45 The Day The Gods Help Us All

Erasure

Purveyors of shiny pop gems to the masses, Erasure was formed by Vince Clarke in 1985. Fresh from Yazoo and a couple of collaborations with Feargal Sharkey (under the name The Assembly) and Paul Quinn, Erasure drew on the best of Vince's early work. It built upon the cheerful bleepings of early Depeche Mode, adding a little more depth to the rather strange lyrics of songs like New Life and Dreaming Of Me, and exchanging Alison Moyet's 'rootsy blues' vocals with the choir-boy falsetto of Andy Bell. That's a different Andy Bell to the one from Ride - Erasure's new vocalist was an ex-butcher and glittery gay diva in the making. Since its humble beginnings, Erasure has produced two decade's worth of shiny disco beeps and managed five number one albums and twenty-five top 20 singles, fusing Andy's thoughtful lyrics with Vince's ever-evolving synths.

Humble beginnings, yes: Vince, seeking a further outlet for his musical success with Depeche Mode and Yazoo, advertised for a singer. It had worked with Yazoo (Yaz, in America.), enticing fellow Basildonian to work closely with Vince to produce two knock-out synth albums and four hit singles. Forty candidates later, Andy Bell made the grade and in September of 1985 the first single Who Needs Love Like That was released. It barely charted, and the follow up single, Heavenly Action was doomed to a similar fate. Even 1986's 'Oh l'Amour' made little impression on the UK charts.

Releasing Wonderland, the first album, Erasure took the opportunity to tour, taking the synths on an extended tour of sparsely-populated back rooms and university student union bars. It was during this phase, working hard to drum up support, that Erasure's single Sometimes, taken from the second album The Circus, slipped into the UK charts at number two. The third album, The Innocents, swooped in at number one on the British album chart, as did its follow up, Wild!, both albums producing a range of hit singles but never quite managing to achieve the elusive number one spot. Chorus followed in 1991: Erasure were on a roll.

Famed for a certain camp charm, it was this relentless, in-your-face homosexuality that led to b-sides like No GDM, songs like Pistol and Sexuality, and the eventual 1992 release of ABBA-esque. Four ABBA covers, complete with shimmering front-cover and a range of dreadful remixes, pushed Erasure to number one for the first time ever. They followed up with a greatest hits album, and have since kept up a warm, analogue sound. I Say I Say I Say marked Erasure's last real chart success, producing the singles Always, Run To The Sun and I Love Saturday. Though Erasure have in no way been unsuccessful since, albums such as the eponymous Erasure (a masterpiece of entirely uncommercial ambient twiddlings), Cowboy and the cover versions of Other People's Songs have been moderately but hardly staggeringly successful. The second greatest hits album can often mark the beginning of the end, though Erasure rallied round with the 2005's Nightbird and 2007's Light At The End Of The World.

The eighties were notable for bands like Erasure, of course. Bronski Beat, The Communards, Pet Shop Boys and Soft Cell all embodied the two-blokes-with-a-synth feel of the era, and it was all the better if one of them was gay. In Thatcher's Britain, homosexuality was embroiled in a mess of 'family values' propaganda and Clause 28 villification campaigns. Andy Bell, openly gay and camper than a row of fairy-lit pink tents, joined a significant group of talented, popular and openly-gay pop frontmen, bringing the very idea that perhaps it's not too bad to be gay to an ungrateful quantity of conservative homophobes.

Erasure show no signs of splitting up, though both Vince and Andy are free to pursue their own side-projects. Andy Bell intends to release a solo album in the near future, though it's been on the cards for years, and Vince Clarkehas recently teamed up with Martyn Ware (of Heaven 17 and early Human League fame) to produce ambient soundscapes, including a piece intended for the National Centre For Popular Music's Soundscapes 3D auditorium, utilising cutting edge Lake Huron audio processing hardware. Clarke And Ware are a little less pop than Erasure, producing cutting-edge synth with an emphasis on technical wizardry; Pretentious and Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle are vocal-free ambient epics, with an unmistakeable Vince Clark spin.

Erasure: Maybe not as active as The Pet Shop Boys, but just as much fun...

Album Discography:
Wonderland (1986)
The Circus (1987)
The Two Ring Circus (1987)
The Innocents (1988)
Wild! (1989)
Chorus (1991)
Pop! The First 20 Hits (1992)
I Say I Say I Say (1994)
Erasure (1995)
Cowboy (1997)
Loveboat (2000)
Other People's Songs (2003)
Hits! The Very Best Of Erasure (2003)
Nightbird (2005)
Light At The End Of The World (2007)

Vince Clarke

Vince Clarke is probably most famous as half of Erasure, the other half being Andy Bell, and one can get a pretty good idea of the 'Vince Clarke sound' simply from taking a trip through Erasure's twenty-four consecutive top 20 hits. For a more comprehensive overview, you'd have to take in his work with the early Depeche Mode, his acclaimed time as half of Yazoo (or 'Yaz' in the US) with rootsy blues diva Alison Moyet, and the various other projects he's had a hand in (West India Company, The Assembly, The Clarke And Ware Experiment, Robert Marlowe, Paul Quinn, Feargal Sharkey, Habit, Genderfix… I'll stop now; there's too many). Through his career, a strong association with Daniel Miller's Mute Records is evident, as is a preference for producer Eric Radcliffe.

Vince is an electronic musician, famous for his love of analogue instruments, although in later years he's started to branch out into digital. He's a competent guitarist, as well, but it's in the realm of synthesizers where Vince's genius lies. His particular brand of electronic music has a genuinely recognisable style, particularly when it comes to the instrumental pieces that scatter their way across the many b-sides of Erasure's work. Vince also remixes, occasionally, turning tracks from artists as diverse as Rammstein, Sparks, Happy Mondays or Polly Scattergood into shiny synthpop treats.

Vince currently lives in Maine with his wife Tracey and their son. At 48 years old and with no sign of Erasure slowing down, there's still plenty of synthpop heaven to come...

(Caption competition winner: 'Alison and Vince quickly regret accepting the Poltergeist soundtrack commission.' Thank you Mrs B. Smegma, Warrington.)

Bunny Club - Polly Scattergood

'I've got a dog and a gun, and I'm living in London now... living in London Town.'

'Bunny Club' is track eight from the eponymous album Polly Scattergood. It's an ethereal mixture centred around a relentless Roland CR-78 bass drum, which starts slowly and picks up quickly with spoken word intro (including every one of the words 'spit', 'french' and 'knickers') and soon adds occasional, vaguely muted and somewhat beautiful analogue synth melodic pickings. Behing all this activity, a slowly growing mixture of breathy pads and growling square wave bass tones mix with a second set of Pollys, all vocally layered and entirely un-autotuned. There's no attack or decay to the bass tones, which remain strident and somehow glorious; they buzz in and buzz out, while Polly half-speaks, half-sings over the top. It's almost angelic, if angels were analogue and used Garageband, and brings back memories of eighties heroes and nineties dance stars, taking me back to those heady moments when they play the last song before the DJ takes his ball home and you all head out into the night to couple with whomever you were dealt by the cards of fate, 2am edition.

I like you think you've heard of Polly Scattergood recently, particularly with regard to the track Other Too Endless, which appeared in the UK as the iTunes track of the week - this meant it was free to download but you were constrained to go back to the iTunes website and post a review saying it wasn't as good as the free tracks they had when you were a lad. Anyway, you might even have seen music press comparisons to Kate Bush, and might even have chuckled to yourself at the very idea that some young art-school whippersnapper could ever challenge the great Kate to a duel of demented dabblings. As a long-time supplicant for more and more Kate Bush, it's hard to surpass the lunatic weirdness of Breathing (for beardy men in boiler suit madness) or Sat In Your Lap (for men with roller skates and bull heads). Even the album covers have a certain inordinately weird panache that Polly Scattergood standing around looking windswept and vaguely hamster-like can't challenge. Mind you, Vince Clarke has remixed Other Too Endless, and while Kate has many charms, a Vince Clarke remix of Running Up That Hill isn't one of them. Sadly.

So, can Polly Scattergood ever live up to hype? One might click along to the iTunes music store and click one's way into eight English pounds worth of audio madness which I have to confess quickened my heart, at least, into a fevered delight that I've not felt since Goldfrapp's Black Cherry glistened its way into the tagged-with-mega-glam section of my iTunes library.

I mentioned earlier that Bunny Club is the eighth track of ten from Polly Scattergood's imaginatively titled album 'Polly Scattergood'. If you're still unsure of the album's virtue, I can also tell you that it's released on Mute Records, home of some of the finest musical noodlings you can imagine. You might also ask why I didn't write about Polly Scattergood in general, rather than focusing on one track, one single track of pure synth joy with a viciously bitchy message and a hint of madness. I can say only that it's my favourite track so far. It may well prove to be the best track on the album as well; I have my suspicions.

'Call me a fake, sir? You can call me a fraud. You can spit on my French knickers. You can call me a whore.'

Sex Dwarf - Soft Cell

Sex Dwarf is a track by Soft Cell, and let's hope you were aware of that when you clicked on this, lest you turn out to be curious about actual dwarves and wish to see them in a range of sexual situations. Actually, if that is the case, you'd be better off hunting on Google Images, or some other specialist site. However, while you contemplate this, consider the real truth, which may or may not be a revelation to you: in the mid-eighties the band Soft Cell, comprising Marc Almond and Dave Ball, produced a track called Sex Dwarf with a video so awful, so disgusting, so downright perverse, that the police seized the master tapes and burnt them. That's right - we're talking the levels of perversion that get your master tapes seized.

Take a pause. Do a little research... it's true.

Really, it's true. Mind you, so is the fact that most of it would be considered quite tame if you accidentally spliced it into the middle of 'Saw IV'. There's a sobering moment, if ever I saw one.

So let's be calm for just a while. Let me tell you about Soft Cell's first album, a joyously sleazy affair called Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. You may wish to consider exactly where they thought they were going with that title. It's hardly demure, and you wouldn't expect a coy glance and a blush to follow once you'd placed the pristine black plastic twelve inch on your turntable. Coy glances, as predicted, failed to follow...

'Frustration', the first track, was the story of a man doomed to a life of middle-aged hell, and the video seemed to centre about the poor bastard's death, with Marc Almond doing everything apart from dancing on the coffin. No, wait - he more-or-less did that, actually. Literally. 'Tainted Love', the second, was destined to become Soft Cell's most celebrated song, despite (or perhaps because of) the peculiar 'Roman Cricket' visuals (complete with 'Please God Make Marc Almond's Skirt Longer' moment), but the following tracks: Seedy Films and Youth, were far more indicative of the depths Soft Cell were determined to plumb. All credit to them, in my book, and do take a breath now, ready to fill it in later, because this is where 'Sex Dwarf' clunk-clicked. 'Entertain Me', the follow-up, was sardonic, but 'Chips On My Shoulder' redeemed it all, despite the over-acting, and 'Bedsitter' is amazing, even more amazing than 'Secret Life' and the celebrated (which means covered by David Gray) 'Say Hello, Wave Goodbye'.

Soft Cell was doomed to a life of sleaze: right from the moment Marc Almond tarted himself up with black eyeliner and Dave Ball set the synths up inside a cage for their very first Top Of The Pops appearance, their fate was sealed. 'There's more to Soft Cell than sleaze,' claimed Marc Almond in one interview. A page later, he was discussing the Marquis De Sade and 120 Days Of Sodom. It's in the sleeve notes of the 2005 live release, if you want to confirm it for yourself. But let's get back to the video, controversial as it is:

The video begins with a starlet chained to a table. The chains are gold, because no expense has been spared. Marc Almond is stroking her, all over. Yes, all over - breasts included. Naked, dirty, sexy breasts. Which, considering the Soft Cell audience is mostly gay, simply makes us admire Marc for doing what must be done. Deep breaths and stroke...

At this point, Dave Ball, who usually (wisely) constrains his efforts to pressing bits of synthesisers, brings a meat cleaver down on a wooden crate. It's really quite ironic that it's surprising when a dwarf leaps out, dressed in some sort of sadomasochistic leather outfit, including a massively prodigious jockstrap. We are, if I may side with the viewer for a moment, utterly shocked. It's a dwarf in a jockstrap. What's worse, he's going to indulge in sexual relations with anyone in sight, and this is where it all goes horribly odd...

I have failed to mention the meat carcasses. You see, the meat cleaver fits in with Dave Ball's outfit, as he is inexplicably dressed as a butcher. In fact there are approximately six meat carcasses hanging enticingly from the ceiling. They are props, and they are clearly there to be used. Dave Ball has already been seen playing a chainsaw with a violin bow, and it's hardly suprising when he begins running about using the chainsaw to cut pieces of meat from the carcasses.

Breathe. Let's take stock. As we speak, Marc Almond is cavorting in raw meat with a scantily clad tart, while Dave Ball chainsaws raw meat into smaller chunks. Try to imagine why the British police impounded the tapes and burnt them as we continue with the show...

There are a few more semi-naked men, and now Marc's stripped off his black vest and is clad only in a jockstrap, too. There are women about, also dressed in leather, and - oh, lots of blood, bits of meat, the odd bit of offal. You see, the chainsaw's spitting blood about as it carves up the carcass, and Marc Almond appears to be smearing the blood over his body as he gropes at his jockstrap-clad crotch.

Meanwhile, there's a be-wigged woman with a rib of beef on her tits, and a dwarf with a liver (which isn't, technically speaking, his) humping her. The blood's everywhere, and it's true - at one point Marc Almond pulls the elastic of his jock strap rather lower than you'd want him to and rubs the blood into what must surely be his pubic hair. By the end of the video we see a panting Marc Almond leering through an orgy of blood, beef and cheap tarts to giggle 'That's nice!' as something white and horrible drips from his lip.

A little history. Tacked onto the end of Tainted Love in the official video collection, Marc Almond reads dramatically from a tabloid newspaper. Here's what he reads:

"Soft Cell have made a pornographic video as outrageous as those shown in London's Soho. Lead singer Marc Almond is shown masturbating through his clothes and rubbing raw meat into naked women. He strips down to only a jockstrap and appears with a dwarf in the same attire.'

People familiar with the history of the band, and of Some Bizzare records boss will be delighted to watch as an obviously drugged-up Stevo incisively comments 'Yes. Yes. Analysation of people!'. The aforementioned DVD, incidentally, does not feature the original Sex Dwarf video, instead there's a be-suited Marc Almond conducting some nicely-dressed dwarves with a baton; it's all rather sarcastic, really.

I expect you want to watch it now, right? Well, it was here, but sadly it seems to have vanished again. Good luck finding a copy; it's been the holy grail of Soft Cell fans for years, and while it hardly compares to some of the more shocking videos available on the internet now, remember that the whole sleazy affair took place right in the middle of the Thatcher years, when homosexuals were threatening the very fabric of society with their evil, evil agenda. Dwarves, raw meat, gold chains and jockstraps probably didn't help the cause much...

Andy Bell

Andy Bell: Singer And Performer, born April 25th, 1964

Primarily known as the singing half of Erasure and separate to the Andy Bell from Ride, in any interview with Andy it quickly becomes clear that this man was destined (either that, or just very determined) to be in the public eye. Flamboyant and openly gay from the start of his career, Andy appeared in the midst of a flurry of 80s synth-pop duos, a clear contemporary of Marc Almond and Jimmy Somerville, and quietly helped Vince Clarke make his follow-up to Yazoo a household name. Twenty-years later Vince and Andy are still churning out tunes as Erasure, even if they may trouble the top slots in the charts slightly less now, and Andy's has made tentative moves towards a number of solo side-projects. Andy is HIV positive and lives with his partner, Paul.

Early Life And Education

Andy Bell was born on April the 25th, 1964 in Peterborough, England. Their small house, The Gables, was eventually to house four siblings - three more girls and a baby brother, and Andy enjoyed a pretty normal working-class childhood by all accounts. Dogsthorpe Infants was followed by Junior School, at which Andy joined the choir. Anecdotes about Andy's earlier leanings towards music are prominent in any interview, and quotes like "I did impersonations of Donny Osmond to keep my neighbours happy..." and "at that early age I thought that my voice was better than Aled Jones" abound. It quickly becomes obvious Andy's completely serious about this; he was one of those children who puts on variety shows for everyone, the sort of child who's dragged out at social gatherings to perform The Snowman.
Andy moved on to Grammar School, apparently because he "liked the uniform" and despite coming last in a regional choir competition with a 'slow version' of Little Donkey and some recollections of bullying, Andy attained 5 O-levels. Staying on to study for A-levels resulted in boredom for Andy, and he also recalls that he fell behind with his work. Inevitably, Andy left school, full of the usual dreams and aspirations and with a desperate desire to make his way to London.

London: Moving In and Coming Out

The impetus behind this desire to live in London is attributed to Andy's friend Jill, whom he describes as "a punk with a gay older brother". Andy, either oblivious at this stage to his sexuality or perhaps unwilling to follow that route, began to see a girl called Marion. Consequently, when Marion landed herself a social services position in Alperton, London, the four of them took the opportunity to make the move. Andy recalls living with a guy and a girl from Liverpool, and is particularly complimentary about their patience as they waited for the dole money to come through.
This was followed by a move to West Ealing, and it was at this point Andy felt he could no longer deny his homosexuality. Marion, if Andy's memories are accurate, was an incredible support to him, and apparently introduced him to The Embassy Club: Andy's first gay club. The candy store moment of realisation ("I couldn't believe the men were so good looking!") was accompanied by a heady mixture of punk, pop and New-Romanticism with a healthy splash of Donna Summer's I Feel Love for good measure.
Ealing Gay Group and Andy's first gay sexual encounter was quickly followed by Andy's first band, formed after Jill spotted an advertisement in a music shop window.

Getting Started: Dinger, Danny and Debenhams

The Void, as they were known, did no gigs and very quickly split. Bass player Pierre Cope and Andy were left, forming a short-lived duo known initially as Brume and then Dinger, the name being changed to take advantage of Mr Bell's surname. While Andy's later pairing with Vince Clarke may seem strange, this initial pairing was just as peculiar, if not more so. Pierre came from what Andy describes as "a rough sailor's home in Dover" and had some difficulty overcoming feelings of homophobia. Andy, meanwhile, moved into a bed-sit with his first proper boyfriend, a Greek chap called Danny. And while all this was going on Dinger made several demo tapes and eventually cut their first single, a minimalist synth-pop 7" called Air Of Mystery, coupled with Donna Summer-inspired b-side I Love To Love You. Despite pressing a thousand singles after Pierre met producer Pete Gage on a train and persuaded him to donate a little after-hours studio time, Dinger never managed a record deal.
Danny and Andy split up in due course, which was followed by a brief period of homelessness for Andy. After meeting Jonathan, to whom Andy attributes his true gay education, Andy took on bar work and a part-time job at Debenhams while Dinger continued to make music. It's during this period that Andy recalls following Vince's career. Avidly, he recalls, and usually follows this in interviews by mentioning the time he spotted Vince playing Space Invaders in a studio. Another favoured anecdote is the day his flat-mate Andy offered encouragement whilst they listened to Alison Moyet's first album, Alf: Next year, this is going to be you. "He was always a bit psychic," recalls Andy.

Erasure: A Compressed Chronology

By now, Andy was 21. Vince had already formed Depeche Mode with David Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher, and after the first album left the band in Gore's capable hands. Yazoo quickly followed, hastily renamed Yaz for the American market, after Vince advertised for a 'rootsy blues singer', a request designed to complement his entirely synthesized backing tracks. Alison Moyet turned up, and an amazingly successful collaboration followed. And, since it worked once, when Yazoo split Vince once again advertised for an appropriate singer.
Andy was the 41st candidate Vince had auditioned, and while there's clearly some sort of rosy tint at work here, both Andy and Vince recall that they clicked almost instantly. Creative juices flowed, and Erasure crackled out a sparky set of tracks on their first album, Wonderland. Success was slow to follow, but a tough regime of touring and promotion followed, and Erasure hit the big time with their track Sometimes, taken from their second album, The Circus.
Whatever you might think of Erasure's music, it was a dream career move for Andy, a collaboration that has so far produced more than twenty million sales, twenty-five singles in the Top 20 and five number one albums. Erasure's career is chock-full of glitter, scattered about with entirely gay abandon: Abba tributes, disco classics, unnecessary costume changes and sex with a capital X. Songbird was released in 2005, following an album of cover versions including Peter Gabriel's Solsbury Hill, and neither Andy nor Vince are short of ideas for the future. And with success, of course, comes financial security, leaving Andy settled down with a partner and, apparently, happy and content.

Solo Career

Vince, of course, has a long history of side-projects, and fans of Erasure know that Andy's made many a comment in interviews about a solo album. Details have always been vague: will it be an album of Country and Western tracks, or a set of Andy's favourite sixties tunes? Disco cover versions or original acoustic songs? To be honest, every time Andy mentioned it there was something different about it, until one reached the conclusion it was all pie in the sky.
And then, in 2005, Electric Blue appeared, with a suitably shiny Andy Bell on the cover and an accompanying single, Crazy. The album is the result of work with DJs from Manhattan Clique and features collaborations with Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters and Claudia Brücken from Propaganda and Act. Sound-wise, it's standard electronic pop, not too dissimilar to Erasure, but clearly lacking the Vince Clarke twiddly bits.

Homosexuality

Of course, it would be foolish to confine Andy's achievements to his music career. Erasure right from their first album (featuring the song Pistol: "we've got boys down at the station") were out and out gay, despite the numerical evidence. Not convinced? Then try Hideaway from the second album: "One day the boy decided, to let them know the way he felt inside." - Andy Bell was out and proud, and the clearly straight Vince was just as proud to be a part of it, for which he deserves a sincere and heartfelt thanks. Erasure, as so many other bands did, made waves when it came to sexuality, and it was necessary and laudable. Margaret Thatcher's administration in the UK was, for whatever reason, an intensely homophobic time. The government were keen on their own version of 'family values', which didn't include having anything other than happy, heterosexual offspring with an intolerant pair of oppositely-gendered parents, and Section 28 produced hate campaigns and misinformation on an immense scale. AIDS was a source of much confusion and fear for the average person in the UK, and the tabloids and, indeed, many members of the general public took every opportunity to vilify and discredit homosexuals. (Even now, for example, the urban myth about semen and stomach pumps is attached to Andy's name, an honour he shares with Marc Almond.)

Andy Bell, as part of Erasure, was only one of a significant number of openly gay pop front-men at this time. Andy, Jimmy Somerville, Boy George and their like were revered and reviled at the same time, and it's more than one confused teenager who took comfort from seeing that the world didn't have to be that way. The impact of popular music on politics is small but significant, and well understood by politicians (take the Rock The Vote campaign, for example), so it's pleasing to see music provide a means for social change as well as listening pleasure.

"I can't take credit for all of that because it doesn't mean what it did anymore. It mattered to me then, and you think it's going to matter for life. But then things start happening, the age of consent comes down, gay people getting married, all that stuff that you fought for. In general, we're in a much better place."

HIV

Andy's contributions in this field continue, however. In December of 2004 Andy revealed himself to be HIV-positive. First diagnosed in 1988 following a bout of pneumonia, Andy is undergoing combination therapy and is keen for the world to know. It's an educational thing, he says, and his decision to be honest is one designed to promote honesty and increase awareness. The press release was close enough to the release of Nightbird for many to be cynical, and in interviews Andy isn't always as sincere or sensible as it may seem: "Who knows where we got it? The number of blow jobs I've given in club toilets!" Nevertheless, there has to be some benefit to being open and honest about it all.

"Being HIV-positive does not mean that you have AIDS. My life expectancy should be the same as anyone else's, so there is no need to panic. There is still so much hysteria and ignorance surrounding HIV and AIDS. Let's just get on with life."

A Brief Discography

Dinger

1985 Air Of Mystery / I Love To Love You (7" Single)

Erasure

1986 Wonderland
1987 The Circus
1987 The Two Ring Circus
1988 The Innocents
1989 Wild!
1991 Chorus
1992 Pop!
1994 I Say I Say I Say
1995 Erasure
1997 Cowboy
2000 Loveboat
2003 Other People's Songs
2003 Hits!
2005 Nightbird
2007 Light At The End Of The World

Andy Bell

2005 Electric Blue