A newbies guide to the Erasure back catalogue

Whenever I start to discover a new band, I'm always intrigued by their back catalogue. What is their 'classic' album? Which is their quirkiest? Which is most commercial? Or which album represents a complete wig out and divides opinion amongst the faithful? So here I present my precis of the Erasure back catalogue. The beautiful and the bizarre....

Wonderland (1986)

Highlight: Push Me Shove Me, Cry So Easy

Low Light: Heavenly Action

Score: 6

More: Wonderland found Vince seemingly devoid of confidence and both the song writing and production here are fragile. Whilst the album generally lacks the polish of later efforts, there are some diamonds in the rough.

The Circus (1987)

Highlight: Hideaway, Sometimes

Low Light: Sexuality

Score: 8

More: Vince and Andy's second effort is when things began to take off; and its easy to see why. These tracks have better hooks than Wonderland and the production benefits from Phil Harding's brilliant mix. 

The Innocents (1988)

Highlight: A Little Respect, Phantom Bride

Low Light: Yahoo!, Sixty Five Thousand

Score: 8

More: The Innocents was one of my favourite albums back in the 80’s but it has not aged as well as some of its contemporaries. Album filler like Sixty Five Thousand sits cheek by jowl with the immaculate A Little Respect and the dichotomy is a little jarring. Plenty of Roland D-50 presets for the geeks to spot.

Wild! (1989)

Highlight: Blue Savannah, Drama!

Low Light: Crown of Thorns

Score: 7

More: When I first heard Piano Song the hairs on the back of my arms stood up and I was instantly hooked on this album. Whilst I wasn’t convinced by some of the single choices at the time, these songs seem to have aged well. Korg M1 everywhere.

Chorus (1991)

Highlight: Turns the Love to Anger, Waiting for the Day

Low Light: Love to Hate You

Score: 9

More: Vince goes analogue, and we all reap the rewards. This album found Vince and Andy hitting a rich seam of song writing gold which was perfectly complimented by arrangements that ooze analogue synth goodness. There isn’t really a bad track here but if I had to pick one, I would say I’ve never been mad about Love to Hate You.

I Say I Say I Say (1994)

Highlight: Always, Man in the Moon, Because You're So Sweet

Low Light: I Love Saturday

Score: 10

More: This is my favourite Erasure album. Here Vince takes the analogue resurgence a step further and we are treated to washes of the most beautiful music that allow Andy’s vocals to shine. Again, no duff tracks really.

Erasure (1995)

Highlight: Rock Me Gently

Low Light: Love the Way you do so, Fingers & Thumbs

Score: 7

More: Oh dear. Vince took the analogue thing too far. Yes, we’re treated to my favourite song of theirs in Rock Me Gently but nothing else here comes close to matching it. The ‘extended’ nature of the tracks sound forced and can get a little tedious.

Cowboy (1997)

Highlight: Worlds On Fire, Boy, Love Affair

Low Light: Rain

Score: 8

More: The musical landscape had changed by 1997 and this album found Erasure struggling to find their way in the new dance / Britpop obsessed climate.  I too was distracted with other music at this time, and whilst I loved most of this album, it was merely a diversion. Today however, I count this as one of my favourites.

Loveboat (2000)

Highlight: Alien

Low Light: Surreal

Score: 5

More: I have no clue what went on here. The production is just crazy. Yes, there is no need for every album to be ‘commercial’ radio friendly pop, but when it strips the song of any beauty you’re on the wrong track. But there's worse to come...

Other People's Songs (2003)

Highlight: Solsbury Hill

Low Light: All the rest of it

Score: 2

More: This album is a disaster. At the time of release, I seem to remember seeing lots of pictures of the boys and Gareth Jones getting drunk in the studio and taking their clothes off. This is the aural evidence.

Nightbird (2005)

Highlight: Let's Take One More Rocket to the Moon, I Bet You're Mad at Me

Low Light: Sweet Surrender

Score: 8

More: By 2005 Erasure were transitioning from has-beens to national treasures  There are some amazing songs on this album and the production is a big step up from some of the efforts that preceded it.

Light at the end of the World (2007)

Highlight: How My Eyes Adore You

Low Light: Glass Angel

Score: 5

More: Sigh. I remember Vince describing this as a more dance orientated album before it was released. Because of this, I think I expected too much and was left disappointed by an album of “so-so” compositions with unremarkable execution.

Tomorrow's World (2011)

Highlight: Fill Us With Fire

Low Light: You've Got To Save Me Right Now

Score: 7

More: Vincent Frank helps steer good ship Erasure to slightly calmer waters. Whilst this album has a more contemporary feel, I get the impression things didn’t necessarily sit well with Vince. I sensed a repeat of the difficult relationship with Stephen Hague, but this time the results weren’t quite as impressive.

Snow Globe (2013)

Highlight: Bells of Love, Loving Man

Low Light: Bleak Midwinter

Score: 6

More: These sorts of albums leave me a bit blank. Why release an album that only feels relevant for about 1 month of the year? At least Gareth Jones seems to have been sober this time and there are some truly amazing original tracks here. Leave the Christmas Carols behind.

The Violet Flame (2014)

Highlight: Elevation, Dead of Night

Low Light: Be the one

Score: 7

More: Richard X arrives to bring his inimitable electro pop sheen perfection. Unfortunately, some of the songs on this album don’t quite hit the mark and no matter how good the production, you can’t polish a turd. Still, a great effort and tracks like Dead of Night sit in the top half of their repertoire.

World Be Gone (2017)

Highlight: World Be Gone, Oh What a World

Low Light: Sweet Summer Loving

Score: 5

More: Once the inevitable box set and compilation albums for the 30^th anniversary were out of the way the boys delivered this album of less commercial material. Many of these tracks are ‘growers’ which require repeated listening. On a side note, the Manhattan Clique remix of Oh What A World is better than anything on this album.

The Neon (2020)

Highlight: Nerves of Steel

Low Light: New Horizons

Score: 6

More: This is a vanilla album: there is nothing to offend but nothing much to admire either. The whole thing just sounds like they phoned it in. Like many of their more recent efforts this album lacks passion or drive.

I've deliberately omitted Union Street here as it didn't contain any new songs, just acoustic re-recordings of existing tracks. If you force me to rate it I would say it scores 3. I like electronic music and acoustic recording aren't 'my thing'. Having said that, it's still better than the car crash that is Other People's Songs.

Jarre goes down the EDM dumper

The writing has been on the wall for Jean Michal Jarre for a while. I have written posts before about the French maestro's waning fortunes, but I fear his output has sunk to new levels. The "Welcome to the other side" VR concert was held on New Years Eve in Notre Dame Cathedral and streamed over the internet. It seemed to consist of Jarre standing in the cathedral 'playing' his gear with computer generated images augmenting the video feed. There was also a virtual (and considerable younger looking) performer following the movements of the real Jarre. It looked as rubbish as my description sounds.

However my quibble with the concert is more centered on the music. I'll declare immediately that I am not a big fan of EDM, trance, progressive house or any modern takes on dance music. Therefore this concert was always going to disappoint me. What Jarre seems to have tried to do is make an uplifting rave type atmosphere that will take us all out of our COVID blues and get us to the 'other side'. Well it didn't. 

To my ears Jarre basically butchered some of his back catalogue into EDM tunes, added some fake crowd effects and threw it on the web. As a Jarre fan of 35 years I was pretty disappointed. Why be so derivative of the people and genres you influenced? Why not present something representative of your body of work and not that of deadmau5?

Back in the 90's when I was into dance music and clubbing, Jarre's move into this field seemed perfect. "Chronlogie" is essentially a traditional Jarre album with a TR-909 over the top. "Welcome to the other side" was basically a Armin van Buuren DJ set dressed up with 5 seconds of Jarre tunes. Its just a vanity project that Jarre got UNESCO to pay for. Garbage; I'm off to listen to "Equinoxe".

Resurrecting the orange beast

Many years ago I bought a secondhand Waldorf XTK synth. I blogged about receiving the orange beast and setting it up on this website but I never really used it much. About six years ago a change in family circumstances meant that the Waldorf was placed into storage and was only occasionally glimpsed on a loft visit or a root around the garage.

This was a shame as the synth is very good and it cost me quite a lot of money. Happily the XTK has held its value and understandably, seems to be even harder to come by eleven years later.

Having pulled the keyboard out of the garage to protect it from some building work at Bleep HQ a few weeks ago, I noticed the rotary knobs were looking a bit strange. I had previously seen a few knobs on the synth had become discoloured and I kept having to clean them up, but this was no longer just an issue with aesthetics; the knobs now seemed to be crumbling and falling off. 

Having fretted for a short while and begun panic sampling the synth in case it was about to expire, I finally calmed down and asked Google what was going on. At this point I found out that knob degeneration comes to all XT synths and I was not alone. In fact many people seemed to view this occurrence as an opportunity to improve the synth and make their own mark on the design. I found many forum posts with ideas and images of other people's solutions to the issue and whilst many were interesting, they didn't quite work for me.

With trepidation, I began my search for replacement parts on eBay. Initially I found the choice of standard 6mm rotary 'D' fit knobs a bit limited and uninspiring. However, I did eventually find a seller who seemed to offer a variety of colours that I thought might work. I ordered the 2 red knobs simply to check the fit and judge the look. If everything was OK I would order the other knobs at a later date.

Once the red knobs arrived I satisfied myself that these would work and I tried to order the forty two (yes, forty two) orange knobs I would need. I say 'tried' as once I made my selection the seller's webshop said "Out of stock". Bugger. Time for a rethink.

I looked at the synth and though,"What other colours are on this giant orange plank that I could match to?" Then I noticed the blue highlights around the display and the blue lines around the numerical buttons and thought the light blue knobs the seller did have in stock could work.

Having spent an hour or so carefully prizing off the old crumbling knobs I fitted the new ones and stood back. I was very impressed with the transformation and if you compare the look of the synth in my original posts of 2009 to how it looks now I think it looks even better than it did before. Not only are the knobs easier to manipulate but they are now all uniform as one of them was a replacement right from day one of owning the unit.

For a total cost of about £25, I think this a great way to improve this synth. I now plan on continuing to sample this beast and
work it into some of my tunes. The temptation to cash in on its rarity and stick this synth on eBay is great, but I haven't used it much and feel like I owe it some time and consideration.

I came across ANOTHER cache of old synthesizers...

My 'Barn Fresh' SY85

So, about 10 years ago, family life got in the way of making music and I dismantled my set up and put it into storage. As the children grew money became tight and I sold off a good chunk of my gear about 6 years ago. I didn't think too much about the situation at the time and didn't lament the loss.

Just before we moved house a couple of years later, I noticed my remaining gear had suffered whilst unattended and had developed various faults. My old Yamaha SY85 seemed to have suffered especially badly with a flat battery, a broken floppy (not a surprise) and the case was cracked at one end. On the day before we moved I was going to put it in the car to take to the rubbish dump, but the removal men had picked it up and packed it already. Thus the SY85 had a stay of execution and 'accidental' moved house. The broken keyboard lay forgotten in the garage for a few more years...until lockdown started.

Bored one day I began tidying the garage and came across the dead, smashed up SY85. On opening up the beast I remembered it had a rather splendid SYEMB06 memory unit from Sector101.co.uk and it might be worth a closer look. Having hacked through a few forum posts and a YouTube video or two I decided I'd have a go at resurrecting it.

My nemesis: "Disk Not Ready !"

So far I've replaced the battery with the usual battery holder swap out and, after a bit of tinkering, I managed to reinstate all of the presents via a SYSEX dump. Hearing those present sounds again was magic! I've fixed up the case so it is solid and given it a really good clean.

Unfortunately, despite a new belt the floppy seems toast (how I hate seeing the "Disk Not Ready !" error message). No amount of cleaning seems to help breathe life into it. Will look into some replacement disk options as I have also found a pile of old disks without labels that might contain treasure. I also have some official Yamaha sound bank disks that I seem to remember were quite useful. Having said that, I am sure I could read the disks in my PC and dump them in as SYSEX, but that's missing the point.  I want the vintage experience (complete with compromises and annoyances). I don't want to install an emulator but am weighing up options regarding replacement floppies.

Presets restored via a SYSEX dump

Currently thinking that I will invest in another non-volatile memory module (*checks Sector101 still going* yes! phew) and some additional RAM. I'm not going to fully pimp this board out, but simply expand it so it can hold its head high once again.

Just so happy to hear the old board going again and looking forward to using it to make some music for the first time in 10 years.

I came across a cahe of old synthesisers...

In these turbulent times it is unsurprising that some of us seek solace in the familiar. For me this has manifested itself in digging out some of my old gear. With lockdown in force, I found myself with time on my hands and a desire to create some music again. There are piles of old digital synthesizers and keyboards scattered around the house; all of which are just collecting dust and going to waste. Some sort of Pavlovian response kicked in last week and I dug out my old master keyboard and plugged in some headphones.

When I fired up the enormous (and very heavy) Roland Fantom X8 it was in fully working order and didn't appear to have suffered during its 6 years in storage. My hands soon fell upon a 1 Gig flash memory card and some old sample CDs. "Well it would be rude not to give it a try," thought I. A few minutes later I had cobbled together a 8 bar loop and begun editing it on the on-board sequencer. I carried on tinkering like this for a few days until things suddenly escalated.

When you have become accustomed to sequencing via a DAW using a workstation is very frustrating. That is not to say the Fantom sequencer isn't capable, but it demands a greater ability to perform than I posses. I am much more of a programmer than a performer. I prefer to bash in a part and then tweak it in an editor. I have been known to step edit as much as play and the fully weighted keyboard on the Fantom, which is completely wasted on me. Consequently, I began to yearn for the power of Cubase and the ability to edit patches on my PC using the Fantom patch utility. 

However, the last time I tried the Fantom with Windows 10 the drivers didn't work and I didn't have time to sort it out. In fact the whole thing was such a mess I just assumed my 'vintage' gear was just too old to cut the mustard with modern computers and packed it all away.

That was 6 years ago and in the interim people have managed to get their old Fantom keyboards running with Windows 10. These kind people have also made all of the resources and instructions needed to do this available on the web. With a bit of determination I was even able to get everything working on a laptop which has no dedicated soundcard. Using Cubase again after all these years was a great experience. My hands instinctively found their way to the keyboard shortcuts and the ease of navigation was a joy to behold after the frustration of the Fantom's onboard sequencer. I am only using MIDI to trigger the Fantom as a ROMpler (with a few samples thrown in) but its surprisingly easy to get a half decent sounding track up and running with just one instrument (albeit one with thousands of onboard sounds). It reminds me of my school days using an Atari ST, Pro-24 and a Roland D-10: such limited possibilities seemed to drive creativity.

I have since added a foot pedal to the set up as, whilst the weighted keyboard is wasted on me, my wife is a 'proper' pianist (i.e. she can actually play the instrument to grade 8 level). The headphones have been replaced by some powered speakers and I have even plumped for a coaxial digital signal to ensure that all of my half finished 4 bar loops and noodling is crystal clear.

But I do get the feeling that the longer the current situation continues, the more likely I am to get some more gear up and running. Maybe I will even finish a track one day.