Behind The Mask with コピーYMO
Here’s a nice new video featuring one of my favorite synth acts – Yellow Magic Orchestra
This strange message was accompanying the video, if anyone knows what it means, please let us know 
“Previously I UP, UP was again!” (Googlish japanese)
Tom Artrocker interviews Gary Numan
Check out this exclusive footage of electro legend and serial Artrocker cover star Gary Numan talking to Tom Artrocker…
“And it is interesting to note that Numan has now unequivocally the king of This Kind Of Thing. Nine Inch Nails have retired (notably Numan was a star guest at a handful of the farewell shows, coming on stage to perform Cars and Metal with Trent Reznor). Marilyn Manson has slumped into cocaine bleached self parody. Al Jourgensen of Ministry and Revolting Cocks stumbles from one ill-conceived schlocky album to the next. The Young Gods have sadly lost the spark that once made them true innovators. This leaves Numan, who is significantly older than all of them bar Jourgensen, weirdly as one of the only credible practitioners of industrial metal at this scale.”
New video interview with John Foxx, Tara Busch and Benge
Background data:
We recently posted an excellent stage tour from the John Foxx and the Maths gig at London’s XOYO Club. Benge took us around selected highlights of the live rig used to reproduce the latest (and brilliant) release from Foxx titled Interplay. Its a lesson in how to produce minimal, dark electronica but with a healthy dose pop – recommended.
Also shot on the day of the gig was a three way chat between Tara Busch – who was supporting for the UK section of the tour, Benge – musical collaborator for John’s recent works and live drummer for the show and of course John Foxx himself.
Many thanks to Tara Busch for the interview
Via SS
Tim Blake – Interview and Passage sur la Cité … 1979
Tim Blake interviewed and playing for French TV in 1979 ..
Composer, Performer – Sound & Light Artist since 1970 Tim has been based in France since 1971. One of Europe’s first synthesiser players, working as Crystal Machine, as well as collaborating with cult Space Rock bands
GONG & HAWKWIND
Tim’s attitude to electronics has profoundly marked the sound of electronic et rock music from the late ’70′s to this day, resulting in a discography of more than 25 titles, including 5 solo albums . Tim has greatly influenced the musiciens he has collaborated with, in particular
STEVE HILLAGE & JEAN-PHILIPPE RYKIEL
Light work with long-time partener PATRICE WARRENER, Has totally changed the world of Light Shows & Illumination, with the Introduction in the the very early ’70′s of LASER light in Crystal Machine performances, as well as the introduction of Giant Image projection, with the HOLD-UP Team as early as 1976. Tim continues to collaborate with Patrice on projects using his CHROMOLITHE POLYCHROMIC ILLUMINATION SYSTEM as well as on some Crystal Machine performances.
Despite beeing very seriously injured in a car accident in 2004, Tim, totally fit at last, is currently touring with HAWKWIND, (with whom he performs on Theremin and ‘Virtual Lead Guitar’) performing also as Crystal Machine, in particular with Jean-Philippe Rykiel, as well as participating in some of Europe’s major Light events , with Patrice.
John Foxx and the Maths on tour video
Sonic State has produced this video featuring the synth maestro himself on stage and behind the scenes, here’s a quote from article:
The thing that really hit me, was the power and purity of the sound and the songs. With Benge (musical collaborator on Interplay) playing the Simmons SDS V analog drum kit, the sounds were MASSIVE and really made me rethink my opinions of electronic music played live. I became rather evangelical.
Fast forward to London and the first of two gigs at XOYO further into the UK leg of the tour. We were able to grab a few precious minutes post sound check with Benge, who gave us a look at some of the gear used to recreate Interplay live, as well as some earlier tunes from the Foxx catalog.
Stay tuned for a pre-show interview with John Foxx, Benge and Tara Bush.
For those of you who wants to know more about John check out our interview with him here >>
Synth-maestro Morton Subotnick on tour in Europe
Electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick performs at Berlin’s 11th Transmediale, a festival of Experimental sound and visuals.
Subotnick combines the famed Buchla synthesizer, which he helped develop in the 60s, with Ableton Live, to reach what he says is, “a performance that is made of gestures, and that is completely immediate.”
The American Morton Subotnick is one of the great pioneers of synthesizer music. His most famous piece Silver Apples From The Moon is a classic of the new electronic music. In Bremen, accompanied Tony Martin, who experimented since the 60s with abstract images projected light from the concert with his projections. In the opening act of the Belgian Jurgen de Blonde with his project Koehn is heard.
Concert and Lecture Tour 2011
October 14 and 15
Morton Subotnick performs and lectures
at the Unsound Festival in Krakow
October 17
Morton Subotnick performs at Bozar
in Brussels, Belgium.
October 18
Morton Subotnick performs
in Paris, France.
October 19
Morton Subotnick performs at Worm
in Rotterdam, Holland
October 20
Morton Subotnick performs
in Bremen, Germany.
October 21
Morton Subotnick lectures
and workshops at the University of Bremen,
in Bremen, Germany.
October 22
Morton Subotnick performs at ZDB,
in Lisbon, Portugal.
John Foxx And The Maths live on stage
John Foxx And The Maths performing ‘He’s A Liquid’ at the Roundhouse, London in 2010
For full details of this month’s Interplay Tour (October 2011) please visit www.johnfoxxandthemaths.com
www.metamatic.com
Don’t forget to read our recently made interview with John Foxx >>
Worlds in a small room – interview with Steve Jansen (former member of Japan)
Steelberry Clones had the great opportunity to talk to Steve Jansen during his recent visit to Sweden. Steve Jansen was former percussionist in the legendary 1980’s new romantic act Japan (also featuring David Sylvian, Richard Barbieri and Mick Karn). After the band decided to quit in 1982 Steve has embarked on a long and successful journey, some times in collaboration with his brother David Sylvian on his solo albums, sometimes in more unknown appearances together with Japanese artists like Yukohiro Takahashi (YMO), but also driving more pop orientated endeavors with the Dolphin Brothers, which he started together with Richard Barbieri. Steve Jansen has at many occasions been dubbed as one of the most important percussionist of his time, and the characteristic sound that gave way for their all time selling album Tin Drum, has provided him with the opportunity to play with most of the leading artists since then. I wanted to know more on what has happened since then, his views on today’s music scene and the evolution of electronic music, as well as discovering his more recent works in the border lands between pop, ambient, arts and experimental music.
Today’s music scene
Steve Jansen is a highly productive musician, if it is not something on his own doing you will certainly find Steve in collaborations with David Sylvian, John Foxx, or as part of the band on tour with Ryuichi Sakamoto in Japan. So I asked Steve to give me an update on what he is up to right now and his collaboration with Sugizo.
Most recently Steve has been involved in finalizing Mick Karn’s new Dalis Car album, partly to keep his spirit alive, but also as a fund raising initiative for his relatives. Steve has therefore been active both as a mixer and performer of the new album and engaged in the process of reworking some of the new tracks. The yet untitled album is due out in the October – November time frame. As most of you know Mick Karn died recently and one of things that Mick Karn was doing at the time was to produce a new Dalis Car album. Dalis Car’s first album “The Walking Hour” released in 1984 was an interesting album where the borders between various musical styles were mixed to create a very unique album at the time. With Sugizo Steve recently contributed a rhythm track to a new recording, a track also featuring Mick Karn on bass.
With some thirty years as a musician, working across most prominent genres – as a new romantic pop star as part of Japan, to exploring the fields of ambient electronics and jazz fusion, to bridging the gap between modern art visuals and experimental music, it is highly relevant to ask Steve’s view on today’s music scene. Steve says that today’s scene is of course in many ways very different from back when he started his career. The power of the record companies put a lot of constraints and pressure on the bands to deliver on time, but also to make music in line with what they and the fans were requesting – “pleasing the record label almost became a means to an end”, Steve says. Today you have much more freedom to explore and the artists does not work under the same pressure. So although it is harder to make a living you are the one in control. With modern music technology you almost have endless possibilities to manipulate sounds and craft your own ideas – inside your head.
Back to Japan
You really cannot write about Steve without touching on the subject of Japan, both as a band and as the country where both David and Steve over the years has continued to find inspiration, collaborations and a solid fan base. When Japan ended as a band in 1982, (doing their last tour in Japan, followed by a live album), the band members ended up doing several projects on their own or in collaborations with each other.
I wanted to know how this fascination with Japan as a country came to shape their music going forward. Steve tells me that it has probably been more that they have all individually made their own subjective interpretations of the music. And although it was a strong influence on the Tin Drum album, Steve says that more recently it has been more important for him to embrace modern rhythms and electronic sounds, although that he has in his collaboration with Sugizo been working to incorporate the sounds of traditional Japanese Taiko drums.
Steve and David Sylvian have over the years done several highly acclaimed albums where they have been exploring the boundaries of ambient, electronic and jazz. As a listener you can easily picture late night improvisations where Steve and David together with other musicians like Harold Budd and Robert Fripp, would jam together beautiful ambient landscapes. I wanted to know if this was an accurate image of the music production process and how the songs took their shape.
What does the future sound like? – An exclusive interview with Andy McCluskey of OMD
Time for yet another synth-pop pioneer to enter the front stage, here at Stereoklang. I had the pleasure to talk to none other then Andy McCluskey, 50% of the legendary act Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, OMD for short. Few other acts have had such an influential role in the development of the electronic pop music scene, with classic hits like Maid of Orleans, Enola Gay, Messages to name but a few. I wanted to ask Andy all about OMDs re-emergence on the music scene, their work in the studio, past and present, and of course their most recent album “History of Modern”.
Looking back
For those growing up in the late 70’s and 80’s, OMD was as well-known to “synthpoppers” as any of the other leading acts at that time, i.e. Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, Gary Numan, Yazoo to name but a few. I asked Andy how it all started. He lets us know that he and Paul started composing music when they were about 16, basically making music with what they had at hand (consider this was mid 1970s really primitive in other words). Andy was asked to join the band that Paul was involved in, but pretty quickly realized that they had much more in common and decided to go on their own. So in the very early days, what was later to become OMD, it all started as a pure hobby. Back in Liverpool it is easy to picture two young guys at home listening to Kraftwerk and dreaming of success. It was also in Liverpool that their first real gig came about, at a club called Eric’s. It was also at Eric’s that they saw other bands that were thinking along the same lines, like The Normal (featuring Daniel Miller) that made Andy and Paul realize that what they were doing had relevance on the music scene.
Steelberry Clones – “where did the band name come from?” Andy – “we were assigned to do a one off event and we really wanted to come up with the most preposterous name they could ever think of – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – having absolutely know meaning whatsoever”. “There were no master plan!”.
Biggest milestone
With a career covering decades I certainly thought that Andy would think of any of their great concerts or when any of their now legendary albums like the poetic “Architecture and Morality”, ecstatic “Junk Culture” or “Dazzle Ships” hit the shelves, selling millions of copies, being the obvious choice. But no, Andy tells me that the biggest milestone for him was when he, in his own hands, was holding their first ever 7” vinyl single “Electricity”. “This was a record by Paul and I!”, Andy says. This must truly have been a magic moment, as a any teenager at that time with a passion for music would browse through the import boxes in your local record shop as a weaken treat, finding rare issues of cool acts, imagine then to find your own piece of work.
With the single in hand, gigs started to come and OMD played as warm up act to Joy Division. Then Gary Numan, who had just bought their single Electricity asked if they would like to perform with him. The following year OMD themselves were the main attraction. Andy also remembers that this was also the first time, when performing with Joy Division, that they saw a real Pollard Syndrum in live action. The Pollard Syndrum was one of the first electronic drums and was capable of many different sounds. The sound favored by most recording artists was a sine wave that pitch-bends down, most famously heard at the beginning of “Good Times Roll”, the opening track of the Cars’ 1978 debut album.
History of Modern
“History of Modern” represents a highly anticipated come back from one of the most influential electronic pop acts to date. Skeptics were questioning if they could re-invent themselves and why are they doing a retro-flirt. I kindly asked Andy about the retro-flirt and although Andy was not so keen on the term retro in relation to the new album he admits that if going back to your roots and re-discover that unique and distinctive OMD sound, ”then yes let us call it retro”. For Paul and Andy it was really important to get that “voice” of OMD back, that sound they left behind. “We spoke with our own authentic sound”, Andy says.
Starting to work on the new album it was important to OMD that it shouldn’t be a copy; they needed to have new and fresh ideas. According to Andy “there are too many bands of our generation that do not have anything more to say.”
Read the full interview here >>
Exclusive interview on its way – guess who?
Any day sooooon we will publish a new great interview with a leading synth pioneer, can you guess who?
Clue?
Hmmmm, they work by the mantra “What will the future sound like?”
Leave your guesses in the comments section
BTW This is a KORG Micro Presets…..
Contact us
If you want to get in contact with us:
Mail to:steelberryclones(at)
hotmail(dot)com
Synth/EBM
Electro/Skweee
8bit music
Stereoklang Music
Steelberry Clones by Stereoklang Produktion
Purchase the new Bears in Nippon album here
Purchase the Zoo System - Collision Upstairs album here
Purchase the Steelberry Clones - Back to the 50's album here
Steelberry Clones - Digít, 2009 on iTunes
Electronic music newsMusic software we use
New stuff
LISTEN TO THE NEW STEELBERRY CLONES SINGLES ON SOUNDCLOUD (click the images below)
LISTEN TO THE NEW ELECTRONICALLY YOURS ALBUM ON SPOTIFY (click the image below)
MUSIC FROM OUR READERS
Promote your electronic music at Stereoklang by Stereoklang Produktion
Send us your soundsSTEREOKLANG HOME
Loops and more
Recommended free SW stuff
Camel Audio – Alchemy Player
U-He – TyrellN6
U-He – Zebralette
Applied Acoustics Systems – Swatches
IK Media – AmpliTube 3 Free
Reaper DAW
Partners
Magazines
