MUSIC FOR THE MASSES - SOME NON DEPECHE MODE REVIEWS AND PREVIEWS

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll have noticed that the content has not been as varied as it might have been due to the mid life crisis that is The Global Spirit Tour Project. To find out what that is, click the link there to see. This is a non DM related post and it's going to stay that way.

The seemingly never ending Depeche tour has meant that, the odd review aside, this blog has focused entirely on one band since May last year. That'll remain the focus in a week's time when they kick off again so this is the ideal chance to talk about some other music that's been on heavy rotation in recent weeks. 

First up, Happy Robots Records, home of the superb Rodney Cromwell has put out a couple of superb releases in recent weeks. Sinosa's If U Must Dance is a curious but wonderful mix of electrpop and skewed disco with Kraftwerk lurking somewhere in the background. It's available on the label's Bandcamp page digitally and on striking clear vinyl 7".

Label boss Rodney Cromwell is also back. The superb Comrades takes off from where the still marvellous Age Of Anxiety left off. It's a prime slice of synthpop of a quality that is harder and harder to find. The song heads up the forthcoming e.p. Rodney's English Disco which adds three new tracks and 4 remixes and is available digitally and on 7" red vinyl from 25 May. As with all Rodney Cromwell releases, it's one you don't want to miss.

Seeing as we are talking about bands I've gone on a lot about on here before, the news that Apostille is back is a great thing. His new album Choose Life is out on the 8th of June and it is destined to be one of my records of the year. The first single from it, Feel Bad, came out in March and it's simply brilliant, as is its video.

Sticking with Glasgow and its seemingly endless supply of outstanding electronic artists, HQFU's new album For Inhumanity (reviewed here) is still proving hard to put down and is highly recommended. 

Graham Crossan, ex of Machines In Heaven, released two new pieces of music via his Bandcamp page in March with the dark electronics of Feel Everything (below) and earlier in the year in January with the superb GLVXGOW (Skip Ad) e.p. Graham's work with his new band Polis is also well 

Going back to the pop side of things, Priest returned in April with a new e.p. The Lost Lions which is available in all the usual digital places. As you'd expect, it's yet more synthpop goodness and features the superb Our Time Will Come which came out earlier this year.

Finally, three releases I'm looking forward to taking with me on the road to Berlin for the final two DM gigs of the year. The 25th of May sees the return of blood blood, Davey from Machines In Heaven's side project. Black Tarot promises to be another superb blood blood offering and the small sample available on Facebook certainly whets the appetite.

The new Your Silent Face release, The Fallen e.p., which is out this Thursday is a full on techno affair and from the Soundcloud preview (below), there's a lot to be excited about

Finally, Gus Harrower is back with a new single Wonder on the first of June. Gus' justified reputation as one of Scotland's best new singer songwriters has been enhanced by an ever increasing number of live shows and Wonder is only going to see his reputation grow and grow. You can find all his releases on his Soundcloud page (https://soundcloud.com/gusharrower) and on Spotify.

And that's that bar for a couple of things. Firstly, other than very occasional things like this, I'm going to step back from reviewing music on here. Unfortunately, the combination of further Depeche Mode projects on the way and real life mean I don't have the time to do bands justice and there's no point in providing half arsed reviews as that's not fair on the people that work so hard on their music. Thanks very much to everyone who has sent me so much music over the last few years. From it's start as the home of Depeche related geekery to what it became, running the review part of the blog has given me so much pleasure and introduced me to so many lovely people and bands. Thanks to everyone who's ever sent me things to review and sorry if I didn't get round to them.

Secondly, and not at all related to anything above, I just wanted to say how sad I was at the untimely passing of Scott Hutchison last week. He was a genius and Frightened Rabbit's The Midnight Organ Fight is proof of that alone. Like everyone else, my thoughts are with Scott's family and friends  - he will be much missed.

RODNEY CROMWELL - FAX MESSAGE BREAKUP E.P.

Rodney Cromwell's The Age Of Anxiety was one of my favourite albums of 2015 and it's still one I play regularly, the dark edge to the album's synthpop remaining interesting and, importantly, hugely enjoyable after multiple plays. Fax Message Breakup comes from the album and it's a track that pays homage to New Order circa Power Corruption And Lies and that is never going to be a bad thing.

The track was inspired by Phil Collins' fax induced marriage breakup many years ago, but mercifully sounds nothing like any of his works. Instead, dark swirling synths, melodica and some quite wonderful lyrics all mix, creating a superb track and one that deserves to be heard and loved.

There are a couple of great remixes of Fax Message Breakup here too.  Happy Robots labelmate Hologram Teen remixes the track superbly, the Hologram Teen's Video Suitors Remix taking the track in a glitchy disco direction and AUW's Obsessive Perfection Remix brings more than a hint of Depeche Mode to proceedings. As a reader of this blog, (1) you'll know that appeals to me and (2) it will certainly appeal to you.

The e.p. is finished off with remixes of album tracks Cassiopeia (the Leaf Library Remix) and Baby Robot (the Chris Frain Remix) which offer cool takes on both tracks. I am a sucker for an album-track-remix-as-single-extra notion. That started off for me with Something To Do (Metal Mix) featuring  on the limited edition 12"of Shake The Disease and it's something many more bands should do.

That needless Depeche diversion dispensed with, Fax Message Breakup is an e.p. you want to have in your life. Rodney Cromwell is one of the most interesting and inventive artists there is on the electronic scene just now - you'll kick yourself if you don;t check him out.

Fax Message Breakup e.p. is available now on Happy Robots Records on cd and to download.

Happy Robots Records http://www.happyrobots.co.uk/entry
Happy Robots Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/happy-robots

INTERVIEW - RODNEY CROMWELL

Rodney Cromwell's Age Of Anxiety (Happy Robots Records) was one of the albums for 2015 for me as I'm sure you'll have read about already. Every listen to it reveals another layer of analogue synth loveliness and, at times, it genuinely brings to mind the likes of peak New Order and Kraftwerk. That's not to say, though, that this is a distinctly retro sounding album. It's as fresh sounding as you'd like and, with each listen, more and more clever pieces of electro production reveal themselves, meaning you want to come back to the album time and time again. If you haven't checked it out yet, then you obviously have to rectify that immediately and when you're doing that, grab the Black Dog remix ep too for even more Cromwell goodness.

I had a chat with Rodney Cromwell, or Adam Cresswell as he's known in real life, recently to find out all about Age Of Anxiety.

APA: Age Of Anxiety is one of this blog's albums of 2015. How did the album come about and what were its inspirations?

RC: Wow. Thanks. I'm genuinely still taken aback that anyone likes it. The album certainly didn't come together overnight. A couple of tracks had been gathering dust on my hard-drive since 2009 when my old band Arthur And Martha split. I really didn't think that I would ever release another record; I sold loads of my gear at a boot fair and started writing a novel instead.

But, there was something about making music that kept on drawing me back in. It became a sort of sonic therapy. During the period I recorded the LP, I had a serious job and mortgage, I had become tied down to the drudgery of London commuting and I had also become a father, which was fantastic, but as you can imagine meant more responsibility. I was also coming to terms with other personal issues, notably dealing with panic attacks and anxiety. So, I suppose the album was inspired by a need to find a creative escape from adult concerns and existential angst. I toyed with the idea of the new songs becoming a second Arthur And Martha record, especially after Alice (a.k.a Martha) recorded some great parts. But, as soon as I had the title Age Of Anxiety that idea really didn't work; the whole album was just too personal, too tied to my own life experiences.

In late 2014, I turned my studio into a nursery, as we had a second sprog on the way, and I decided to just mix the whole thing down to get rid of it - which took about four hours. Before I knew it, I had a melodic lo-fi synth heavy retro pop album in the can, and thanks to some coaxing from friends, I was persuaded to actually release it. I should note that since the record came out I've not written a word of my novel. The literary world can breathe a sigh of relief.

APA: How pleased are you with the reaction the album has had?

RC: Obviously you can't expect to make a left-leaning, alternative, electronic record on ancient gear and get it reviewed in the Daily Mail or featured on Sky Arts, but I am beyond pleased with the reaction. It was barely a year ago that this ethereal, fantastical concept of an album started to look like it might actually happen, and now people are talking about it being the best record I have ever made. It goes without saying that it has been fantastic to have got some great reviews and a load of radio play, and I am incredibly thankful for every piece of exposure, but I have been most touched when people have said that the record has helped them in dealing with their own mental health issues. Clearly I didn't release the record out of some benevolent desire to make the world a better place, but if it has made a few people feel less like they are suffering in silence, then it has all been worthwhile.

Although I have genuinely never sought anything more than cult appeal, I would love nothing more than to sell the last few boxes of CD's currently living under our staircase.


APA: What bands influence you? I sense bits of Kraftwerk and New Order on the album for example.

RC: yeah of course Kraftwerk, New Order, Giorgio Moroder - they are all massive influences. Their music is part of my DNA and I don't think I could ever make a record that wasn't influenced by them. With this album, I wanted the music to be a "safe space"; upbeat, uplifting and familiar enough to counter balance the cynical and world-weary lyrics and, for that reason, there was no attempt to disguise influences, just to enjoy them.

The most positive influence is always when you hear a record that makes you sit up and think "wow, I wish I could have done that" - the sort of songs that inspire you to just keep pushing harder, or quit. The two records I was mostly listening to while making the album were Racine Carree by Belgian megastar Stromae and See You On The Ice by actress/singer Carice Van Houten. Neither of them sound much like my album though, they are just good records with their own sound. This week's listening is mostly Lilies On Mars, Gabe Knox, remi Parson, Hologram Teen, Tiny magnetic Pets, Ummagma, Johnny Hawaii and the new Pye Corner Audio, whenever the kids let me near the record player that is.

APA: One of the things I love about the album is the almost exclusive use of what sound to me like wonderful analogue synths. Have I misheard entirely?

RC: You have heard entirely correctly. I love analogue. So much of music made today is neat digital sequences of ones and zeroes, with vocals pitch-corrected to oblivion and mixes compressed to hell. I wanted to do something that felt a bit more lo-fi, organic and real; to capture some of that lo-fi excitement of the pre-digital age. With this record, there was no big studio, no plethora of special guests, just me and my close friends and family and a load of shitty unreliable thirty year old gear.

In terms of equipment I use, I only own four analogue synths: a Moog Rogue, a Moog Opus 3, a Korg MS-10 and an ARP Quartet. Probably 75% of the synth sounds on the album are from the MS-10 and the ARP. I can't understand artists who feel the need to own loads of synths. There is so much you can get out of just one. I am sure anyone who owns more than a handful is trying to make up for deficiencies elsewhere in their life. There are also a lot of vintage effects on the album; tremelo, delays and phaser mostly. In fact, there is so much phaser and delay on this record, I'm amazed any of it sounds even vaguely in time.


APA: Songs like Barry Was An Arms Dealer and You Will Struggle manage to combine emotional depth with electronics. Do you find this sort of thing difficult? It's too often wrongly said that synths can't generate an emotional feel.

RC: I suppose I must find it easy because I can't say I've thought about it. I've never found it hard to put my heart on the line, whether for songs like Victor Safronov or Bicycle Theives off the first Saloon album or for something like Cassiopeia on Age Of Anxiety which is about the loss of two close friends. The hard part is trying to show emotion without sounding overly earnest, self-pitying or slipping into cliche.

And as for anyone who thinks synths can't display emotion, well they've clearly not spent as much time in the company of synths as I have. My Moog Rogue is like the seventh member of the family, after the wife, the kids and the cats. The washing machine is probably the eighth member.

APA: The remix EP is a wonderful thing too. I love that the remixes are what I'd call proper remixes rather than just a DJ's interpretation which pays no attention to the original track. Was that the intention with the EP?

RC: Thanks. The main intention was to make it a collection of songs that sit together and to make an EP that stands up on its own, where you don't need to skip any of it. All filler, no killer. The difference with making the EP was that by then, people were interested in what I was doing, providing pressure that wasn't there with the album. So in making the EP, I worked with my brother Dom Cresswell who has a music technology degree and was taught by John Foxx, so he really should know what he's doing. In fact, many of the best things I've ever worked on have had Dom's input somewhere. My favourite track on the EP is probably You Will Struggle (Glitchy Disco Mix). With that one, I wanted to prove that I could do something a bit more contemporary sounding, but at the same time sounding like a massive retro hi-NRG track. The Best Of Divine was probably a massive influence on this EP to be honest.


APA: What does 2016 have in store for Rodney Cromwell?

RC: Well there sure as heck won't be a new album! I want to enjoy milking this one. I'll probably do another EP if I can decide which track to pick as the lead. I'm going to do some remixes ; Dom and I have just finished one for the great Canadian band Meter Bridge which was a lot of fun. Mostly, I want to play more gigs though. My band and I have actually only done a handful so far, mainly because I've been too busy with all the other promotional bureaucracy to look for bookings. So, if anyone wants to put us on, please get in touch and save me a job. We are all nice people and we have a very reasonable rider (herbal tea bags, cheap red wine and white kittens etc).

APA: Finally, because this blog started life as a place for me to bore people about Depeche Mode, what's your favourite Depeche Mode track?

RC: Well, Violator is probably the most complete pure synth album of all time (APA - correct!). Every cut is absolutely flawless - the combination of great production, songwriting and an astonishing singer. But, if I had to choose just one track, it would probably have to be one of the Vince Clarke uber-pop numbers, I think New Life probably edges it, but ask me tomorrow and it will probably be a different answer.

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Rodney Cromwell Bandcamp https://rodneycromwell.bandcamp.com/
Rodney Cromwell Facebook https://www.facebook.com/happyrobotsrecords/?fref=ts
Happy Robots Records http://www.happyrobots.co.uk/

RODNEY CROMWELL - BLACK DOG

Rodney Cromwell's Age Of Anxiety album is one of the finest electronic records of the year (see here) and, without spoiling any surprises, is pretty much a shoo in for a highly placed finish in this blog's Top 20 albums of the year come December. It's clear from the album that Rodney knows how an electronic record should be put together and the release of the Black Dog e.p. (released on Happy Robots Records) shows that he is well aware of one of the other rules of electronic music - a remix e.p. is always a good thing. This particular e.p. is a wonderful thing

The title track of the e.p. is the last track on the album itself. It's here in two forms, Version and Extended Version. Both remixes are by Rodney Cromwell himself and are really cool takes on the track. Version highlights the original's Peter Hook like bass and New Order circa Low Life and Brotherhood sequencers, adding a dancier texture to it and presenting an alternative but superb version of the song. As you'd expect, and as you'd hope for,  Extended Version is exactly what it says it is and, given that it is generally accepted by people who get this sort of thing that extended versions of songs are what 12" singles were designed for, that is a very, very good thing indeed. 

Sandwiched between those two mixes are two remixes of standout album tracks. You Will Struggle (Rod's Glitchy Disco Mix) adds an army of sequencers and drum machines and takes the track on a disco adventure very successfully. It brings to mind classic 12" remixes from the days when that type of thing was constructed with care rather than phoned in by a listless D. J. The highlight of the e.p. is Barry Was An Arms Dealer (AUW's North-Poindexter Remix). Arguably, Barry.. is the best track on Age Of Anxiety and this take on it removes the innocent Speak & Spell era Depeche Mode feel and replaces it with an initially part ambient, part Kraftwerk feel before turning it into the sort of moody electronics mid 80's era Depeche aimed for. It's tremendous. 

If you already have Age Of Anxiety (and why wouldn't you?) then this will be right up your street. If you don't have either release, then all you have to do is go and get both. You'll kick yourself if you don't.

To get the e.p. head to Rodney Cromwell's Bandcamp page https://rodneycromwell.bandcamp.com . If you're quick you'll be able to get your hands on one of the 10 limited edition promo cd's which I can of course highly recommend.

RODNEY CROMWELL - AGE OF ANXIETY

As an Electronic Sound subscriber, I heard Rodney Cromwell's superb Barry Was An Arms Dealer in the August edition and fell in love with it straightaway. It's a track that merges the simplicity and pop nous of early synthpop with a modern edge and is amongst one of the finest things I've heard this year. You can listen for yourself below. Having investigated Rodney further I quickly ended up with his album Age Of Anxiety and all its label Happy Robots Records catalogue. It's an outstanding album and one that I can't recommend highly enough for fans of synthpop, electropop or whatever you want to call it.

The brief The Internationale kicks the album off before the early Hot Chip like Cassiopeia lands the first blow on your ears. Waves of soothing synths give way to treated vocals and New Order like bass before the song wraps up, returned to the synths of the start. There are a couple of recurring influences throughout the album to my ears, namely Power Corruption & Lies era New Order and Vince Clarke in his early days with the likes of Depeche Mode's Speak & Spell or Yazoo's Upstairs At Eric's but they don't become overbearing at all. Rodney takes the pure pop of Clarke and mixes it with the harder edge, at least by comparison, of New Order but puts his own stamp on it. The next track is the aforementioned Barry Was An Arms Dealer and that heralds a run of quite outstanding songs.

You Will Struggle takes the synthpop formula the album is quickly perfecting and adds an I Feel Love style bassline to the mix, creating a sublime track. The cousin of Kraftwerk, One Two Seven follows, as good as anything else here and then the New Order go pop of Fax Machine Breakup arrives mixing melodies, melodica and some rather superb lyrics ("I sold some records but not a lot/I won't be floating Happy Robots") to superb effect. At this stage, I found myself enjoying the album more than I'd enjoyed many albums recently as it is just irresistible. Baby Robot comes next, and the titular robot is clearly a fan of New Order's Temptation which is no bad thing and the penultimate The Blue Cloud takes us back to the disco albeit one which is DJ'd by Ralf Hutter and Giorgio Moroder. We then end on the near 7 minute Black Dog  which displays the influences I've perhaps already overdone, but ends the album perfectly.

It's a brave move to release an album that relies on a certain era of synthpop as translating that effectively is difficult and has led to a number of rather useless releases in the recent past. This album though is basically flawless and is one that within which every fan of electronic pop will find something to love. It only seems a matter of time until Rodney's prediction is Fax Machine Breakup is proved wrong. Go and listen to this album right now.