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BLANCMANGE
Celebrating 45 years of Blancmange, Everything Is Connected (Best Of) is the first collection to be curated by Neil Arthur, tastefully blending a mixture of hits and personal favourites. Originally from the UK’s post punk DIY scene, Blancmange found success in 1982, long player ‘Happy Families’ selling Gold in the UK, and its 3 singles becoming international hits. They went on to have 7 Top 40 hits and 70 weeks in the UK album charts. Long-standing admirers include Moby, John Grant and Honey Dijon, who states that “British synth pop was hugely influential in the burgeoning house music scene and Blancmange was a big part of that.”
TRACK LISTING
LP:
Side One
1 Living On The Ceiling
2 Waves
3 Blind Vision
4 Don’t Tell Me
5 The Day Before You Came
Side Two
1 What’s The Time?
2 Distant Storm
3 Mindset
4 Reduced Voltage
5 Some Times These
CD:
Disc 1
1 Sad Day (Original Version)
2 I’ve Seen The Word
3 God’s Kitchen
4 Feel Me
5 Living On The Ceiling
6 Waves
7 Game Above My Head (12 Inch Version)
8 Blind Vision
9 That’s Love, That It Is
10 Vishnu
11 Don’t Tell Me
12 The Day Before You Came
13 What’s Your Problem
14 Lose Your Love
15 Why Don’t They Leave Things Alone
16 Drive Me
17 I’m Having A Coffee
18 The Western
19 Just Another Spectre
Disc 2
1 The Fall
2 Last Night (I Dreamt I Had A Job)
3 Jack Knife (Red Shift EP)
4 What’s The Time?
5 We Are The Chemicals
6 Anna Dine
7 Distant Storm
8 I Smashed Your Phone
9 Not A Priority
10 Mindset
11 This Is Bliss
12 Clean Your House
13 Commercial Break
14 Some Times These
15 Reduced Voltage
16 Take Me
17 Again, I Wait For The World
18 Wish
19 Empty Street
Esteemed British electronic outfit Blancmange return with ‘Private View’. Originally from the UK’s post punk DIY scene, Blancmange found success in 1982, long player ‘Happy Families’ selling Gold in the UK, and its 3 singles becoming international hits. They went on to have 7 Top 40 hits and 70 weeks in the UK album charts. Long-standing admirers include Moby, John Grant and Honey Dijon, who states that “British synth pop was hugely influential in the burgeoning house music scene and Blancmange was a big part of that.” 40 years and 16 albums later, Blancmange have re-signed to London Records with the captivating and inspired ‘Private View’, melding futuristic electronics, Neil Arthur’s unmistakable vocal hooks, and songs spanning buoyant and joyful to dark and brooding.
TRACK LISTING
What’s Your Name
Some Times These
Reduced Voltage
Here We Go Go
Chairs
Who Am I
Everything Is Connected
I Tried To Be You
Private View
Take Me
Blancmange are set to release a new album, Commercial Break - their 14th - which explores acoustic textures and field recordings within their synthesiser exoskeleton. Co-produced by Benge and mixed at his Memetune Studios in Cornwall, the album includes the following sounds within the songs, so listen out for . . . Two electric saws; Waves breaking on beach; People talking/moving (indistinct words); A dishwasher; Ambient mic recording to pick up background noise;Close mic recording to collect the body noise of guitar; Bird song (-2 octaves); Metal gate closing and metal gate locking; Beach with people and waves breaking; Old water pump.
TRACK LISTING
1. Share Out The Light
2. Endless Posts
3. This A State
4. Commercial Break
5. Dog Walk In A Cloud
6. Empty Street
7. Strictly Platonic
8. On A Ride
9. Duo
10. Long Way Road
11. Looking After Aliens
British electronic band Blancmange return with a new album and extensive UK Tour. Mindset is the 3rd album to be written and co-produced by Neil Arthur with Benge (Wrangler/John Foxx And The Maths) at his Memetune studios in Cornwall, following the critically acclaimed Unfurnished Rooms in 2017 and Wanderlust a year later. “Growing up in Chicago British synth pop was hugely influential in the burgeoning house music scene and Blancmange was a big part of that. To remix a song that was a big part of that soundtrack is a true honour.” Honey Dijon (recently remixed ‘Blind Vision’).
Opening with the free-flowing, wistful Neu! uplift of the title track, the album’s themes of truth and misinformation are immediately explored in the emotional wordplay of the chorus. ‘Warm Reception’ comes in with powerful vocals and a propulsive drum machine, its icy electro-pop exterior worn like a blank mask. The cut-up vocals and Bossa nova beats of 'This Is Bliss' are a real joy, one of many moments on the album where there’s a refreshed dance-pop swing to Blancmange in the 2020s! ‘Antisocial Media’ stomps in gleefully, like Human League’s ‘Being Boiled’ but with a contemporary bass thrust, ‘Clean Your House’ is a break-up song which whizzes along with a lightness of touch revealing Arthur’s pop instincts and slightly disguising the lyrical twists (at least on first hearing), while ‘Insomniacs Tonight’ is about surrendering to a lack of sleep which leads to a half dream state becoming the norm. ‘Sleep With Mannequin’ is like a dead-eyed twin to ‘Warm Reception’, ‘Diagram is the most beat-driven track on an album which keeps the tempo of a runner, as does ‘Not Really (Virtual Reality)’ which riffs on all the album’s themes while adding some edgy guitar, by Arthur himself, to the mix. ‘When’ slows to a heartbeat and asks the question, ‘when is anything about what it’s about?’ . We’ve all been there - the emotional outbursts that seem to come from nowhere because they’re actually rooted in something else completely, but it’s also a question that hovers in the air throughout the album.
Blancmange - originally a duo with Stephen Luscombe - first broke through in the early 80s with their mix of synthesizers and surrealism, fused in ground breaking singles such as 'Feel Me’, Living On The Ceiling' and 'Blind Vision’. The epic synth pop of 'Waves' and a cover of Abba's 'The Day Before You Came' illustrated a band who were always willing to change and adopt new styles within their electronic framework.
“They were one of my favourite Bands when I grew up as a teenager in the 80’s. Listening to their music walking around with my Walkman back then was adventurous. Mainly because I was already in love with the aesthetics of synthesisers and drum machines. But also because it was unusual pop music with an extraordinary energy that made it in the charts. Remixing a favourite band is challenging but I’ve tried to keep the free spirits and playfulness in my mix that makes Blancmange still so special after all these years.” Roman Flügel (recently remixed ‘Living On The Ceiling’)
Since Stephen Luscombe was forced by illness to stop touring or recording after 2011’s Blanc Burn, the band’s evolution has continued at a rapid pace through a new album almost every year with Arthur at the helm. These days you can hear Blancmange’s influence in everything from La Roux to LCD Sound System to Hot Chip and they’ve have also been reaching new audiences within the dance music scene via collaborations with Kincaid, John Grant, Disco Halal and this year’s remixes from Honey Dijon and Roman Flügel on London Records.
Opening with the free-flowing, wistful Neu! uplift of the title track, the album’s themes of truth and misinformation are immediately explored in the emotional wordplay of the chorus. ‘Warm Reception’ comes in with powerful vocals and a propulsive drum machine, its icy electro-pop exterior worn like a blank mask. The cut-up vocals and Bossa nova beats of 'This Is Bliss' are a real joy, one of many moments on the album where there’s a refreshed dance-pop swing to Blancmange in the 2020s! ‘Antisocial Media’ stomps in gleefully, like Human League’s ‘Being Boiled’ but with a contemporary bass thrust, ‘Clean Your House’ is a break-up song which whizzes along with a lightness of touch revealing Arthur’s pop instincts and slightly disguising the lyrical twists (at least on first hearing), while ‘Insomniacs Tonight’ is about surrendering to a lack of sleep which leads to a half dream state becoming the norm. ‘Sleep With Mannequin’ is like a dead-eyed twin to ‘Warm Reception’, ‘Diagram is the most beat-driven track on an album which keeps the tempo of a runner, as does ‘Not Really (Virtual Reality)’ which riffs on all the album’s themes while adding some edgy guitar, by Arthur himself, to the mix. ‘When’ slows to a heartbeat and asks the question, ‘when is anything about what it’s about?’ . We’ve all been there - the emotional outbursts that seem to come from nowhere because they’re actually rooted in something else completely, but it’s also a question that hovers in the air throughout the album.
Blancmange - originally a duo with Stephen Luscombe - first broke through in the early 80s with their mix of synthesizers and surrealism, fused in ground breaking singles such as 'Feel Me’, Living On The Ceiling' and 'Blind Vision’. The epic synth pop of 'Waves' and a cover of Abba's 'The Day Before You Came' illustrated a band who were always willing to change and adopt new styles within their electronic framework.
“They were one of my favourite Bands when I grew up as a teenager in the 80’s. Listening to their music walking around with my Walkman back then was adventurous. Mainly because I was already in love with the aesthetics of synthesisers and drum machines. But also because it was unusual pop music with an extraordinary energy that made it in the charts. Remixing a favourite band is challenging but I’ve tried to keep the free spirits and playfulness in my mix that makes Blancmange still so special after all these years.” Roman Flügel (recently remixed ‘Living On The Ceiling’)
Since Stephen Luscombe was forced by illness to stop touring or recording after 2011’s Blanc Burn, the band’s evolution has continued at a rapid pace through a new album almost every year with Arthur at the helm. These days you can hear Blancmange’s influence in everything from La Roux to LCD Sound System to Hot Chip and they’ve have also been reaching new audiences within the dance music scene via collaborations with Kincaid, John Grant, Disco Halal and this year’s remixes from Honey Dijon and Roman Flügel on London Records.
TRACK LISTING
1. Mindset
2. Warm Reception
3. This Is Bliss
4. Antisocial Media
5. Clean Your House
6. Insomniacs Tonight
7. Sleep With Mannequin
8. Diagram
9. Not Really (Virtual Reality)
10. When
