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Showing posts with label Visage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Visage. Show all posts

Thursday, 29 August 2024

Visage - Hearts And Knives (2013)

Hearts and Knives is the fourth studio album by the British synth-pop band Visage. It was released on 20 May 2013 and was the band's first album of new material in 29 years

In January 2013, Visage announced their new line-up to consist of vocalist and founding member Steve Strange, bassist Steve Barnacle (who had worked with the band on their 1984 album Beat Boy), Robin Simon (former guitarist in Ultravox and Magazine) and Lauren Duvall on vocals. 
The band's official website confirmed that former Visage/Magazine keyboardist Dave Formula and former Simple Minds keyboardist Mick MacNeil have also contributed to the album.
They say what goes around comes around, and the new Visage album sounds like the past 30 years failed to happen. Steve Strange is back and Hearts And Knives is a supremely engaging diversion, a credible addition to Visage’s slender catalogue. 
With long-time contributor Steve Barnacle, original Ultravox! guitarist Robin Simon, new vocalist Lauren Duvall, guests Dave Formula from Magazine and original Simple Minds keyboard player Mick Macneill, the album was recorded on pre-1985 equipment. And, considering all that he’s been through, Strange’s voice still sounds relatively angelic.
No, not a reissue of one of the 80s new-romantic band's early albums, but their first album in 29 years. Led by the fittingly named Steve Strange - and most famous for 1980 track Fade To Grey - Visage were one of the pioneers of the scene that helped popularise bands like Ultravox, Duran Duran and ABC. 
Hearts and Knives is a solid album steeped in nostalgia. So don't expect any modern twist on music's new-romantic period. It sure starts out on high beam with Never Enough, which has a hint of a synth hook akin to Donna Summer's I Feel Love. 
Dreamer I Know is delightful, like a cross between Erasure and Spandau Ballet, and I Am Watching jaunts along in a dainty electro-disco style, and then branches out with everything from cheesy guitar wails to playful synth runs. The standout is the tougher, slightly twisted electronic rock of last track Diaries Of A Madman.
It’s all about referencing the past with an eye to the future. Lost In Static has the deftness of touch of Simple Minds’ best work, while Simon’s jangling guitar recalls the arpeggiated riffs of original Visage guitarist John McGeoch. She’s Electric even uses the same drum machine part that opened Fade To Grey and On We Go has the synth shudder of Vienna. With a sleeve by Peter Ashworth, this reunion album’s left nothing to chance. Hearts And Knives sounds as if it were the follow-up to The Anvil.

The make-up and "Fade to Grey"-style mask seen on the front cover were created by Lara Himpelmann, and the cover shot was taken by photographer Peter Ashworth, who supplied the black and white photograph that artist Iain Gillies utilized to paint the picture that was the cover of Visage's debut album in 1980. 
The new logo and graphics have been designed by The Nick Foot Studio.


Tracklist

1.  Never Enough - 4:02
      Written-By – John Bryan, Rich Mowatt, Robin Simon, Sare Havlicek, Steve Strange
2.  Shameless Fashion - 4:24
      Written-By – Ben Woods, John Bryan, Nigel Summers, Rich Mowatt, Robin Simon, Steve Strange
3.  She's Electric (Coming Around) - 3:45
      Written-By – John Bryan, Josh Legg, Kyle Petersen, Mick MacNeil, Steve Strange
4.  Hidden Sign - 5:30
      Written-By – John Bryan, Julie Scott, Rich Mowatt, Sare Havlicek, Steve Barnacle, Steve Strange
5. On We Go - 4:23
     Written-By – Guy Hatfield, John Bryan, John Graham, Robin Simon, Steve Strange
6.  Dreamer I Know - 3:41
      Written-By – Arno Carstens, John Bryan, Martin Glover, Mick MacNeil, Steve Strange
7.  Lost In Static - 5:07
      Written-By – Christian Kennerney, Greg Benns, John Bryan, Marco di Carlo, Robin Simon, Steve Strange
8.  I Am Watching - 4:09
      Written-By – John Bryan, John Graham, Robin Simon, Sare Havlicek, Steve Strange
9.  Diaries Of A Madman - 2:55
      Written-By – Dave Formula, Ross Tregenza, Steve Strange
10.  Breathe Life - 3:01
        Written-By – Steve Barnacle, Steve Strange


Companies, etc.

Credits
Notes
Released:  May 20, 2013
Genre:  Electronic
Style:  New Wave, Synth-pop
Length:  41:03

Label - Blitz Club Records

Thursday, 19 February 2015

Visage - Beat Boy (1984)

Visage were a British synthpop band, formed in London in 1978. The band became closely linked to the burgeoning new romantic fashion movement of the early 1980s, and are best known for their hit "Fade to Grey".
“Beat Boy” was the third studio album. The album was recorded and released after lead singer Steve Strange decided to make Visage a live band instead of being solely a studio-based project, a decision that left him working only with drummer Rusty Egan and a trio of newer musicians. Almost completely without most of the high-profile sidemen like Midge Ure, keyboardist Billy Currie and bassist Barry Adamson who'd played such a big role in crafting the group's lush, haunting synth pop. Undeterred, Strange and Egan recruited a new lineup that gave a prominent role to saxophonist Gary Barnacle. But the real shock to fans was the shrieking, metallic guitar that appeared on most cuts, an intrusion that seemed completely at odds with the suave, continental image suggested by past hits like "Fade to Grey" and "The Damned Don't Cry." In fact, the guitar muscle worked surprisingly well when simply overlaid atop the group's familiar dance pulse, as on the title track and "The Promise." But straight-up rockers like the endless "Only the Good (Die Young)" and "Casualty" featured a lethal combination of ham-handed riffs and dumb lyrics, thoroughly alienating the blitz kids who'd once packed the London discos Strange and Egan ran. Those fans made a club hit of the melodic "Love Glove," the closest thing here to Visage's classic sound, but ignored the rest, making Beat Boy a disappointing swan song for the group. Yet despite the uneven songwriting, hindsight showed that Strange's ear for the next big trend hadn't deserted him. The next year, the success of Duran Duran offshoot the Power Station had synth poppers on both sides of the Atlantic scurrying to rough up their dance tracks with heavy guitar. Perhaps in this case, the colorfully costumed Strange who later displayed his sartorial sense in a new band, Strange Cruise, before largely bowing out of the music biz was just too far in front of the fashion curve.

Track listing

01. "Beat Boy"  (Barnacle, Barnett, Egan, Dave Formula, Strange)  - 6:46
02. "Casualty"  (Barnacle, Barnett, Egan, Strange)  - 5:28
03. "Questions"  (Barnacle, Egan, Strange)  - 6:11
04. "Only the Good (Die Young)"  (Barnacle, Barnett, Billy Currie, Egan, Formula, Strange)  - 5:58
05. "Can You Hear Me"  (Barnacle, Egan, Strange)  - 6:29
06. "The Promise"  (Barnacle, Barnett, Egan, Strange)  - 3:59
07. "Love Glove"   (Barnacle, Egan, Strange)  - 4:45
08. "Yesterday's Shadow"   (Barnacle, Egan, Strange)  - 6:29

Visage
Steve Strange – lead vocals
Andy Barnett – guitar
Steve Barnacle – bass
Gary Barnacle – saxophone
Rusty Egan – drums, electronic drum

Additional personnel
Billy Currie – keyboards
Dave Formula – keyboards
Marsha Raven – backing vocals
Karen Ramsey – backing vocals
Rose Patterson – backing vocals
Producer -  Visage

Notes
Recorded at: Trident Studios, London
Genre:  Synthpop, New Wave
Length:  40:33
Label:  Polydor Records

© 1984