‘The Electricity Club’ (2CD) reviewed

❉ Synthpop is alive! A mix of classic and modern synth music as eclectic as it is inspiring, writes Ange Chan.

Formed in 2010 by encyclopaedic know-it-all Chi Ming Lai, The Electricity Club Is an extremely popular synth pop website for the discerning synth fan, and is the essential location on the web for synth pop and electro music. As well as featuring established acts such as OMD and Gary Numan, the site prides itself on featuring choice new acts such as Vile Electrodes, Kite and Knight$, amongst a host of others. It’s also a technological dream for synth geeks who want to know which particular instrument was used by a particular artist on a particular album! All in all, a great place for the discerning synth music lover to educate themselves.

So imagine my delight when I discovered an Electricity Club-inspired CD had been released. It’s released by Amour Records/Minos EMI/ Universal Music in collaboration with Undo Records, and contains an eclectic mix of quality synth music, from classic synthpop to multi-layered richer sounds which are sure to delight the discerning lover of synth.

The opening track is by Maison Vague, an inspired choice as it leapfrogs you straight into what the whole collection is all about…. Synthpop is alive! The collection has something for every sub-genre of the synthpop genre and is as eclectic as it is inspiring. It’s for both the synthpop die-hard as well as an introduction to the genre with some brilliant acts which you might not already be accustomed to, as well as a number of acts that you will already know. However there’s nothing to be alarmed about… Dive right in, the future is synthpop.

The tracklisting is:

CD1

01 MAISON VAGUE Synthpop’s Alive
02 KID KASIO Full Moon Blue
03 ELECTRONIC CIRCUS Roundabout
04 DAYBEHAVIOR It’s A Game (Marsheaux remix)
05 MARNIE The Hunter
06 ELEVEN:ELEVEN Through The Veil
07 NIGHT CLUB Cruel Devotion
08 QUEEN OF HEARTS United
09 KATY PERRY Hot ‘N’ Cold (Marsheaux remix)
10 ERASURE Be The One (Paul Humphreys remix)
11 KID MOXIE The Bailor
12 KEEP SHELLY IN ATHENS Oostende
13 FOTONOVELA featuring JAMES NEW Our Sorrow (Original mix)
14 GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS Jessica 6
15 AUTOMATIC WRITING Continuous
16 METROLAND Thalys (London Edit)
17 RODNEY CROMWELL Black Dog

CD2

01 SIN COS TAN Trust
02 POLLY SCATTERGOOD Other Too Endless (Vince Clarke remix)
03 TENEK What Do You Want? (Alternate TEC version)
04 ANALOG ANGEL We Won’t Walk Away
05 ARTHUR & MARTHA Autovia
06 MARSHEAUX Suffer The Children
07 SECTION 25 My Outrage
08 047 featuring LISA PEDERSEN Everything’s Fine
09 TAXX Is It Love?
10 LIEBE I Believe In You
11 QUIETER THAN SPIDERS Shanghai Metro
12 iEUROPEAN featuring WOLFGANG FLÜR Activity Of Sound
13 TWINS NATALIA Destiny
14 MESH Tuesday
15 MIRRORS Between Four Walls
16 OMD Time Burns (Fotonovela rework)
17 VILE ELECTRODES Deep Red

The compilation is also a brilliant precursor to The Electricity Club’s TEC5 evening to be held at The Islington (Angel, London) in the Spring. It has Arthur and Martha headlining and they also feature on the CD. Supporting them are Plasmic and Rainland (who, coincidentally, I wrote the lyrics for one of their songs). The evening is sure to be fabulous so why not grab your ticket in advance? Click here!


❉ ‘The Electricity Club’ is released by Amour Records/Minos EMI/Universal Music in collaboration with Undo Records as a 34 track 2CD set in a deluxe 6 panel digipak with track-by-track commentary and ‘O’ card, available direct from https://www.amour-records.com/product-page/the-electricity-club.

❉ ‘The Electricity Club’ can also be purchased from the following retailers: http://www.poponaut.de/various-artists-electricity-club-p-18056.html (Europe) and https://stormingthebase.bandcamp.com/merch/various-the-electricity-club-2cd (North America)

❉ The Electricity Club www.electricityclub.co.uk can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

❉ Ange Chan is a lifelong synth girl, poet and novelist. Her latest collection of poetry, Songs of Sorrow and Heartbreak, was published in October 2017. Her third novel Champagne Flutes and Pixie Boots is currently a ‘work in progress’.

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