Claudia Brucken + Andrew Poppy: Another Language (There(there))

This is a project that initially started when Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore asked German electronica icon Claudia Brucken to perform some songs at a party. She set to work with Andrew Poppy - one of the UK’s foremost avant-garde composers by day, but a dab hand at guitar-wielding by night. The party idea has long since passed but between them they have conjured a daring set of duets.

It may just be Claudia on vocals but Another Language really is a series of duets - with Poppy alternating between guitar and his native piano and providing not just backing, but equally compelling melody lines and arrangements for every song. Between them they’ve ‘reimagined’ Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (the kind of track Brucken’s fans have been waiting to hear her sing for years), the midnight cabaret of Grace Jones’ Libertango and a delicate take on Radiohead’s Nice Dream. On the atmospheric Breakfast (originally penned by The Associates’ Billy Mackenzie) Poppy dances across the piano while the vocals tell a moving story.

This is an album of firsts – Poppy’s first long-form pop project (despite intermittent projects with the likes of The The and Psychic TV), the first time Brucken has sung more than a line or two in her native tongue (like the tender Die Nebensonnen), and the first time these songs have been reinterpreted in such a simple way. It’s a sensitive set that’s sequenced exactly like a concert, in which Elvis’ Wooden Heart (one of the first records Poppy ever heard on the radio as a child) makes a touching, almost ambient finale.

Janet Jackson - From Janet to Damita Jo (Virgin)/Live in Hawaii & The Velvet Rope Special Edition Double Disc (Eagle Rock)

Don’t get me wrong – I’ve got nothing against Janet Jackson’s boobs but I thought the whole Superbowl ‘wardrobe malfunction’ publicity stunt was totally wrong. Having spent the 90s carving a highly creative niche with Janet and The Velvet Rope (by far the best two albums ever created by a Jackson), she seems to have blown the 00s on mellow bedroom music and formation dancing.

Janet’s experimental streak - both musically and visually - hit a zenith with What’s It Gonna Be?, her collaboration with Busta Rhymes. This and her laid back but equally mesmerising Beanie Man collaboration are sadly missing from Virgin’s new compilation disc. But it does hold a slew of promos, almost of all of which are perfect examples of their form and are available for the first time on DVD.

Eagle Rock’s double DVD is also available now, with a concert from the Velvet Rope tour on one disc and a Hawaiian date from the subsequent All For You on the other. Disc two is best, leaving me wondering just how much more theatrical a show like this can get. Can the costumes and set pieces Janet pioneered over ten years ago really get any bigger or better? Can Janet carry on out-cirque de soleiling cirque de soleil?! Visually breathtaking, but the music suffers from far too much ‘you-had-to-be-there’ audience participation.

The live box proves just where Britney, Justin et al find their inspiration for everything they do on a live stage. But Janet’s been doing the Tribly hat-meets-synchronised dancers routine for so long it left me yearning to see her do an altogether new type of live performance - a small stage, a band and a microphone - where the songs, already perfectly illustrated on From Janet to Damita Jo, stand up on their own merits.

Onetwo - Islington Academy, 30/09/04

The debut gig for this new collaboration between OMD founder Paul Humphries and Propaganda/Act founder Claudia Brucken. Only one EP to their name so far, but with heritage like that they had a wealth of electronic pop classics to play for a crowd that hadn’t seen either on a UK stage for at least ten years.

A surprise guest on the night was Suzanne Freytag, the Agnetha to Claudia’s Frida in their original ‘Abba From Hell’ formation of Propaganda. She doesn’t seem to have aged a single day since 1984’s Dr Mabuse, which they sung as a warm-up to November’s Produced By Trevor Horn Wembley testimonial.

Paul Humphries delved into the OMD back catalogue with reverence and flair. Almost apologetic for taking Andy McClusky’s vocal part in Almost - perhaps their best ever track - it left the OMD nuts wanted to bounce up and down Joy Division-like rather than over-analyse. He’ll have to get some low-down dirty swagger into his vocals to replace Thomas Leer on Act tracks, though.

The best OMD reinterpretations were Messages and So In Love – both sounding better than ever as male/female duets. In all quite startling to witness two 80s electronic music stalwarts back on stage doing credible, new music that builds on their past rather than trades on it. And not a Here, Now, chicken or basket in sight.

Biosphere - Autour de la Lune (Touch)

...Sub-sonic sound collage from dusty radio tapes...

The Norwegian Orb. The Scandinavian Sun Electric. Biosphere is all of those things and more. The work of isolated, arctic hermit Geir Jennsen, his albums and 12”s on Apollo Records were landmarks of the early 90s ambient house scene and pointed to its myriad of possibilities and longevity.

This latest work recalls Scanner’s Sound For Spaces and Sylvian’s Ember Glance with its stripped down environmental electronics based on a specific installation or commission. The roots of this piece go back to Radio France Culture who contacted Jennsen for music for their ‘Festival de Radio France’. He was given access to the radio station’s historic archives where he found an early 60s radio play of De la Terre à la Lune by Jules Verne. This dialogue was then woven into own recordings of the MIR space station to create something that’s startlingly unique.

Word of warning, though, it’s not quite as exciting in practice as it sounds on paper. Jenssen stays true his ambient roots and what results is like a sequel to Brian Eno’s Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks, as opposed to some kind of mashed-up voyage through the archives that a DJ might put together. Sub-bass, clicks and cuts, there are many hallmarks of an ambient classic here. And Rotation and Disparu have a wonderful sense of grace, but I couldn’t help but be left with a sinking sense of ‘anticipointment’...