Richard Evans will be best known to some music fans as having been a member of indie-pop band James, but this solo work casts him in a very different role. The three track ‘Dream of The World’ ventures deep into synthwave, sharing cold and mechanised melodies straight from the heart of 1984. In terms of going retro, it’s both huge sounding and brilliant; a nostalgic blast of a long gone era, redressed for a detached twenty first century landscape with near perfect results.
Tag Archives: synth pop
STELLA WEMBLEY – Wasting My Time EP
A year on from her unsympathetic reworking of Bowie’s ‘Loving The Alien’, Stella Wembley’s ‘Wasting My Time’ brings the listener more detached post-goth/electronica that listeners will either love or hate. Stella has rarely approached her music in the most user-friendly way – which can be a good thing – and here, her love of rigid rhythms and reverbed vocals goes into overdrive. The track’s blend of robotic beats and strange synth tones sets up something that could loosely be described as goth-disco, like an old Mute Records track remixed by Georgio Moroder, but once you make it past the confronting coldness, there’s something weirdly appealing. The way Wembley shifts between strange croons and stylised yelps just accentuates any surface oddness, whilst the cold music and wantonly mechanical rhythm harks back to an alternative (early) 80s in the best possible way. Yes, this number is likely to be divisive, but at least it makes a definite impression.
THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #21
Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the individual mp3s that have landed in our inbox over the previous few weeks. We’re happy to share a typically mixed batch this time around. You’ll find the return of an underground rock band, a brilliant track loaded with harmonies that draws influence from the Laurel Canyon scene, a tune that goes deeply into an Americana sound, a piece of modern metal and more besides… As always, these are just eight picks from the mountain of material that’s come our way, but we think you’ll find something new to enjoy.
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downtalker – All My Friends Are Dead / Watch Your Heart Break
Billed as a “post-punk disco project”, Boston’s downtalker (always credited in a lower case) bring retro sounds of a little left of the norm on this double whammy of digital singles. At a time when a lot of the underground seems obsessed with 90s indie and 80s pop, these guys have channelled their inner weirdos to bring you something a little different.
HOWARD JONES – Live In Japan
The huge box set reissue of Howard Jones’s ‘Humans Lib’ was a real treat for fans. A multi format set, it presented the classic album with a wealth of bonus materials, including unreleased demos, alternate versions and radio sessions. The biggest draw, though, came from its visual content. The lavish set finally gave a DVD release to the long out of print ‘Live In Japan’ VHS, much to the delight of almost everyone.
Unfortunately, that box was both prohibitively expensive and a really limited run, meaning that only hardcore fans would get to see that footage in decent quality, and in some cases for the first time in many a long year. Luckily, the 2022 release ‘Live At The NHK Hall, 1984’ comes to the rescue, since it offers the same film at an affordable price, but improves upon the previous release by presenting it alongside an uncut version of the audio soundtrack.