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album // Non-Stop
Electric Blue, Andy
Bell's debut solo album, was a hedonistic club-friendly
affair (mostly) that signalled a significant departure from his
day job as one half of Erasure. Recorded with Manhattan
Clique, who had remixed tracks from Erasure's return to
form Other People's Songs and supported them on that album's
tour, the album saw Bell collaborating with Propaganda's
Claudia Brucken and head Scissor Sister
Jake Shears. It felt like Bell was getting something
out of his system, scratching an itch if you will, and the chances
of a second solo album seemed slim; though undoubtedly a good album,
Electric Blue was at times a little inconsistent.
This is not a charge that could be
levied at Non-Stop, Bell's second album. Recorded with
Pascal Gabriel, still affectionately remembered
as producer of the string of hits by S'Express
(although I love him best as a member of Peach
and producer of Inspiral Carpets' Revenge Of
The Goldfish), Non-Stop is a much more focussed dancefloor
affair. I haven't kept up with dance music trends since about the
mid-Nineties, so I've no idea what particular sub-genres this would
fit into, but what I do know is that this is a 4/4-fest that operates
about a million miles away from the electronic pop of Erasure.
Across ten tracks (eleven if you buy
the non-physical version from iTunes), the pace only drops with
the delicate slow-mo electro of 'Slow Release'. The rest is a slew
of quality, thudding upbeat dance tracks, including the low-key
two singles - 'Running Out' and 'Will You Be There?' - released
under the alias MiMó.
What's perhaps quite unusual is that
given the genre's obsession with euphoric themes, Non-Stop
is altogether quite dark; there are few overtly love-themed tracks
here. Since I Say, I Say, I Say, Bell's lyrics for Erasure
have - in the main - focussed on the trials and tribulations of
finding, being in and falling out of, love; unless you count the
edgy hotel rendezvous with a cigar-smoking, moustachioed character
on the track 'Subject / Object', the vibe is in places much more
overtly sexual than Erasure would dare. 'Touch', with its buzzing
synths, is possibly sinister, until Bell's lyrics about not wanting
to be a 'loser' kick in (delivered in Bell's best 'Mockney' accent).
Probably my favourite tracks here are
the title track, with its deep bass loops and 'Lost In Music'-meets-Kraftwerk
wide-eyed absorption, and 'Cosmic Climb' - the iTunes-only bonus
track - which is a straightahead, no holds barred, club track. The
lyrics on the latter are the only set I can hear that align with
Bell's claim that he was going for pure throwaway on this album
- the rest of the album's lyrics are very clever actually. I'm also
a fan of 'DHDQ' ('Debbie Harry Drag Queen') which is gleefully observant
of certain niche areas of clubland's eclectic nightlife; imagine
a dance-music version of Lou Reed's 'Walk On The Wild Side' hitched
to a disco rocket and relocated from Downtown Manhattan to London's
Soho on a Friday night.
Much has been made of the frankly bizarre
collaboration with Jane's Addiction's Perry
Farrell on 'Honey If You Love Him (That's All That Matters)',
and it's a good track, just not up there with my personal favourites.
Apparently Farrell, an avowed fan, suggested the collaboration and
wrote the track; his contribution is certainly more significant
than Shears' almost absent contribution to Electric Blue.
Pre-orders of the CD album from Mute
Bank came with a download of a Vince Clarke
remix of 'Non-Stop'; on recent mixes Vince has displayed a knowing
ability to knock out sterling dance floor grooves, and his version
of 'Non-Stop' is a perfectly minimal, sparse take on the more dense,
robotic Pascal Gabriel version, with few of Clarke's signature squiggles
and sequences.
cd/i:
1. Running Out
2. Call On Me
3. Subject / Object
4. Say What You Want
5. Will You Be There?
6. Slow Release
7. Touch
8. Non-Stop
9. DHDQ
10. Honey If You Love Him (That's All That Matters)
11. Cosmic Climb (iTunes exclusive bonus track)
12. Non-Stop (Vince Clarke Remix) (limited edition download
available with CD pre-orders)
single // Running Out
[forthcoming]
i:
1. Running Out
2. Running Out (Fenech-Soler Remix)
3. Running Out (VEGA Italo Dub Mix)
4. Running Out (VEGA Italo Dub Mix Extended)
single // Will You Be There?
[forthcoming]
i:
1. Will You Be There?
2. Will You Be There? (Seamus Haji Big Love Radio Edit)
3. Will You Be There? (French Horn Rebellion Mix)
4. Will You Be There? (SonicC Vocal Mix)
5. Will You Be There? (Seamus Haji Big Love Remix Edit)
single // Call On Me
[forthcoming]
cd:
1. Call On Me (Wyda Productions Remix)
2. Had It All
3. Call On Me
4. Call On Me (Vince Clarke Remix)
5. Call On Me (Hey Champ Remix)
6. Call On Me (Deadboy Remix)
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