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Synth Britannia from BrainDance on Vimeo.
Documentary following a generation of post-punk musicians who took the synthesiser from the experimental fringes to the centre of the pop stage.
In the late 1970s, small pockets of electronic artists including the Human League, Daniel Miller and Cabaret Volatire were inspired by Kraftwerk and JG Ballard and dreamt of the sound of the future against the backdrop of bleak, high-rise Britain.
The crossover moment came in 1979 when Gary Numan’s appearance on Top of the Pops with Tubeway Army’s Are Friends Electric heralded the arrival of synthpop. Four lads from Basildon known as Depeche Mode would come to own the new sound whilst post-punk bands like Ultravox, Soft Cell, OMD and Yazoo took the synth out of the pages of the NME and onto the front page of Smash Hits.
By 1983, acts like Pet Shop Boys and New Order were showing that the future of electronic music would lie in dance music.
Contributors include Philip Oakey, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Bernard Sumner, Gary Numan and Neil Tennant.
In 1993, after the demise of Handful of Snowdrops Jean-Pierre Mercier, writer and composer of the band, began a new journey into instrumental electronic music under the new moniker Spaceful of Astronauts. After a couple of performances in rave events at the beginning of the 90s, he redirected his focus toward a more open and ambient sound that would culminate a few years later.
Nanomusique is the title of the long forgotten Spaceful of Astonauts’ album. Originally recorder in 1995, but never release for lack of resources, it has been completely remastered for the occasion of its official release as well as extended with two bonus tracks from the same era, namely Orion and Big Black Bubble.
You can now stream excerpts of every track of this mesmerizing electronic and instrumental work from the new SoA Mypace profile.
The 1 hour, 19 minutes and 11 seconds ambient epic is ONLY available as a DOWNLOADABLE DIGITAL ALBUM directly from the Handful of Snowdrops website shop and the Spaceful of Astronauts official Myspace profile.
On Sunday Nov. 8th, it will be my great pleasure and honor to spin at Salon Daomé with my old turntable (and more) buddies, Nic B., St-Michel alongside our host for the evening, Phil Larochelle! 7$ at the door with a free drink. Cheers!
Zero 7 is one of those bands whose albums I’ll buy with my eyes closed, no matter what. Heck, I think I’d buy their albums even if I was deaf…
Hardaker and Binns simply can do no wrong.
Their latest offering is no exception to this rule, at least for me, but I think some fans might be a bit turned off by Yeah Ghost, an album that is a far cry from the 70’s sheen of Simple Things. But if those fans are turned of by this album, they were probably into Zero 7’s music for the wrong reasons.
On Yeah Ghost, Hardaker and Binns have captured the Zeitgeist in their very personal way, and the result is nothing short of flabberghasting.
Weird rhythms and time signatures at much faster tempos than what they have habituated us to, yet none made straightforwardly for the dancefloor; melodic hooks that are often played on strident synths rather than by lush orchestrations (which doesn’t mean they are not beautiful); a new vocalist that goes by the name Eska who can at times sound like Alice Russell and at others like The Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson and even, sometimes, like both Sia and Sophie Barker, who she “replaces” on Yeah Ghost. All these things contribute to the very peculiar atmosphere that radiates from this album.
I bought it just yesterday and I must admit I didn’t much enjoy my first listen: I was merely intrigued enough to want to give it a second go, which I did a few hours later while sitting down to do a quick translation contract.
And then it hit me. Hard.
Yeah Ghost is an album of intense luminosity, but true to its creator’s habits, it doesn’t try to blind you or flash its lights at you. One has to seek the beauty that lies right there, before your eyes, but requires you adjust your point of view a little. Once you lean into it a bit, it becomes by far the most rewarding album these guys have put out.
Not to take away anything from the other three, it’s simply that this album actually helps you realize how different each of the others was from the one before, even in all their similitude.
If Zero 7 stopped producing today, they could go away knowing that history will remember them as the band who reinvented itself for each of their albums. Now, how many bands can pretend to such a title?
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Below are two tracks that you can download (Pop Art Blue and Everything Up, which I’m merely reposting from other sites that were officially giving them away), and a third that is, to me, quite representative of the album’s atmosphere (but that you can’t download, All of Us).
Everything Up (Zizou)
Everything Up (Zizou)
All of Us
All of Us
Marvel at French synth pop duo Air’s vintage synthesiser collection as they show-off their new Atlas studio space to The Guardian.
Detroit techno visionary Derrick May has revealed plans to re-launch his seminal Transmat label. In an interview with Bodytonic, May talks about his plans for the revived imprint, and credits Carl Craig and his legendary work ethic as the inspiration behind this about-turn.