Techno From Unexpected Faces: Jesus Jones

Jesus Jones usually bring to mind a very specific time and place which I imagine for many is the fall of the Berlin Wall the collapse of 20th century communism. That's not exactly the case for me. Almost every time I hear "Right Here Right Now" I am reminded of an anti-drug assembly in high school that featured extreme athletic feats performed by a team of born again ex-addicts in front of video projectors playing hit music videos before the athletes slipped a rather overt Christian message past my school's administration during their testifying of the evils of drugs. Perhaps it's just that context that colors my thinking but Jesus Jones have never struck me as ravers and the All Music Guide agrees defining the band's sound as a "watered-down Madchester and dance-pop hybrid". While that less than flattering description fits the general impression of the band they did expand their pallet on their flopped followup to their breakthrough Doubt recording with midi-modified instruments in singer/songwriter Mike Edwards bedroom studio creating a tech heavy sound that brought world music influences to the forefront. "The Devil You Know" exemplifies the best qualities of Perverse but the single's b-side showed that they were willing to go beyond traditional song structures and embrace rave culture. "Want To Know" is a product of the band's keyboardist Iain Baker and a surprisingly effective no nonsense techno stormer based around a vocal sample that asks "what did you do today?". Shame it didn't make that greatest hits collection they shared with EMF.

Living For The Bottle

Dave Gahan just announced that his second solo album, written and produced with Depeche Mode's touring members Christian Eigner and Andrew Phillpott, is due out this fall. I'm going out on a limb and going to say this could be interesting. Paper Monsters was not a good album (nor was it worth the money that Mute or Sire kept giving to amazing remixers to rework mediocre songs for the single releases) but it was an album that demonstrated potential which blossomed when Gahan started writing with Eigner/Phillpott for Playing The Angel. So it puzzles me that all I've read is negative reactions on the web. I can't be alone in declaring "Suffer Well" the greatest DM single since "Precious"? I suppose all the haters will use the upcoming Recoil album as the standard to tear Gahan apart in the months ahead.

Some Newsy Things And Links

• Perhaps you are familiar with electropop siren Sarah Nixey. XO just interviewed her for his blog.
  
• Did you know that OMD reunited and have been playing gigs that showcase their early classic albums in their entirety? Electronically Yours was invited to an intimate warm up and you can read Orac's detailed report by scrolling down to "11 . 05. 2007".
  
• It was very tempting to copy and paste my own version of Tremble Clef's brilliant choose-your-own adventure post on Flunk's cover of Depeche Mode's "See You" but fear of it being a bad cover version of his blog stopped me short.
  
• A survey dares ask which synthpop guru are you. I'm Neil Tennant.
  
• After months of waiting for news about The Modern/Matinee Club's US EP I contacted the label that was supposed to release it. Even though the band had made the announcement and the label dropped money into prepping the release nothing was signed and after the name change they never got back to the label so another release from the band goes back into the vault. Shame they treat their fans this way.
  
• A source told fansite NewOrderOnline that "Peter Hook can leave the band, but this doesn't mean the end of New Order" because New Order is a democratic body. The source mentioned that Hooky recently signed with different representation than the rest of the band and that he stayed at a different hotel in Cannes than his former band mates during the junket for the premier of Control. The film's soundtrack is complete so we can expect something new from Joy Division this year and the silence of Bernard and Stephen suggests that they might complete New Order's unfinished album.

Inner City Pressure

Can't imagine why Neil Tennant would link to this in his blog:

Video: Phonique featuring Erlend Øye "For The Time Being"

Phonique released his album in the US earlier this month and since it involves a collaboration with the peerless Erlend Øye it caught my attention. "For The Time Being" is more of a mood piece than all out song, not unlike Øye's contribution to last years James Figurine album, but it still has a bit of magic to it.

However, the video is the least interesting video yet to feature on this blog. This variation on the film school staple "my girlfriend looking moody around the apartment in various stages undress" features the following plot. Girl wakes up, puts on socks, looks at boyfriend's picture, puts on pants, puts on sweater, puts on shoes, puts on jacket, goes outside, puts on makeup, back inside notices missed call from Phonique on cell, takes shower, puts on dress, dries hair, puts on fur coat, goes down subway escalator, dances at a club and kisses the fellow from the picture. Thow in some cross cuts of cheap effects that I can duplicate on my gradparent's cameraphone and you've got the finished video. In a word: genius! Not only does the web release of this, if I may quote the record label, "beautiful video" run 22 seconds of title cards before actually starting it is such an artistic work that we get 1:05 of end credits so we understand how much talent went into this production:



: Hear more from Phonique here.

Video: Tracey Thorn "Raise The Roof"

The second single taken from Tracey Thorn's Out Of The Woods is the delightful "Raise The Roof". The video tells the parallel stories of an internet couple preparing to meet for the first time which sounds like it could be utterly painful but is actually quite cute revealing a playfulness in the song that I missed the first time:



: You can get a free download of "Raise The Roof" by signing up here and you can listen to remixes and b-sides at Tracey Thorn's myspace.

The Gifts He Really Wants

With Father's Day just around the corner what better time to give Dad the two things that would make his life complete:

: The brilliance of amazon's personal shopping expertise is proven again.

Video: Chemical Brothers "Do It Again"

The Chemical Brothers took a bit of a beating at the Stylus Singles Jukebox over "Do It Again" as they noted, among other things, the distinct problem of it being "all pulsating buildup with no payoff". I've found that it's a bit of a grower and a unique moment in Chemical cannon as it melds pop friendly free association vocals (courtesy of the mysterious Ali Love) to music that is decidedly un-pop and underground by nature.

Opening with the music video rarity of a forced tooth pulling the music starts as two boys discover a tape that could have been dropped from a supersonic bomber just outside of their undeveloped Middle Eastern town. In a turn that seems remarkably familiar to PNAC planners the boys use the Western tape and a boombox to enchant their townsfolk Pied Piper-style before controlling the government, or at least the cops, as they loot a bank. While it's played on the light side the video does have some interesting ideas and I'm not quite sure what to make of it given the Brothers history of using the cultural travelogue tradition with past videos set in Latin America and Japan:



: We Are The Night is out in June and the Chemical Brothers have a myspace with all the latest info on their plans for global sonic domination.

Video: Justice "D.A.N.C.E"

Underground dance sensation Justice finally have a debut album on the horizon. The French duo first made waves in 2003 collaborating with Simian on "Never Be Alone" (which featured on PSB's Back To Mine) causing some fuss when the video famously beat out Kanye West at the European MTV Awards and they have built a strong reputation with their noisy "Waters Of Nazareth" and a series of high profile remixes.
Their latest work "D.A.N.C.E" is another killer club track that pairs sing song vocals with disco grooves. The video plays to their fan base using the hipster t-shirts of a faceless duo as a revolving canvas:




: Justice's unpronounceable album is due in June and you can stop by their myspace to preview more from the duo.

Vanishing Point

Peter Hook casually dropped the news that New Order have split in a radio interview last night. While speaking about his involvement with Perry Farrell's Satellite Party, Hooky admitted that "me and Bernard [Sumner - New Order singer] aren't working together" which comes after speculation brought on when Stephen Morris said that a November gig in Buenos Aires "might be our last concert ever". Hopefully this is just a warning shot across the bow to make sure that Bernard is paying attention but Hooky said it is "like the boy who cried wolf this time." Still there are a few things left hanging at the moment like the soundtrack to the Ian Curtis biopic Control and there are "seven songs left" from their WFTSC sessions that were intended for a follow-up album.
Hooky just started a myspace and has been blogging so maybe we will get some clarification shortly.

Video: Sarah Nixey "The Black Hit Of Space"

Sarah Nixey's strong album Sing, Memory came out a few months ago and her "futuristic cover" of The Human League's "The Black Hit Of Space" my favorite part of the album. Nixey managed to transform the original into something distinctly her own which is no small feat given Phil Oakley's seemingly random vocals in the original.
Filmed in Salzburg, Austria the video features Nixey dressed in black as the video suggests the normal laws of pyschics have been suspended as she is accompanied by clones while she hangs upside down singing. It's quite good:



: The single is due in July but you can hear more from Sing, Memory at her myspace.

Video: Bjork "Earth Intruders"

While new material from Bjork has remained big news in some circles there has been more buzz about "Earth Intruders" than anything else she has released in years. This has everything to do with finally reaching outside of her most devoted fan base that has followed her to the ends of the Earth (or were at least willing to brave incidental music and all vocal experiments) as she collaborated with Timbaland to create something accessible. Despite Timbaland's recent streak of hit singles "Earth Intruders" is still more Bjork than Tim as the stompy song recalls the fierce off-kilter pop of her Post era than Nelly Furtado or Justin Timberlake.
The video, which is being kept off of youtube by her record company apparently, brings to mind the dark world of the "Human Behavior" video. The visual layering effect echoes the inner workings of the earth as the tribal shadows in the foreground echo the conflict in Iraq:



: Look for Bjork on tour, which starts in surprisingly large venues in the US, this May and stop by her myspace to hear more from Volta.

Keep On Surviving

Nine Inch Nail's new album Year: Zero is out this week and even apart from the music the viral marketing campaign for the album is amazing. The mix of online puzzle, apocalyptical Dungeons & Dragons game and twisted Rock The Vote PSA is unprecedented and the depth of it all is surprising. It started with a series of interconnected websites referenced indirectly on the shirts sold on NIN's last tour and the air of mystery continued as flash drives containing leaked album tracks and videos started appearing in venues the band were playing. The release of the album brings more clues with a phone number placed in the usual RIAA warning spot to call in subversives and the thermal design on the cd reveals a hidden message after it has been played.
A couple of days ago the game intersected with reality as a group of fans were given cell phones that led them to a "secret meeting" with the resistance group featured in the album's backstory. Here's one fan's account from a fan site:

We pulled up to an abandoned warehouse; there were random people standing on the roof and around the entrance. We were led inside; there were more people inside, and AIR flags hanging from the roof... Neil Czarno (or whoever is playing him) gave a talk about how we should give a and change the world. I was rather cynical about his talk at first, but he redeemed himself by noting that we shouldn't just blindly accept what he was saying and that we should change the world in small ways. He also told us that we were stupid for allowing them to herd us like cattle onto a bus to who knows where with no form of communication (and for carrying around cellphones like tracking devices) and that we'd be dead if they were really after us. After his talk, we were led over the river and through the woods (the warehouse complex was rather large). We were stopped briefly before we entered a room with many lights and lots of equipment.

: Where NIN played a show that was "stopped" by a SWAT team, not unlike the one in the "Survivalism" video, when they "raided" the venue. You can see footage of the secret meeting/gig on youtube (the raid is in the last minute of this clip) or see the whole thing in full at one of the NIN backstory/political activist sites. Stream Year: Zero at NIN's myspace.

Sooner Or Later It Happens To Everyone

Pet Shop Boys: A Life in Pop escaped my netflix queue to arrive at my home this week. The documentary aims to be the definitive biography of the duo taking us from an overview of the band's early history and philosophy to an exploration of each of their albums. The focus is sharpest on the band's early and Imperial periods but the DVD has a broad enough range to give consideration to a number of the band's b-sides which helps bring out the depth of the Boys songwriting abilities. The pool of commentators runs the gamut from long time collaborators like the third Pet Shop Boy Pete Gleadall (credited with programming 95% of PSB releases since 1991) to celebrity fans like Brandon Flowers and internet deconstructionists like Geo Wayne so there is a good balance of distanced observations and personal insights with the band. It says quite a bit that my biggest complaints about the doc is that it shortchanges Bilingual and that the amount of time spent on their Dusty Springfield collaborations exaggerates their importance.

The segment on the Boys fall from US chart success features former kroq DJ Richard Blade relating a time in the early 90s when the station's program director played "Blue Monday" in a meeting as an example of a record the station would never play again. This brought back in a very real way my frustration at the time with "alternative" radio, which despite the alternative tag find most stations copying kroq's playlist, that dropped anything with a synthesizer as grunge brought in new listeners to the format forcing a displacement of artists that I love. It's things like that helped me learn to hate rock and roll.

Video: Client "Drive"

Client’s Heartland is still a week away from it’s release and the album’s third single “Drive” is here hitting the retro-new wave electro mark squarely. Using night driving as self medication to “feel alive” the song suggests the band may have been spending some time with former collaborator Pete Doherty as the lyrics go from “I can’t resist you “ to “white lines on a motorway” within seconds. Fortunately the band has found the right mix of synths, live drums and bass to propel one of their most strongly written songs while setting a mood that is just right.
Performing in front a massive video screen projecting somewhat abstract white on black driving visuals the video fits the band‘s style and adds a bit of Kraftwerk-ian flair. This is a huge improvement over their last video, and it’s great to see the band back on track:



: Client are touring Europe and North America shortly so click through to one of their two myspaces for more info and preview tracks from Heartland while you are there.

Short Bits

Pet Shop Boys reportedly were seconds away from being killed by falling Russian space junk during a recent flight. The band are touring behind Fundamental into the summer but they just announced a May release for the Cubism DVD that was filmed at their recent show in Mexico City so some fans can watch the show before it reaches them.

LCD Soundsystem's attempt at topping the charts fell a bit short as Sound Of Silver debuted two spots ahead Kidz Bop 11 at #46 in this past week's Billboard chart. Chalk it up to the absolute lack of airplay for the rock crowd friendly "North American Scum". James Murphy provides my quote of the week in an interview with Chart Attack responding to accusations of selling out for that Nike track he sold his soul for last year: "It's just like, dude, I live in New York. I just did a Justin Timberlake remix. I am not indie rock."

Chemical Brothers new album We Are The Night is expected this summer.

Maximus of Voltage had an opening dj set at a party that featured electro star Peaches at SXSW a couple of weeks ago. Read about it here.

Swen Weber's "First Stroke" is amazing. Yes, it came out last year but I just heard it last night and unlike a number of other worthy techno tracks it's up on itunes.

Since Channel 1049 has returned I've heard nothing on it and Live 105 but an inexcusable amount of "alternative" staples from the likes of Nirvana, RHCP, and Beastie Boys along with an unexpected surge in spins of songs by Violent Femmes. Perhaps it's because "Blister In The Sun" plays in the background of a new Wendy's commercial.

Spin apparently use zshare now. In a related note the overly praised drug addict Perry Farrell's new project isn't as horrible as his past few failures. Having New Order's Peter Hook along for the ride must be helping.

Can You Feel It Too?

Tracey Thorn's solo album Out Of The Woods hits the streets today and she posted this in her blog about the album's critical reception:

I have on occasion in the past, been known to grumble that reviewers are cloth-eared dimwits whose opinion counts for nothing. But so far I have read almost nothing but praise for Out Of The Woods, and so of course I have to revise that opinion and admit that they are all of sound judgement, and thoroughly bloody lovely blokes.

: Clearly a wise woman. Stream a few tracks from the album at Thorn's myspace to experience some of the magic that is her music.

Free Download: Information Society "Back In The Day"

Information Society's first release since reforming is out this week. Following their mid-90s masterpiece Peace & Love Inc the core trio went their separate ways as vocalist Kurt Harland carried on under the name taking the music in a more industrial direction. With Harland occupied with personal obligations the band's primary songwriter Paul Robb has picked up the name with the help of long term member Jim Cassidy and new vocalist Christopher Anton. The Oscillator EP, which can be streamed here for the rest of the week, is true to their freestyle electro roots explaining how Robb is qualified to be on a "History of Electronic Music" panel at the Winter Music Conference later this week.

Download "Back in the Day" (mp3)
Download "Back in the Day (Paul Robb Roots Electro Mix)" (mp3)
from "Oscillator"
by Information Society
Hakatak International

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Stream/buy at Napster


The new Information Society are touring and will be releasing a full album Synthesizer shortly so stop by their myspace for all the details.

Video: Supermode "Tell Me Why"

Steve Angello and Axwell are part of the informal group of producers known as the Swedish House Mafia who have championed the looping-a-hook-from-a-past-hit-and-add-a-fresh-beat technique that has been a major staple of dance charts for the past few years. Recording as Supermode they bring together two of The Bronski Beat’s biggest hits of their Jimmy Summerville-era in a mash up twist to their formula as vocals from the chorus of “Why?” float over the timeless groove of “Smalltown Boy”. My friend Glenn who introduced me to synthpop and the enigmatic genre of "Modern Rock" was a huge fan of "Smalltown Boy" which actually put me off the track, released in the US last year, for some time because I didn't see the need for yet another remix a classic song. However the combination comes across far more fresh musically speaking than you would expect from such familiar material and the juxtaposition of the two songs creates a conversation about the boy “pushed around and kicked around” for his sexual preferences as it asks why it is still relevant some twenty years after “Smalltown Boy” was first released:



: The soul behind the record The Bronski Beat called it a day shortly after their own 1994 re-recording of "Smalltown Boy". Jimmy Sommerville left the band long before that and is still around making music as a solo artist with his site noting upcoming tv appearances. Synth master Steve Bronski is also plugging away and has a very messy myspace that notes his recent production duties for my friendly online acquaintances The Garland Cult (I've exhanged emails with the singer before so you know we're tight).
Supermode, at least on paper, appears to be a one-off project that fits in the pattern of Steve Angello "mode" projects like Mode Hookers and General Moders but Axwell's site reports that as of last month "me and Steve are progressing with the new supermode". Apparently they are searching for the right vocal so don't hold your breath waiting for an album because source material this strong is hard to come by.

Respect My Girl Authority

One of Vince Clarke's first songs is seeing the light of day this week as part of "preeteen pop girl group" Girl Authority's album Road Trip. The official Erasure site reports that Clarke reworked the song, which pre-dates his time with Depeche Mode, to include the riff from "Just Can't Get Enough" and to make it a better fit for the intended young female audience.

"Let's Get Together" can be streamed at Girl Authority's myspace and Road Trip can be streamed in full here for the next week.

UPDATE: Bardot tracked down video of Vince running through the song with the first formation of Depeche. Check it out, it's fascinating stuff.