First Light

Description

First Light is the debut album from Fader a new band formed by Neil Arthur (Blancmange/Near Future) and Benge, whose work includes his own solo albums, co-production with Gazelle Twin, plus he's in two other critically acclaimed bands Wrangler and John Foxx And The Maths. The music was recorded and mixed at Benge s MemeTune Studios while Arthur worked on lyrics and vocals in his home studio. The resulting album is full of powerful electronic pop songs up-tempo, dark, with flickers of beauty in the sounds and rhythms that echo old Joy Division tunes and even bands like The Sound at their most synthesizer heavy. Opening with the psychedelic strangeness of 3D Carpets (inspired by Hunter S. Thompson's Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas), the album launches with a salvo of exhilarating electronic rock/pop songs including Check The Power - an OCD meltdown with fierce electro surges and Fader's debut single, I Prefer Solitude (due out on 7 June) with its brilliantly insistent chorus. From that point the record buries deeper into melancholy nostalgia; internalized, dead-of-night fears; stream-of-conscious visions of city life and evocative descriptions of lost and lonely figures who find themselves out of time and out of place. The slower tracks such as Laundrette , Trip To The Coast and Liverpool Brick are full of longing, with Arthur writing some of the finest lyrics of his career. Laundrette is a particularly British spin on the solitary mood of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks. The title track is a crack-of-dawn flow of scrambled epiphanies and mixed-up thoughts while Way Out pitches a detached vocal and sense of distance ( God I'm bored ) with waves of aggressive, noisily anthemic synths, but then builds through a beautiful keyboard line that makes misery sound oddly inspiring even life-affirming, as feelings break through the numbness. Guilt, Doubt And Fear is a mangled pop song, the catchy hooks snared into a red-eyed, insomniac's voice croaky but rich; half-spoken, a damaged croon. By comparison Winter Garden is almost elegant in its minimalist approach, while Wonderland is a human drone on the landscape, sending back images while Benge borrows a bit of inspiration from John Foxx in the track s Metamatic-like icy atmospherics. Neil Arthur is of course best known through his band Blancmange, who are also due to release a new album this September ( Unfurnished Rooms ), following a major re-issue campaign in the summer. However, he is also working on the debut album by Near Future a project formed with art-pop electronic artist, Bernholz. Benge is currently recording new material with I Speak Machine, Wrangler (including material for their new Cotton Panic! show with Jane Horrocks, which is opening at the Manchester International Festival in July) and John Foxx And The Maths. Tracklisting: 01. 3D Carpets 02. Check The Power 03. I Prefer Solitude 04. Way Out 05. First Light 06. Wonderland 07. Liverpool Brick 08. Guilt, Doubt And Fear 09. Trip To The Coast 10. Winter Garden 11. Laundrette Review: Synthopia for the masses - Neil Arthur from Blancmange and Benge team up for an electronic synth opus. The music is dark, reminiscent of Depeche Mode or Gary Numan's darker synth soundtracks. Side One has five brilliant synth anthems. Side Two is a more convulted affair but includes at least three brilliant tracks (Liverpool Brick, Winter Garden, Launderette). Out of the 11 tracks I think 8 are very strong and 3 are OK. I'm torn between a 4 star and 5 star review so I'll go with 5 stars. The black vinyl sounds great with no pops. I also bought the CD as it sounds great in the car and it was cheap on desertcart (around £5). Review: A modern day electro classic! - Wow! This really is a brilliant album. This could have been made in the 80's & that is said with total respect, not a put down for not being original. The first 3 songs have single written all over them. These deserve to be released with proper 80's style 12" mixes. I'd love to see them out on 12" vinyl, if you're reading Fader please consider. It's so good to hear Neil Arthur singing pop songs again. I really like Blancmange & I enjoy the direction they are heading in but this album could so be an early Blancmage album, it really is that good! I can't stress enough how good this album is. Neil Arthur & Benge have come up with a modern day electro classic, please have plans for a follow up. Any chance of playing this live???