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album // Incontinent
A year on from Fireside Favourites,
Frank Tovey's second album as Fad Gadget
sees a move away from the harsh electronics of his debut, embracing
real drums, guitars and other instruments. The album was recorded
by Fad Gadget, Eric Radcliffe and John
Fryer at Blackwing, and was supported by two singles,
'Saturday Night Special' and 'King Of The Flies' (both were released
the following year). 'Make Room', the catchy single released earlier
in March that year didn't make it to the album, and its quirky,
distended funk provides only a small clue to the sound of Incontinent.
Incontinent is accompanied by a truly disturbing
Anton Corbijn photo of Fad dressed as Punch from the children's
promenade sideshow. The wooden, shiny-painted Punch, with his manic
grin and huge, beak-like nose, is here recast as a devilish character,
all latent evil and shadowy mystery. If Gadget's work unified music
and performance art into a complex and enjoyable blend, that sleeve
image - straddling the child-like with the darkly subversive - provides
the black core of this album, as does the skull-like face emerging
from the shadows on the right.
Gadget and David Simmonds are credited with playing
synths on the record, but those synths are augmented by drums from
Nick Cash (on all but one track), and bass and guitars from Pete
Balmer. Simmonds also adds pianos, while Cash also plays steel drums,
Jew's harp and accordion. Fad Gadget, Cash and John Fryer are credited
with percussion. In addition, Fad plays Chinese shawm woodwind,
sax and flute. The old-fashioned choral-style vocals were provided
Anne Clift, B.J. (aka Barbara) Frost, Cash and Pete Balmer. Quite
a bit different, then, from the set-up on Fireside Favourites.
Daniel Miller is largely absent (presumably hard
at work with Depeche Mode), being credited only
with sequencers on the album's (instrumental) title track.
One of the most electronic songs on the album is
'Swallow It'. Aside from the clattering, pounding live percussion,
the most prominent aspect of 'Swallow It' is the driving, nagging
electronic bassline and insistent synth drones. It sounds like it
could be a synthpop hit until you take a listen to the vocal, which
is anything but lighthearted. It seems to be a response to being
fed lies - presumably by the usual litany politicians, media, conglomerates
and the 'establishment' - but it's delivered in a lewd, sinister
fashion. Nevertheless, it remains the album's major highlight and
the interplay between synths and live percussion is captivating.
Also on the electronic side of the fence is the title track. 'Incontinent'
sounds covert and dangerous, like an early session for Cabaret
Voltaire's Micro-Phonies, all discrete, repetitive
synths, buzzing noises, clipped voices and echoed sax. It's what
I imagine the dystopian film Hardware would have sounded
like if CV had supplied the soundtrack.
'Manual Dexterity', similarly instrumental, is credited
to Gadget and Wire's Robert Gotobed.
In 1981 Wire were on the first of their hiatuses and Gotobed had
also laid down drums on 'Make Room'. 'Manual Dexterity' is an exercise
in drumming precision, but don't expect John Bonham-style showmanship
here; Gotobed's schtick has always been to play with the linear
dexterity referenced in the title and aside from some electronic
pulses and a bit of hammered percussion, this track is all about
his simple, subtle, insistent drumming.
Opener 'Blind Eyes' and the first song on the B-side,
'Innocent Bystander', illustrate Incontinent's distinct sound best.
Both are powered by a chugging bass guitar and quietly motorik drums
from Nick Cash. The latter has a relatively big, but not exactly
euphoric, dimension to the chorus, with the sparse piano adding
a tense dimension. Meanwhile, Eric Radcliffe - best known as early
in-house Mute engineer / producer and Vince
Clarke's accomplice in a number of projects - adds whining
guitar drones and the whole thing has a thwarted funk overtone.
'Blind Eyes' is faster, but no less darkened. On that track Tovey
sings, 'Waste your money on some fad gadget', reinforcing
what seems to be a song about wastefulness and insincere profligacy.
'Plain Clothes', the album's closing track, at least aims for a
sort of upbeat edge with uptight drums and tinkly synths smothered
by electric guitar riffery and the bass equivalent of Lou Reed's
'ostrich' guitar.
'Diminished Responsibility' meanwhile neatly drops
into the industrial oeuvre, rising out of simple and slightly unnerving
synths, metallically-processed voices, clanging percussion and occasional
screams. It's a somewhat harrowing experience, particularly toward
the four minute mark where the discordant woodwind sounds rises
to a crescendo; making a connection between the title and mental
illness seems trite, but there's a definite whiff of the asylum
about this one. (Shudders.)
Incontinent was a definite lurch in a different
direction for Fad Gadget and it is largely successful in its endeavours,
though it was clearly never going to be a wholly pleasant listening
experience. Gadget taking control of the recording process is what
perhaps led this album into more 'organic' instrumentation, whereas
under Miller's stewardship a more unified electronic sound would
have shone through. As it stands Incontinent is a diverse
and challenging musical experience.
lp/cd:
1. Blind Eyes
2. Swallow It
3. Saturday Night Special
4. Incontinent
5. Manual Dexterity
6. Innocent Bystander
7. King Of The Flies
8. Diminished Responsibility
9. Plain Clothes
single // Saturday Night Special
Review forthcoming.
7":
A. Saturday Night Special (Special Mix)
B. Swallow It (Live)
single // King Of The Flies
Review forthcoming.
7":
A. King Of The Flies (Remix)
B. Plain Clothes (Remix)
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