One record at a time: 184. The Human League - Octopus

For some reason Blogger deleted by original version of this post so I am having to rewrite it. This unexpected turn of events has given me the opportunity to re-think how I write about this album.

You see, I like this album and it has some great songs; but I think I am drawn to it as it reminds me of a very specific time in my life.

During the summer of 1995 I played this album as I commuted back and forth to my first 'proper' job. Like a lot of people, my first car was a little dilapidated and it had no in-car entertainment of any kind. In order to hear music I had to use a personal cassette player and some portable speakers. In my memory, the sun was always shining as I swept along empty streets with "Tell Me When" blaring from the passenger seat. Great days.

Yet, when I look back now, I can see that I used to work long hours with horrible people for little money and absolutely no thanks. The car was actually borderline dangerous and, whilst the streets were definitely less crowded back then, the paving stones had also been torn up and thrown at the Police.

In the cold light of day this album seems to lack a little punch. Producer Ian Stanley (I didn't realise it was the Tears for Fears Ian Stanley for a loooong time) seems to have pulled back on the transients and gone for a much more rounded, analogue sound. To this day I prefer the Utah Saints remix of "Tell Me When" to the album version and the Hardfloor remix of "Filling Up With Heaven" wipes the floor with the original. There's clearly some album filler on here too and the last track could never merit its seven minute run time.

When I put my rose tinted spectacles back on, this album can transport me to the warm summer of 1995 when I was young and my future stretched out before me. Some of the songs might be a bit limp, but they are redolent of summer mornings and new beginnings. Which is along winded way of saying my assessment of this album is completely flawed. 5/5

One record at a time: 183. The Human League - Romantic?

I didn't actually own this album until April 2007 when I bought a CD from eBay. Today I also own an original 1990 pressing of the album and the clear version from the "Virgin Years" box set.

The fact that the majority of this album was produced by Mark Brydon of Moloko and Robert Gordon of Warp Records blows my mind. Of course, back in 1990 neither Mark or Robert had achieved the notoriety they have today, but it was still quite a revelation when I read the credits.

Unfortunately this album finds the band at rock bottom. Four years had passed since "Crash" and they now found themselves completely out of step with current trends.

Quite how anachronistic the band were at this time is illustrated by the opening track "Kiss the Future". As Philip begins to channel his inner James Brown he emits various grunts and groans which sound ridiculous. Most of the synth sounds on this track are poor and the melody is just plain bizarre.

Susan takes up vocal duties for "A Doorway?" accompanied by little more than a breakbeat and some Memorymoog organ sounds. Whilst this isn't the worst song ever recorded by The Human League, it hardly makes for an inspiring opening.

The first flash of quality comes with "Heart Like a Wheel" which sees the welcome return of Martin Rushent as producer. I've always liked this song and I even saw the video on television a few times back in the day. Yet, when released as a single it only just broke into the top 30 and signalled the end for the band at Virgin Records.

The long outdated BASS 1 preset from the Yamaha DX7 gets rolled out for "Men Are Dreamers" which also has some backing vocals that are completely off key. "Mister Moon and Mister Sun" has some unmistakable William Orbit touches that make it sound almost contemporary, but the wailing guitar drags it down. 

I'd love to have been in the meeting where the record company identified "Soundtrack to a Generation" as a single because there must have been some strong substances on offer. This song is as naive as they come and some of the lyrics are just agonising. Unfortunate producer Bob Kraushaar clearly decided that if you can't polish a turd, you might as well try to roll it in glitter.

One of the songs that struck me when I first listened to this album was "Rebound" which is quite haunting and benefits from William Orbit's mix skills. It is rumoured that "The Stars Are Going Out" was scheduled to be released as a single but was shelved when it was mauled by music critics. For once the label made the right choice and this remains an album track.

In retrospect, a cover of a Glitter Band song seems very ill advised, but in 1990 "Let's Get Together Again" was merely seen as passé rather than toxic. The songwriting powers of Jo Callis and enigmatic funk composer Jesse Rae combine to provide the final track "Get It Right This Time". Not only is this a good composition but it also benefits from the production chops of Martin Rushent. If only the rest of the album had been executed with the same level of skill. 3/5

One record at a time: 182. The Human League - Greatest Hits

I own two copes of this record and they provide a good illustration of the vagaries of grading. One record was bought from a shop and described as in "excellent" condition and the other is from eBay and described as "good." 

As you can see from the images, the gatefold of the "excellent" copy has somehow been stuck together and once I preyed it open, the sleeve ripped. I don't wish to speculate on the nature of the the sticky substance that landed on the image Joanne and Susan.

If we were to apply the record collector standard grading definitions I'd say the "good" copy from eBay is actually in very good condition. Typically it was also was much cheaper than the "excellent" one that was stuck together. Record collecting is all swings and roundabouts.

I remember when this album was released and it felt like it was signalling the end of the band. To promote the album the record company decided to release a two year old album track "Love Is All That Matters". This seems a very odd choice now, but if like me, you assumed the group were pretty much finished at the time, it seems more logical.

Most of the familiar hit singles released by the Mk II version of the band are here along with the original version of "Being Boiled". As a youth unfamiliar with Mk I of the band I thought this song stuck out like a sore thumb and I'm still not sure it fits here. Still, this is a good album that offers the band's best material from the period 1978-1988. 4/5

One record at a time: 181. The Human League - Crash

I have two copies of "Crash", the original UK release and the coloured version from 2022's "The Virgin Years" box set. 

This album is from 1986 and was (in)famously produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. As I mentioned in my review of "Hysteria", the band were really struggling with production at this point in their career and it was thought that using Jam and Lewis would provide the spark required. 

What everyone didn't seem to appreciate was that Jam and Lewis are a "production house" that control almost every aspect of the music they create. The tensions this approach created led to the break up of the band and the producers were forced to complete this record alone.

Things begin with "Money" which was written by the band, but the rhythm guitars and shrill brass stabs give it a distinctly American flavour. The change of production style is brought front and centre when the song moves into a funk influenced breakdown that sounds alien on a Human League record.

The worst song on the album is the God awful, "Swang" which is a bad song, that is badly produced and badly performed. We then move from the ridiculous to the sublime with the massive hit single "Human" which has a great melody and sympathetic production. For once the backing vocals on this track sound good but Philip is rather fragile.

For some reason the next song sees Philip in desperate need of preserves as he has, "gotta get some jam". Whilst the music for this song is better than most on the album, the lyrics are just nonsense. Things are more straight forward on "Are You Ever Coming Back?" which was written by the band but given a much more complimentary production sheen by Jam and Lewis. 

On the flip side the first track "I Need Your Loving" wouldn't have sounded out of place on the Janet Jackson album "Control". Whilst there are no additional vocalists credited on this album there is no way the backing vocals here are by Joanne and Susan. This track was released as a single and its relative failure can't have come as a surprise to anyone.

The ubiquitous E.BASS 1 from a DX7 dominates the next song "Party". The first time I heard this I could swear they were singing, "Everyone is going to Cardiff". Once you hear it there is no going back. "Love on the Run" is another attempt by the band to harness the sound of Motown but it falls well short of "Mirror Man". The irrepressible DX7 bass rolls on through "The Real Thing" which is a moderately entertaining song with some terrible vocals. Things end with the Jam and Lewis composition "Love Is All That Matters". This is an fantastic song that leaves me in the mood to forgive some of the earlier transgressions (even if Philip is trying to channel his inner James Brown with predictably bad results). This album is good in places but ultimately it is a case of trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole. 2/5

One record at a time: 180. The Human League - Hysteria

And so we come to the "difficult second album" that isn't a second album. I own two copies of "Hysteria" on vinyl: an original UK pressing and the yellow version from "The Virgin Years" box set.

Following the success of "Dare" The Human League were under considerable pressure to produce another hit album. This pressure seemed to lead to the band locking themselves up in AIR studios and doing little but argue for months on end. There is one, possibly apocryphal tale, that the band were so stymied they spend a whole week just auditioning kick drum sounds.

For some reason the band decided they didn't want to repeat the successful formula that led to "Dare" and dispensed with the services of Martin Rushent. The first producer to be drafted in was Chris Thomas but for various reasons he left the project half way through. It was left to Hugh Padgham to take the half finished multi-tracks and a dysfunctional band and make a record. Yet both Thomas and Padgham are most famous for working with rock acts and their involvement has always struck me as a mismatch. With such a problematic gestation, it is no wonder the end product was so disappointing.

The opening track "I'm Coming Back" has a whiff of "Don't You Want Me" in the chorus but it is far less successful than its illustrious predecessor. The faltering nature of this record is best illustrated by "I Love You Too Much" which was originally produced by Martin Rushent and released on the North American album "Fascination!" The version presented here retains Rushent's original Linn LM1 programming but dispenses with the electronic percussion and churning synths and replaces them with a maudlin pad sound. I can only describe the approach as an "audio smear" which robs the songs of its dynamics and makes it less engaging. 

If using rock producers weren't incongruous enough, the band now decide to cover seventies funk song "Rock Me Again & Again & Again (6 times)". There have been several occasions when Philip has tried to record with an American funk/soul affectation and it turns out badly every time. The whole thing is just an auditory car crash.

The single "Louise" sounds a bit sparse but there is enough melody to carry it along. The big hit single "The Lebanon" is a pulsing composition that uses the Lebanese civil war as its subject matter. I read somewhere that the bass guitar on this track was sampled into various AMS DMX units and triggered manually; an indication of how over thought this album was. Yet, as Phil was using a Synclavier II at the time of this album, I think it much more likely that this was used.

The second side kicks off with "Betrayed" which sounds naive and a bit like someone doing an impression of The Human League rather than the band themselves. I'm sure there is a good song somewhere within "The Sign" but the execution is so bad it's hard to tell. "So Hurt" is another limp pop song propped up by Ian Burden's bass and the familiar Linn drum machine. History tells us the drum programming for single "Life On Your Own" took a whole week and whilst there are lots of other nice touches that make this an entertaining track, you can't help think it was a little overthought. The final track "Don't You Know I Want You" is a fittingly disappointing finale that only serves to show off the presets in their new Yamaha DX7 .2/5

Getting reaquainted with an old friend

In 2006 I bought a second hand Casio CZ3000 from eBay for the princely sum of £100. However, I didn't really get chance to use the synth before life changes forced me to put it into storage. 

Fast forward to 2011 and I resurrected my plucky old Casio CZ3000 and put it back into my new studio set up. Whilst I had every intention of finally digging into this thing, life got in the way once again and this board was stacked up in my garage for another twelve years.

A couple of weeks ago I was walking past my unused gear when I noticed there was a battery compartment on the bottom of this synth. "That's weird," I thought. "I have never noticed that before." 

At this point the penny dropped. 

When the CZ3000 was in my set up I used to find it frustrating that it couldn't hold any of my patches. A quick Google search confirmed the battery for the SRAM of the CZ3000 is not a CR3032 buried in the innards like most synths, but three AAs in a compartment underneath the board. I looked through the user manuals but found no mention of a battery compartment in any of them.

Having pulled the Casio out I plugged it in and prayed it still worked. Happily the LCD screen flickered into life and all of the lights were illuminated. As Jean Michel Jarre used the first preset "BRASS ENS.1" on his track "Fourth Rendez-Vous" (albeit from a CZ5000) it was compulsory to play it at this point.

Duly set up I decided to read the manual and give this synth the attention it deserves. The first thing I noticed in the manual is that this unit is described as a "CosmoSynthesizer". Casio tell us the synth is "totally digital" and is, "designed using the same principles that apply to analog synthesizers, thus eliminating the frequently heard complaint about digital synthesizers that they are too complex." I wonder which contemporary digital synthesizer they could be talking about? I'm sure there will be a 7 in there somewhere.

Personally, I'm still trying to get my head around phase distortion synthesis and despite what the manual might say, I don't find it as intuitive as analogue subtractive methods. Yet as I jab at the various buttons on the synth, I can't help but think that it is the interface that is the issue rather than the approach to sound creation.

Another revelation came as I read through the operation manual. On the penultimate page there is a box titled, "Use as a multi-timbral expander". Reading this flawed me. I have owned this synth since 2006 and had no idea it was multi-timbral (I know right). Once I rigged it up to MIDI it would indeed sound multiple presets simultaneously (all be it monophonically). Bizarrely the manual tells users to connect the MIDI out directly to the MIDI In and manually assign patches to channels rather than sending program change data.

So what of the patch memory? Well, once I placed the required batteries in the compartment the Casio did indeed retain my changes and I was free to edit sounds with confidence. Strangely, the only memory the manuals seem to mention is the RA-3 RAM cartridge and I used to use one of these to store patches when the keyboard was in use. It turns out that these cartridges are relatively hard to find now so I was determined to find mine. After an hour of rooting around in the loft I found the cartridge complete with box. I changed the battery on this a few years ago so it still had some old sounds on it (be careful when replacing the battery in one of these, the screws that hold it together are very soft). Storage in the synth is limited to 32 presets and 32 user sounds. The RA-3 RAM can also store 32 sounds but they need to be imported into the user memory before they can be accessed.

As for the sound, you'll be unsurprised to hear it is reminiscent of FM synthesis and remains quite thin (there's even a built in stereo chorus effect to help combat this). Like most synths of the time, it can sound a bit dull when dry, but some outboard effects add some sparkle. The Digital Controlled Wave (DCW) function is a direct attempt to mimic the filter of subtractive synthesis but it takes some getting used to. When it comes to creating patches I find I'm mainly creating bass sounds or weird effects. The noise and ring modulators can add some new ingredients that take sounds in a whole new direction. One of the manuals included with the synth is a "Sound data book" that lists the parameters for all of the presets along with another 50 sounds. There's even blank charts to record your own creations; how very 1980's.

The keyboard action is quite light and is not velocity sensitive. Judging by my own experience and the listings for these synths on eBay, the keys are very prone to breakage too.

There are eccentric touches such as a button to turn the modulation wheel on or off and the write protection for the memory is engaged using a switch on the back of the keyboard. I have always found it strange that the power button for this unit is on the right of the keys too - I've put my hand down to rest and turned the synth off more than once. The MIDI implementation on this thing is pretty basic as it only seems to respond to programme change data and some SysEx commands - it ignores velocity, aftertouch and volume commands.

My recent Google searches have also made me grateful that the cover for the battery compartment was present on my keyboard as these seem to go missing quite a lot. As part of this mini-overhaul I have also bought a 3D printed cap for the volume slider as this had been missing since I bought it. One surprise survivor is the original dust cover which I will endeavour to use going forward.

Today the Casio sits in splendid isolation as the only hardware in my set up which should mean it finally gets some attention, seventeen years after I bought it. The fact that I do not plan on moving house or enduring any other traumatic life events also counts in its favour.

One record at a time: 179. The Human League - Fascination!

"The Human League: The Virgin Years" box set includes a copy of the North American release "Fascination!". I'm guessing that this record is included as it provides a convenient way of presenting non-album material from the band's commercial peak. 

This compilation is a product of a time when music wasn't released globally and the output of an artist varied from territory to territory. In order to release material available in other countries, record labels would sometimes make unique compilations. Examples include "In Depth" by Pet Shop Boys which was produced by EMI Japan, "People are People" by Depeche Mode which was made by their American record company Sire or even "Yesterday and Today" by The Beatles.

This particular compilation kicks off with the extended version of "(Keep Feeling) Fascination" which made for a catchy and memorable single. This track represented something of a change of sound for the band with Ian Burden's classic bass guitar adding to the synth and vocals.

"Mirror Man" was the follow up single to the phenomenally successful "Don't You Want Me" and we are presented with the familiar single mix here. I seem to recall Philip revealed the song was written about Adam Ant but my memory may be defective. Regardless of the subject matter this is a great tune that somehow harnesses electronic instruments to give a new take on the Motown sound. I don't like Motown much, but I do like this.

Next up are two b-sides that hadn't previously been released in North America: "Hard Times" and "You Remind Me of Gold". "I  Love You Too Much" was re-recorded for the next album "Hysteria", but this original version produced by Martin Rushent is much more compelling. Things finish off with the "Improvisation" mix of "(Keep |Feeling) Fascination" which was originally released on the 12" single in the UK and Europe. This mix is akin to the dub mixes featured on the "Love and Dancing" remix album and makes a fine ending. 4/5