Retrovision: Communards- So Cold The Night

Wire- Object 47

'Object 47' is another fine album in the history of the English post punk band Wire, so called because it is the 47th item in the Wire discography. It's the first Wire album without the participation of lead guitarist Bruce Gilbert. It was released on July 7th, 2008 in the UK and on July 15th in the US.

Instant Hit: Shriekback- The Big Hush

In 1985, Shriekback released their third studio album Oil and Gold which featured one of Shriekback's best song ever recorded and our absolute favorite tune by the band. Sadly, it was never released as a single, but it was featured in Michael Mann's 1986 film Manhunter.

Mydolls- A World of Her Own- Q&A

The Houston Punk band Mydolls have released a two box CD which features their material from 1978-1986.Consisting of three women and one man, they combined their driving rhythmic sounds with clever and insightful socially aware lyrics infused with feminist observations. This double disc collection features their 1981 3 song 7" EP, 1982 2 song demo, 1982 "Imposter"/"Exorcism" 7", 1983 "Speak Softly, But Carry A Big Stick" 12" EP, 3 song 1983 demo, 1983 track off the "Cottage Cheese From The Lips Of Death" comp LP, 1 song 1984 demo, previously unreleased 3 song 1985/1986 demo, various live cuts from 1981, 1983, and 1984, and an 11 track 1980 demo featuring previously unreleased songs along with early versions of songs that were later re recorded. 24 page booklet includes a detailed band history as well as photos and lyrics.

This is a very special interview with Trish Herrera, the creator of the band Mydolls, done for the Burning Flame Blog.

Beck-Modern Guilt

'Modern Guilt' is the title of the eighth studio album by American musician Beck. It will be released on July 8, 2008 (his 38th birthday). The album will fulfill Beck's recording contract with Interscope Records, while outside of North America, the record will be released by XL Recordings.'Modern Guilt' features two contributions by Cat Power and is produced by Danger Mouse.

Primal Scream- Beautiful Future

'Beautiful Future' is Primal Scream’s ninth studio album and their first for B-Unique. The album was produced by Björn Yttling [Peter, Björn and John] and Paul Epworth. The first single "Can’t Go Back" was released on July 14th. The album features guest collaborations from Lovefoxx of CSS, Josh Homme from Queens Of the Stone Age and folk legend Linda Thompson. As you would expect from one of Britain’s most exciting and inventive bands 'Beautiful Future' displays a heady mix of genre crunching taking in Philly soul, dark electro, accelerated rock'n'roll riffs and pure British pop all given that particular Scream edge.

primal-scream-s-beautiful-future,hangout.altsounds

Instant Hit: R.E.M. - Computer Communication

"Computer Communication" was the only release for the Italian group R.E.M., which was Italo-disco and more electronically oriented with vocoder inputs. The single was issued through Xanadu Records in 1983, with the remix version of the song included as the B-side.

WAW: The Last Shadow Puppets- Age of Understatement

John Foxx

John Foxx is the stage name of an English musician Dennis Leigh. Originally he was the lead singer of the first Ultravox lineup, before starting a solo career in 1979. Primarily associated with synthesizer music, he also pursued a parallel career in graphic design and education.

John Foxx began early to experiment with tape recorders and synthesizers. In 1973 he formed a band that would eventually be called Tiger Lily. The band played frequently around London in the mid seventies. After few name changes Tiger Lily was transformed in Ultravox! with an exclamation mark. Ultravox released three albums with Foxx as the lead singer including 'System of Romance', often regarded as the first synth pop album. In the beginning of 1979 Ultravox was dropped by their record label and the band came to parting of the ways during their tour. John announced his plan to go solo.

“The band thing is a phase – like being in a gang. You can’t really be part of a gang all your life; it begins to feel undignified and it stunts your growth, unless you want to be a teenager forever. Some do. Some don’t. The benefits were the Gestalt - where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, a very powerful experience - and working in a closed society with people who have the same aim”.Foxx for barcodezine.com

After signing to Virgin Records Foxx achieved minor chart success with his first solo single “Underpass”.This single was the third track on Foxx' all-synthetic sounding debut album 'Metamatic', released in the same year. The next LP 'Garden' followed in 1981 and this recording saw a departure of the electronic sound we were used to listen to on 'Metamatic'. 'Garden' was bearing a greater resemblance to Foxx' swansong with Ultravox' 'System of Romance'. The Garden's starting point was in fact a song called "Systems of Romance", written by Foxx for the earlier album but not released at the time. His third solo album 'In Mysterious Ways' was released in 1985 and it did not bring any commercial success and neither did it bring any progression in the music of John Foxx. Compared to the career of the new Ultravox, Foxx' career always remained in shadows. After 'In Mysterious Ways', Foxx gave up his public career in pop music. He sold his recording studio and returned to his earlier work as graphic artist, working under his original name.

In the early 90's Foxx made some brief appearances in the music scene by doing some collaborations and writing music for computer games. In 1997 Foxx made a return to the music scene with the simultaneous release of two albums, 'Shifting City' and 'Cathedral Oceans'. 'Shifting City' was a collaboration with Manchester's Louis Gordon, an updated stylistic return to Foxx' Metamatic synth pop sound that also displayed the influence of 1990s underground dance music and the 'triphop' style. 'Cathedral Oceans', on the other hand, was a solo John Foxx record, an ambient return to his Catholic youth and his love of the cathedrals of England and Europe. Its roots included traditional evensong, Gregorian Chant, Brian Eno, Harold Budd, and German band Cluster.

In April 2005 Foxx guested on Finnish DJ Jori Hulkkonen's album 'Dualizm', where he provided vocals for "Dislocated" which Hulkkonen had written especially for him. Two years later, in December 2007, Foxx exhibited some of his photographic works in an exhibition called Cinemascope at the Coningsby Gallery in West London. The works were part of three collections, "Grey Suit Music", "Tiny Colour Movies" and "Cathedral Oceans".

Notwist- The Devil, You + Me

"The Devil, You + Me" is the sixth studio album by German pop-electronic outfit The Notwist. It was released on 2 May 2008 in Europe and 17 June 2008 in the United States. The album contains eleven 11 tracks and features collaborations with the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra. The first single will be "Where in This World" and a promo video has been released to the media.