Audio Journal by MJA Smith : 10/08/2009

‘You’ll love this,’ said my father, handing over a CD of At The Foot Of The Mountain by Eighties comeback kids a-ha. I looked at the front cover and thought to myself how odd it was to be receiving music recommendations from my parents. ‘It’s like Depeche Mode,’ he added. Though sceptical I thought I’d listen to it, you know, be charitable, and write here scathingly about how unbelievably naff it was and add it to the blogosphere.

Unfortunately, I can’t do that, much as I’d like to. Okay, so it’s not all to my taste – and some of the songs veer into Take That-style pompous balladry, while Morten Harket’s lyrics are occasionally horribly twee – but my dad was right in places about the Depeche similarities. More specifically, the 1981, Speak & Spell, Vince Clarke-era synth pop sound best evidenced on the track ‘Riding The Crest‘. So overall, I was pleasantly surprised, however, if you want a genuine modern take on the 1981 sound – as deployed on Soft Cell‘s Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, Human League’s Dare and the aforementioned Mode LP – you are advised to check out Vic Twenty’s excellent Electrostalinist, described by Daniel Miller (producer of Speak & Spell and founder of Mute Records) as ‘too 1981’. And he’d know. (My interview with Adrian Morris of Vic Twenty is available here).

Elsewhere this past week I’ve been listening to In Sides by Orbital, the fourth album from the Hartnoll brothers. I’ve probably listened to it more in the past week than I have since it came out in 1996, as my cumbersome triple vinyl edition has been languishing in a record bag since pretty much the week it was released. Though not as good as their second album (colloquially known as The Brown Album), it’s a definite improvement on their third (Snivilisation), being six tracks of decent but not self-indulgent electronica.

The 7” box this week turned up something that I’d never listened to before, the single ‘Less Of Me’ from Guildford band Fourth Quartet, now sadly defunct. Released in 1998, it’s lo-fi post-rock with a slight tilt toward Radiohead introspection. Highlighting its indie credentials, the single comes in a handmade, stapled sleeve. They went on to record one album, which after finally listening to this after owning it for 11 years, I might attempt to track down.

Also defunct are the band Action Plan, who supported Razorlight and who had the potential to make it big; two singles in and the dream abruptly ended, leaving a few concert appearances and a smattering of recorded songs as their only legacy. After seeing them at The Garage – my favourite London venue by far – I downloaded their online demo, which was fantastic. Very Pixies-esque and reminiscent of Mute band Foil (also, it would appear, lost for good).

Other stuff in the eardrums this week includes a bunch of songs downloaded legitimately – the upbeat Low-life remix of Moby’s ‘Mistake’ being one (download it here), a new track by David Byrne and Dirty Projectors (get it here) being another – the debut single ‘Fake Blues’ by excellent New Jersey band Real Estate (some free demos, including an early version of the single are available at Stereogum), and the breakthrough album Sally Can’t Dance by Lou Reed.