Made In Sheffield - The Birth of Electronic Pop (Slackjaw Films)

Repackaged beautifully by The Designers Republic, this is a welcome DVD transfer for Eve Wood’s fascinating documentary about the late 70s Sheffield electronic scene.

If you need a history lesson – on how sparks flew out of a baron industrial climate creating some of pop’s most influential music – or just want to revel archive footage and anecdotes then this is a must buy. The Human League, Cabaret Voltaire, Heaven 17, ABC (and their legendary Vice Versa ‘prequel’) all feature prominently. To say nothing of some more obscure names – like I’m So Hollow and John Peel favourites Artery – hitherto only talked about in indie 7” collector circles also get a long overdue platform.

Wood takes just under an hour to guide you through how in the late 70s guitars were trashed and – in the true spirit of punk – anyone with an idea or vision jumped up on stage and used keyboards and synthesizers to make themselves heard. From the first art school twiddlings of Humnan League the story closes just as ABC take to the stage to perform on Top Of The Pops. It’s a compelling story although the inclusion of more guitar-oriented groups like The Extras and even Pulp is disorienting, even if they do offer valuable insights into Sheffield band life.

As well as a gallery of very rare photos, DVD extras include crystal clear early footage of Vice Versa right at the moment they were about to go into a cocoon and come out the other side as ABC. Pitifully short but the kind of stuff collectors have been waiting to see for years. The only material you’ll find over-familiar is interviews with Phil Oakey and his Human League band mates – they seem to be permanently on TV these days on ‘Top Ten This’ or ‘I Love That’!

The Orb - Bicycles and Tricycles (Cooking Vinyl)

One thing’s for certain – a new Orb release is never a case of ‘same old same old’. Ten albums and 16 years after ‘A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre of the Ultraworld’ there is little whiff of ambient house – the genre The Orb pioneered – on Bicycles and Tricycles. They’ve evolved, something which some of the pretenders to the chill out throne would do well to try for themselves.

You need to persevere with Bicycles and Tricycles in places. Tracks like the Zion Train-esque ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ sound like filler on first listen but bear up well to repeat plays. ‘The Land of Green Ginger’ is the most traditionally Orb-like track, complete with odd sampled narration and synth sounds reminiscent of Paterson’s work with Sun Electric. It was first heard on Paterson’s Back To Mine compilation where it followed beautifully from Julie Cruise’s ‘Falling’. Elsewhere, ‘Aftermath’, with vocals from MC Shoom T, sounds like a welcome and long-overdue follow-up to ‘Perpetual Dawn’.

The most exciting part of this album is ‘From a Distance’ – the sound of Orb founder Alex Paterson getting back together with his original partner-in-crime Jimmy Cauty (who jumped ship in 1990 to form The KLF). This track has been unceremoniously panned in fan quarters but I love it. In fact I love it a little more for that very reason. I’m like that. If this is anything to go by, then pre-orders should be placed immediately for the pair’s forthcoming Custerd project.

Act - Laughter Tears and Rage Anthology (Zang Tuum Tumb)

Originally titled Pandemonium, Act’s 1988 album is finally reissued alongside Anthology – a 3CD retrospective, covered elsewhere this issue. But it’s a double-edged sword. Collectors will leap at the ten extra tracks (five on CD for the first time) but new listeners will be thrown. The original vinyl album sounded and felt like a true performance – some of the most in-your-face, glamorous and intellectual elctronica ever produced. But this new 22-track version loses all structure and suffers as a result. So use the Program button on your CD payer to follow the original track list, and save all the ‘extras’ for later.

Of these, head straight for ‘White Rabbit’ – a delightful Jefferson Airplane cover, ‘(Theme From) I Can't Escape From You’ – a barmy piano session, and ‘Short Story’ - an atmospheric interlude previously only available on the original 1988 vinyl edition. It’s all cast inside a wall of sound – the trademark of producer Trevor Horn and his then apprentice Steve Lipson. Lipson’ work is great – this was well before he blanded out with Annie Lennox and the like. And Horn devotees will also hear echoes of this album in later collaborations with Inge (‘Riding Into Blue’) and Betsy Cook (‘Love is the Groove’).

Claudia Brücken and Thomas Leer gave Act their all. Brücken’s vocals on ‘Snobbery & Decay’ and ‘I’d be Surprisingly Good for You’ are unrelenting and Leer’s sounds and solos – especially on ‘Snobbery (Extended for Stephnie Beacham)’ and ‘Bloodrush’ – are gorgeous. If the A’s in your CD collection include Aphex Twin, Age of Chance, ABC or Art of Noise, then Act urgently needs to join their ranks.

Keith Topping - The Complete Clash (Reynolds & Hearn)

‘Rock The Casbah’. ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’. Two reasons that justify the existence of this new book. To say nothing of the untimely death of Joe Strummer earlier this year, just as The Clash were set to reform – for fun, if not for world (re)domination…

I’ve always admired The Clash. Far more for the things they did wrong, did on a whim, or their ridiculous experiments than for something as timeless (and consequently a little less lovable) than ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go.’ Like the sprawling, 36-track double album (they ditched the third disc) ‘Sandinista!’… 1982’s ‘Combat Rock’ and the way it annoyed their die-hard punk fan base… Their enduring proto dance-rock fusion… Or the image of the band sailing up the Thames bashing out ‘London Calling’. That would make the ultimate home-page for rememberthedyingdaysoftheseventies.com.

Author Keith Topping first saw The Clash live in 1978. Twenty-five years later his passion for the band doesn’t seem to have diminished one iota. He loves detail. If there was a Clash museum, Keith Topping would curate it. ‘The Complete Clash’ contains a song-by-song analysis of everything from 'Armagideon (sic) Time' to 'White Riot' and an almanac of the band’s 600 live performances and TV and film appearances.

Just as the circle ended – when the band received Ivor Novello Awards in 2001 - it looked set to roll again, only to be stopped dead in its tracks with Joe Strummer’s passing. The Complete Clash is as much a celebration as a fitting finale.

Vice Versa - The Neutron Archives (Ninthwave)

The north of England, 1979. Economically depressing. Musically exploding. Guitars were finished. Punk was decaying with the rest of London down south. In Sheffield, Kraftwerk were inspiring a new wave to make music with what now seem like such primitive technology. But at the time a Korg Micro Preset or a Roland JD8000 was the most futuristic musical instrument in the country. Fortunately this didn’t turn people the way of Wakeman or Roxy-era Eno – these keyboard players didn’t feel the need to wear silver space suits and wizard outfits. Instead they fused the new machines with attitude and song-writing of their time and surroundings. Urbana. The result: Sheffield spawned the Human League, Heaven 17, Caberet Voltaire, and Vice Versa.

Vice Versa were Martin Fry, Stephen Singleton and Mark White. Their music was explosive, electronic energy. Smash and grab techno twenty years ahead of time. Despite lasting just over two years, their output was comprehensive, buoyed on by the punk’s DIY ethos – which spawned Vice Versa tapes, cards, EPs manifestos, and seven inch singles, all on their own Neutron record label. Neutron’s ‘1980: The First Fifteen Minutes’ become a legendary UK indie single which packaged Vice Versa with early work from I’m So Hollow, the Stunt Kites, and Clock DVA. They followed with the ‘Music 4’ EP, especially notable for ‘Camille’ – a track of vocal cuts and synth drones. Perhaps the missing link between Byrne/Eno’s ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’ with The KLF’s ‘Chill Out’.

Other tracks here have been dusted down from the Neutron archives, before closing with Vice Versa’s final and most accomplished burst. A session for Rotterdam’s Backstreet/Backlash Records produced the ‘Stilyagi’ 7”, which went on to become a collectors item not least due to the trios imminent metamorphosis into something altogether different, of whih singleton explains, “Instead of writing about tower blocks and pylons, we wanted to use a lot of different influences. We wanted this kind of grandiose epic”…

Vice Versa became ABC and Fry, Singleton and White went on to write another chapter of pop history. First with everyone's classic 80s album, The Lexicon of Love, followed by the ‘80s most underrated classic, Beauty Stab. All this naturally detracted from their earlier work under the more anonymous guise of Vice Versa. There were no recognisable faces on Pete Hill’s “videograph” cover for ‘Stilyagi’. But when the needle hit the vinyl, fireworks erupted.

Various - Nataraja 2 (POF)

Shimmering, colourful and moving, Nataraja 2 catalogues the best of a relatively new art form - "la trance psychedelique". Building BPMs onto soundtrack vocal samples and layers upon layers of atmosphere has never sounded so effortless as on this latest edition from France's increasingly groovy POF label. 18 tracks across a superbly packaged 2-disc digipack set and available in the UK as a Virgin import. There's nothing hard-core about most of the tracks on this set - in fact the French techno scene oozes a thirst-quenchingly refreshing quality that sets it apart from it's German and, lately UK relatives. From the opener, Vaporum's 'The Platform', things take decidedly trippy turn. Remember Loengard's final LSD trip in the penultimate episode of 'Dark Skies'? Well this would have been the perfect backdrop! POF Records sit perfectly in the area of hypertension where psychedelia and futuristic high-paced dance beets mesh. Blue Planet Corporation, Joking Sphinx stand out and Universal Island take things to a logical, hypnotic conclusion. Disc 2 kicks of with a more artcore, rootsy approach before piling on the BPM and steering into French hi-NRG. Stand-out artists here are Toi Doi, Denshi Danshi and Imago. By the looks of the party pictures on the sleeve, trance is being taken to the next level in France. High times indeed. 8/10

Muslimgauze – Narcotic (Staalplaat)

It seems like never a month goes by without a new Muslimgauze release and their Dutch label, Staalplaat has even set up a subscription system where listeners can receive each new release, with the cost being deducted from their virtual balance. 'Narcotic' is full of Eastern promise and is probably one of Muslimgauze (a/k/a Bryn Jones) most colourful works to date. Think of the percussion you hear from world music artists like percussionist Hossam Ramzy (which often show up as samples in tracks by William Orbit and 808 State) and you're half way there. But this album is more than just a collection of samples, or a mere replication of other styles. There's a fusion going on that you can actually here developing across the first few tracks. The pounding rhythms of 'Medina Flight' soon give way to more Gulf Stream backstreet atmospheres on 'Ramadan' and 'Effendi'. But when the two merge (and some western production is brought into full effect) you get the most unlikely - yet truly unique - trance sound ever in tracks such as 'Believers of the Blind Sheikh' and 'Gulf Between Us'. This album rises to a climax with three different versions of the title track, the first a pulsating, repetitive eastern percussion work-out which - following an interlude - builds into perfect chill-out soundtrack music. Perfect for any club with an international attitude in its more laid back areas. 7/10

Colin Newman – Bastard (swim~)

An aeon after Wire - the seminal '70s guitar outfit - Bruce Gilbert is working with Elastica, but Colin Newman has just released his first solo album in over ten years and is mixing a new, melodic approach to drum & bass and elctronica. 'Sticky' is where it all starts - an edgy, beat-driven wind-down of a track that calms the listener, rather than prepare them for anything that might lay in store. Tracks such as 'May' show just what a boost being an accomplished guitarist can be when it comes to making cutting edge '90s trip-hop. Whereas the first obviously jungle-inspired piece 'Slowfast' (naturally subtitled 'Falling down the stairs with a drum kit'!) is a little naive and best avoided, 'Spiked' adds a funky live bass and drums to for a serious new angle on the genre. But Newman excels in tracks such as 'Without', which continue the thoughtful strands started earlier in the album. While it's easy to spot musical similarities with the artist's other projects - Immersion, wife Malka Spigel and his own Swim~ label being the main ones - this LP does achieve a logical progression. You can chill out and hear an evolution taking place. And the album title is certainly memorable, but how many people will have the nerve to ask for it at the record shop counter? 8/10

Charlemagne Palestine – Godbear (Barooni)

Caution: you should only read this review (and contemplating buying Godbear) if you regularly visit the outer limits and are open to the world of extreme possibilities. Coming out of the Netherlands' Barooni Records, this is one of the most enticing packages of the fortnight: a re-evaluation of Palestine's work from the seventies, which was recorded in the late eighties and finally released in the late nineties. But who on earth is Charlemagne Palestine? Well if the names La Monte Young, Philip Glass or Steve Reich ring any bells, read on. Along with those, Palestine was one of the originators of minimal music, an unplanned, escapist force that pre-dated ambient, unwittingly shaped techno and quietly oversaw everything that has happened since. The minimalists may be heald in high regard in left-field classical circles, but after all it was Glass that worked with S'Express and La Monte Young that challenged the boundaries of jazz before this whole contemporary dance thing started. And now there's Palestine, whose three pieces on this CD are performed purely on his fist love - the Bosendorfer Imperial Grand piano - and are dedicated to his other great passion, teddy bears. But minimalist only means a minimal regards for tradition as there is little time to chill out during the three lengthy pieces here - 'The Lower Depths', Strumming Music' and 'Timbral Assault'. Check this out if you dare. 8/10

Sukia - Contacto Espacial Con El Tercer Sexo (Mo'Wax)

Merging 60s US schlock with mellow 90s dance vibes, Sukia sound like nothing on Earth. But probably something on Mars. Contacto Espacial Con El Tercer Sexo mixes samples from weird B-movie classics into hypnotic grooves performed on Moogs, multi bass orchestras and Wurlitzers. Tracks such as 'The Dream Machine' and 'Feel N' Free' take this surf-style loungecore to it's inevitable, creepy conclusion, whereas other tracks ('Play Colt' and 'Gary Super Macho' being notable high points) are strange sound clashes. Imagine Miles Davis accidentally walking in on a Residents gig (and grooving to it) or the Ninja Tunes collective on a day out to a freak show with the B-52s during their cheesiest heights. Apparently inspired by a Colombian sleaze comic (I can believe it), this is Sukia's debut LP though it sounds like they've been around for years. And they deserve to be around for some time more, thanks not least to some hot home-grown remixes on offer here as bonus tracks. 9/10

Salaryman – Salaryman (City Slang)

Low-mono samples, Theremin, telephones, live TV snippets. These are just some of the low-tech elements used in creating the funky trip-hop muzak of Salaryman. Whereas most bands are striving to use the most high-tech and expensive equipment on the market, Salaryman are the sort of band you find recording tracks in old TV repair shops. And the finished result is intended for purely "basement" listening. Funky live drumming is mixed with keyboard jamming and there's a live feel throughout tracks like 'New Centurions' and the more hard-core 'Burning at the Stakes'. They're at their most accessible with tracks like 'Voids' and Superclusters' (full of epic big-beat histrionics) and 'Rather' (set for the 12" and remix treatment later this year). But the thing that makes this album - and band - unique is something which is more than extra instrument (in fact more like a fifth element). Through all seven tracks Salaryman use TV samples, recorded live and in one-take. Whatever was on TV during the recording process has become part of the finished product. This works to great effect on tracks like 'Inca Picnic' and 'Hummous' and takes the music into a whole new dimension. As the band recently told DJ, "The TV broadcasts ensure not only that each of our performances will be unique but also that each performance will contain an element that someone out of the performance arena will be able to participate in." So if you cant find this album in the shops, try the Innovations catalogue. 7/10

Red Light District - Red Light District London (Rising High)

The first in a series of five releases dedicated to the world's red light disctricts begins with London. Part 1 is a sleezy puslating techno track, Part 2 is split on a knife edge between the comic and the intimidating. It's all got a seedy air to it, but being totally instrumental some vocal samples/effects (however cliched) would have been fun!

Various - Chinese Whispers (Sprawl)

In the last breath of the millennium, it's beginning to become clear that DJs have become the curators of modern music and with that remixers are the most important artists. At least that was the view from the likes of DJ Spooky and Brian Eno at last year's Hypersymposium at the South Bank's 'Now You See It' festival. Perhaps the proof (hit the roof) of the pudding will be in the listening to Chinese Whispers from the Sprawl collective. Here a host of celebs from the Sprawl club (bang down the door) have spent a whole year remixing mixes of each other.

This is a compilation reminiscent of Endlessnessism, which appeared last year on Sweden's Dot Records and actually billed itself as "the musical equivalent of Chinese whispers or an Olympic relay race". On this compilation, Si Begg, Subtropic, T-Power, Stereolab, Sons Of Silence, Bedouin Ascent, Ultramarine, Mike Paradinas and Slang are all in evidence. But is it actually music? Well the mix from Slang certainly is - very mixable and down to earth. Mike Paradinas turns in something as confidently mad as you would expect, as do Ultramarine. T-Power's track is truly experimental and, like Si Begg's, beat-based yet always pushing the envelope.such albums of thought and theme plugged into one mixed-up melting pot of beginning, middle and end really be the future? Total recycling! The musical equivalent of what we do with air and water every day. Fingers crossed Chinese Whispers itself becomes an on-going project - here's to Volume 2. 10/10

Fridge - Eph (Go Beat)

Fridge have promised much since their bizarre debut album, Ceefax and certain improvements to their sound are instantly obvious on Eph. They've gone from recording tracks in minutes in their front room to extending the recording process in the more salubrious environment of a recently built home studio in London's swinging Clerkenwell (also home to Mixmaster Morris). The resulting vibes are more like beaten-up Bond epics ('Ark') than the made-for-TV specials of Ceefax.

'Meum' is very much back to their roots. Tumbling acoustic drums and scrambled guitars, but with now with an added thematic resonance. Eph also has a rather old fashioned air in that it's only forty two minutes long and their latest single 'Kinoshita Terasaka' isn’t included. Which is a pity as it was a blinder. Perhaps they'll save it for another compilation, a la last years self-explanatory 'Sevens And Twelves' CD set. Other stand-out tracks include the one minute wonder of 'Tuum' and the lush 'Yttrium'.

And if you're into this LP, make a point of checking out Four Tet's recent long player, Dialogue (Output) released a couple of months ago as an off-shoot project from Fridge's Kieran Hebden. 6.5/10

Anne Dudley - Ancient And Modern (Echo)

One half of the Art of Noise takes time off from her self-confessed hack actibities of TV soundtracks and session string arrangements for this beautiful orchestral soundscape. New arrangements and compositions rub shoulders with traditional classical pieces. Overall Dudley avoids any musical references to AoN (which is where her egyptian opus with Jaz Coleman fell down for me). This has a pure and captivating edge that will keep you listening for the duration.

The Scourge of the Earth - My Pastie Weighs a Ton (Warner ESP)

The Black Dog is the sort of artist that, just as you are wondering what they're doing or where they've been, come back at you with the – always surprising - answers. Last time it was a set of remixes of Lalo Schrifrin's Bullitt theme. Yes, the 60's movie, recently used in the Ford Puma ad.. Now we are presented with a collaboration with Israeli vocal sculptress Ofra Haza, with a raft of remixes from Lazonby, Terminalhead, Scanner and an obscure genius masquerading under the pseudonym of The Scourge Of The Earth. I think I'll raise a few eyebrows when I "exclusively" reveal that said Scourge is the latest trading name of none other than The KLF's Jimmy Cauty. And it's a classic return to form - screaming babies, warplanes, tanks, bombs and all!

But Who Exactly is the Black Dog? They are very keen on "dis/information" so it's difficult to sort the wood from the trees. Black Dog definitely has nothing to do with the classic breakbeat diva track of the same name by D*Note. Or Plaid, the breakaway group who are currently enslaved to touring with Orbital. Or the grizzly action adventure film of the same name starring Patrick Swayze and Meatloaf. Oh no. Black Dog definitely IS behind the breakthrough elctronique albums, Bytes, The Temple Of Transparent Balls, Spanners and Music For Adverts (And Short Films). And the Dog is certainly behind obscure leftfield remixes of the likes of Bjork, Blondie, Neds Atomic Dustbin, the Moody Boys and U.N.C.L.E.. Or maybe it’s the other way round...

As for Babylon, the music is like nothing I've heard before. Egyptian downbeat, anyone? Ofra Haza's vocalisings, frankly, haven't changed much since Paid in Full. But at least here they're used in a fresh way, so maximum points to the Dog and "nul" points to Mystery Year favorites the Sisters of Mercy, whose Temple Of Love track with Ofra is pastiche Goth-rock. Regardless of all the celeb remixes on offer, the original shines through as the first pre-millennial single to raid the 20th century for emotion from every continent.

Scanner's remix is very standard - but shouldn’t be overlooked. Scanner's The Garden Is Full Of Metal album from last year was a gem. A multimedia ambient tribute to his friend Derek Jarman. For maximum DJ cool, skip to the Terminalhead mix, with which Nick Warren recently opened his set at Cream. Peter Lazonby is also in the mix on this CD and apparently described his interpretation as "my best work to date", although you should be the judge of that.

'Babylon' is a rare confusing epic. If the Jimmy Cauty remix can make it stand out into the mainstream, there’s a shock in store for all the ears out there glued to 1FM.