Here comes the first singles round up, summer edition. These are mostly new comers for us but we also see some interesting comebacks. Like every month, we celebrate the diversity of sounds and styles.
Private World - Hypnagogia
Zero Call - Stellar Wind
The Midnight - Dance with Somebody
Gus Gus - Out of Place
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Cameo Ängie, Harrison First - Basic
The Cardiff based Private World have revealed the video for their first single "Hypnagogia" which is going to be taken from their debut album Aleph to be released end of August through Dais Records. This very stylish video was directed by Sion Thomas.
After 9 years, the dark minimal synth duo Alison Lewis and Ryan Ambridge have reunited for the second album titled LP II. The album is announced for release in September whereas the first single "Solar Flare" and the full track listing have already been revealed on Bandcamp. All these years in between, Alison has been busy with her solo project Zanias and Keluar with Sid Lamar.
Nation of Language is one of the outstanding synth pop acts in 2020 to release their debut album. The Brooklyn based trio made their first appearance with the "Nation of Language" EP in 2015 which was followed by a string of single releases. Now, most of this singles have been incorporated into their debut album Introduction, Presence. The band draws inspiration from 80's New wave and Post punk when synth pop evolved from experimental to a commercial music genre. High praised by the music critics, they manage to deliver retro synth pop, by giving their own personal note. "Friend Machine" has been put forward as the lead single from the album and can be streamed below.
It is almost ten years now since A Terrible Splendour released their marvelous "Slaves to the City" tune and their New Romantic half, a good friend Lyle, has recently been experimenting with synth pop on a solo basis as Marcel Wave. The video for the new song "The Moon King" was revealed on Monday. This pleasant piece of synth pop takes us on an artistic and cinematic trip in the realm of The Moon King. The b-side isn't less interesting as it is Marcel Wave take on the French classic "Les Nuits Sans Kim Wilde", originally performed by Laurent Voulzy The video for the song was created with the help of another old friend, Soft Riot's very own Mr Jack Duckworth (JJD). We hope to hear and see more creative collaboration materializing from these two.
I Like Trains have returned with a new single "The Truth" which is also announcing the release of their fifth studio album Kompromat to be released in August. The music video for "The Truth" was premiered recently and it was directed by directed by Michael Connolly.
Duran Duran have been around for four decades now, with great music and a whole variety of styles and transformations. Formed in Birmingham in 1978, they were broadly speaking a New Wave band that rode the New Romantic trend to end up as the leading force in the Second British Invasion of the US in the early 80’s. If you didn’t hear them on the radio, you saw them on TV as they were the ultimate poster boys for a whole new generation. With their fancy good looks and sharp fashion styles, they mastered the medium of the music video and in a way became MTV’s best ambassadors. At the height of their career, they were even referred to as the new "Fab Five" who managed to blend glam, disco and punk, making rock music ready for dance floors.
The group was formed by keyboardist Nick Rhodes and bassist John Taylor, with the later addition of drummer Roger Taylor, and after numerous personnel changes, guitarist Andy Taylor and lead singer Simon Le Bon joined, which eventually became the band’s classic line-up. The group never disbanded, but underwent several line-up changes throughout their career, which also resulted in several offshoot projects, both in the 80’s and 90’s, including The Power Station, Arcadia, The Devils and TV Mania.
Duran Duran have released 14 studio albums and 39 singles in total. Their best-selling albums are Rio, released in 1982, and Seven and the Ragged Tiger from 1983. These two albums also contain Duran Duran’s most successful singles, “Hungry Like the Wolf” and “Rio” and “The Reflex”, and also mark the band’s classic era. The group have had 14 singles in the UK Singles Chart top 10 and 21 in the US Billboard Hot 100, selling over 100 million records worldwide.
Even though their career peaked way back in the 80’s, the band has been around in the last decade, teaming up with a great line-up of producers and artists. Their album All You Need Is Now was even released to critical acclaim. We are positive that their musical story is not over yet and expect the 20’s to bring new, exciting prospects.
The seven selected tracks which are featured below do not necessarily reflect our favorite Duran Duran tunes, although they have a slight tendency to this. Moreover these are milestone records with interesting stories behind the music, video production or something else. And of course the idea of this feature is to have the whole artist career and discography on display.
"Planet Earth" is Duran Duran’s futuristic debut single released in January 1981. It was fairly a hit in their native UK, but also did surprisingly well in Australia where the band was relatively unknown. Hailing from Birmingham which was also considered as one of the strongholds of the New Romantic movement, the band illustrated such visual image with flamboyant and eccentric fashion style as well as by the sharp and atmospheric synth sound of which was typical for this genre.
Girls on Film (1981)
The wild "Girls on Film" finally got the band a breakthrough in the UK top 10 and the controversial music video for the song, which beside others, featured a naked female models in a pillow fight, certainly helped in gaining prominence. It was too hot and spicy for early MTV's and also got banned on BBC, but an edited version was adjusted to keep the high up in the daily airplay. Over the years, "Girls on Film" has become a staple of the encores for
Duran Duran's live performances.
Save A Prayer (1982)
The release of Duran Duran’s second album Rio and its success meant slowly parting from the New Romantic, more towards a jet set image style. With more investment in their visual image the group went to travel around the world, in between touring, and delivered vivid travelogues with their music videos. The video for “Save a Prayer” was recorded in Sri Lanka illustrating the island's monuments and beauties on a bed of dreamy synths and flirty guitars.
Rio (1982)
Next stop for Duran Duran was the Caribbean sea and the beauties of Antigua where the band recorded their video for the song “Rio”. It looked like a luxurious yacht ride with the group members wearing Antony Price suits while some of them even got seasick. The song was driven on a carbonated synthesizer and bass was breaking on the tenor sax waves. The b-side song “Chauffeur” also received the video interpretation and it was the completely opposite if “Rio”, dark and intriguing more akin to the Depeche Mode catalogue of late 80’s.
New Moon on Monday (1983)
Band’s commercial success followed with the release of their third album Seven and the RaggedTiger when Duran Duran grew into a full-on teen heart-throb status. Their single “New Moon on Monday” was not the most successful single to be taken from this album, yet it remains as one of Duran Duran’s all-time favorites. In the music video, the band appear as members of an underground resistance movement in France.
Ordinary World (1992)
After some boisterous years in the first half of the 80’s a more quiet period followed for Duran Duran in which the band member worked on different projects. When the band reunited – now under a different line up – they could not really regain the old popularity until the release of “Ordinary World” in 1992. The song was a surprise hit when no one really expected it could make such an impact when Grunge and Brit pop artists were ruling the charts. By the release of “Ordinary World”, Warren Cuccurullo was already a standard member of the band and he arranged the remarkable guitar solo in the song. He remained in the band until the end of the 90’s.
Girl Panic (2011)
Duran Duran were having another career peak in 2011 with the release of their 13th studio album All You Need is Now which seemed like a return to the old charm. "Girl Panic" was the second single to be released from the album and it was released on Record Store Day. The music video was directed by Jonas Åkerlund featured appearances of 90's top models Naomi Campbell, Eva Herzigova, Cindy Crawford, Helena Christensen, and Yasmin Le Bon who were portraying Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, Roger Taylor, and Dominic Brown, respectively.
Singles cover photos courtesy of discogs.com
For the complete Duran Duran discography, as documented in music videos, please check the following playlist below.
XTR Human are a three piece Post Punk outfit from Berlin who are just up for their second album Interior. The band has already been around during the last decade when they released their debut album Atavism in 2014. XTR Human manage to catch the best influences and musical heritage from previous decades, but also keeping up the pace with the best contemporaries. Most of the album is influenced by cold atmospheric post punk fueled by the throbbing bass and energetic vocals while it also has playful synth sections which relaxes off a bit the tense dark atmosphere on the album.
The album has been released on May 29th and is available on band's Bandcamp page.
The German experimental band Einstürzende Neubauten which is now around for forty years have released a new studio album titled Alles in Allem. The album which is out on Potomak, has so far been promoted with two singles "Ten Grand Goldie" and the title track "Alles in Allem".
Jarvis Cocker is back with his music project Jarv Is. The debut album for this new project Beyond The Pale which actually started in back 2017 is announced for release this summer. "House Music All Night Long" is the first single to be taken from this album and it was released in March. Below is the official video and another one with the band performing.
May seems to have been pretty much affected by the Covid-19 pandemic even though in most parts of the world the measures have been lifted and relaxed to allow the functioning of every day life. Musically May has been sort of long and slow and with fewer releases and certainly the biggest event the release of Lady Gaga's new album Chromatica. What more caught our attention please check below.
Nikki Nevver of the Terror Bird fame is back with an new and exciting music project, Subterranean Lovers.
For all the fans, her first LP is now available for pre-order on Bandcamp.
The album has eight new tracks including the gloomy and dreamy lead single "Past the Mourning" which has been remixed by Maya Postepski of Austra and TR/ST fame. Acoustic driven, the debut is lush, atmospheric art pop with strong vocals typical of Nikki Nevver and certainly a must for fans of Lana Del Rey or Angel Olsen melancholia.
Nikki has granted us the preview of her new video which is going to be premiered soon. The colour LP pressing will be limited to 300 hand-numbered colour vinyl copies and the first 100 ordered will have a surprise inside.
Order the album here: http://subterraneanloversmusic.bandcamp.com/
Joy Division's second album Closer has been reissued as part of the 40th Anniversary as limited edition ‘crystal clear’ vinyl LP. The three non-album singles,"Transmission", "Atmosphere" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart", are also being reissued as 12" singles at the same time as the album. The reissue is set for release on July 18th. This release also marks 40 years of Ian Curtis' death who died on May 18th 1980.
Following their debut EP release from 2018, the French Post punk quartet Structures have returned with a new single this year called "Sorry, I Know It's Late But….". Influenced by 80's Post punk and 90's Brit pop, they manage to deliver a very dynamic indie rock sound they like to call "Rough Wave". Along with Protomartyr and Fontaines D.C. among the best music of this sort on the music market in this moment. Their debut album How Does It Feel? is announced for release in September.
The Detroit based Protomartyr are returning with a new studio album in July. The album is titled Ultimate Success Today and it is their first release since 2017. They have already revealed two singles "Processed By The Boys" in March and the current one "Worm in Heaven" for which the video was premiered on April 28th. The video was directed and Photographed by Trevor Naud.
April seems to be the first month this year that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as there has been far less releases than this time this time in the previous years. However there are still some fine tunes here and there. We already wrote about the Gorillaz Song Machine series and SOKO in addition to these releases the Strokes adopt even more synth for a very playful "Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus". The Dears and Porcelain Raft announce new albums with first single outputs. What else was on our radar, check below.
The Strokes - Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus
Porcelain Raft - Come Rain
The Dears - The Worst in Us
Angelo De Augustine - Santa Barbara
Car Seat Headrest - Hollywood
Declan McKenna - The Key to Life on Earth
The Magnetic Fields - (I Want to Join A) Biker Gang
The Canadian indie rock outfit The Dears have returned this year with a new single and also announced the release of their eight studio album Lovers Rock. The album will be released in Mid May and is currently promoted with the single "The Worst in Us".
Gorillaz have returned this year with a series of EPs entitled 'Song Machine'. Structure wise, each EP consists of a lead track and "Machine Bitez". EP 3 in particular caught our attention as the lead track "Aries" has been done in collaboration with Peter Hook and Georgia. The New Order bass line is very evident here and if this was not a Gorillaz track, one could guess that Damon Albarn has provided guest vocals on a New Order track.
The Los Angeles based SOKO returns this month with a brand new album, her third, entitled 'Feel Feelings'. Two singles have already been released as singles including "Are You A Magician" for which the video was directed by Gia Coppola.
We are going through a difficult piece of history at the moment that affects us all. In this tough times music remains our best companion. Beside the already featured releases in single posts, here are some interesting tune that will hopefully make stay at home easier. This month we see the return of The Killers, Bright Eyes and Lebanon Hanover.
