TEN SONGS: THE NEW ARCTIC
I could not name ten favourite songs or even bands. So much music has moved me, so many genres and eras far afield or familiar. This Ten Song response is not necessarily a list of favourite songs or the most obscure ones, but an exercise in analysing those catalytic songs that shifted me into the next stage of musical awareness as it relates to the music I create as The New Arctic...
ELEANOR, THE NEW ARCTIC
1
TEARS FOR FEARS
BIG CHAIR
1984 (what a novel year to come of age, no?) I was 13 years old and bought this black-market single on a trip to Tijuana. Took it back to my nana's home by the sea where I was visiting for the summer and listened countless times on repeat as my cousins played on the beach; I'd been exposed to so much music in my life but this was something different. Machines with passion. The AI agent provocateur with the vulnerable sampled voice. No distinct song structure, yet something rising and then tensely retreating. These were pop stars and yet they exposed their stark, brave inner machinery.
2
SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES
ISRAEL
1986 in Santa Cruz, California. As a young teen, I had inadvertently spawned big ratted out black hair and taken to wearing heavy eyeliner and black clothing even before I was exposed to the “deathrockers” of this era (in addition to my offset Mod yearnings)- some sort of cognitive resonance with the goths and the silent film ingenues without intending to resonate. Attending the Tinderbox tour and experiencing “Israel” live- Siouxsie this raw element of nature with her preternaturally skilled, aesthetic boys to make that storm rise even higher- this was something beyond Stevie Nicks or the great operatic divas. Pure anima unleashed at the helm of her very elemental will, a beautiful fury.
3
ULTRAVOX
I WANT TO BE A MACHINE
This song was released in 1977, when I was a vulnerable 6 years old shuttled east and west in the US between my parents and went to Bluegrass festivals and was exposed to 60s music, jazz crooners and classic holiday albums from my Nana and alternately heard my older sister's progressive rock albums, Italian opera in the city cafe where I was babysat (how many genres can I fit into one sentence?).
Ultravox created their gorgeous world of robotic yet emotional songs behind the scenes of my early formative years. I did not hear of them or hear this song until I was in my 'teens. And then.........
…...... a newfound euphoria connected to music... this sense of human distance paired with elation. It was in 1987, having moved to San Francisco and working on Haight Street, that my older roommates introduced me to Ultravox and countless others who are now part of my music pantheon forever.
John Foxx in particular embodied that android-human nature so tenderly, this song brings tears each time and it is the one song I wish to cover one day when I am more evolved as a recording artist and can do it some sort of justice. Such tender and poetic sentiments, a Ballard-esque yearning recorded with an acoustic guitar and yearnings to be less (or more?) than human....
4
DEPECHE MODE
SHAKE THE DISEASE
My god. There is little that this band has done that I don't appreciate in some way. But in particular this song shook me (and my disease?) during high school. I'd been somewhat lost in obscurity and strange music. And then along came 'Shake the Disease'! I still cannot think of a song that gives me this particular feeling, such perfect transitions, a divine sense of cleanliness and purity with this deep desire elegantly moving its silk hands beneath the very infectuous song.
The year I first heard this I had been a bottom-dweller of 3-for-a-dollar vinyls in the huge book and record store in my Californian seaside town; lugging home Rosa Ponselle and sound fx albums, obscure punk compilations, spoken word and bizarre jazz albums, discarded 60s psychedelia and other random musical things.....
And then my outgoing high school acquaintance with her soft, short blonde hair and immaculate, oversized Depeche Mode tshirt seemed the antithesis of the murk I'd lived in for the 15 years before. And I've been hungry for this clean-yet-intense experience ever since. It still seems like voodoo, how do they do that thing?
5
CINDYTALK
IT’S LUXURY
We're going to fast forward over a couple years in which my senses were stuffed full like a turducken or rôti sans pareil on the likes of The Chameleons, Marc Almond, The Specimen, Chris and Cosey, The Cocteau Twins, Virgin Prunes, Bauhaus, Bowie and so many others in my enduring pantheon- by my roomates when I moved to San Francisco at the age of 16.
Something about Gordon Sharp's soothingly intense voice along with the sometimes contorted or diffused structures of the music felt like a place I knew well. Raw elegance.
I'm going to cheat on this “10 Songs” thing and include two Cindytalk tracks; because this was one of the first times I encountered a band that could oscillate from the bitterly distorted, driving feel of “It's Luxury” on one hand and then with the other sweep the room full of a rose~hued yearning suitable for a peaceful birthing suite with “In This World”. I never limit myself on the music I create or embellish, and feel a kinship with the other aural shape-shifters out there.
6
SAD LOVERS AND GIANTS
ON ANOTHER DAY
Deeper still. The blue evening I first heard this album I realized that sometimes music was somehow just for me, a completely solitary experience just as one may perceive a colour or “god” differently than another. There are two albums I hold particularly pure and sacrosanct, and this is one of them. I have no associations or memories connected with this song / album except my own inner world of dreams that regularly crawl out into daytime; of soft longing as the seasons shift; imagining stray cities and places where all is congruent and full of a certain wistful and timeless serenity.
I cannot truly describe it, but you can listen:
7
CHRISTIAN DEATH
ROMEO’S DISTRESS
Eighteen years old. Libido finding its first fever pitch, along with what became this seasonal/cyclical yearning to touch and feel something beyond the usual senses. 100F Summer day, passenger in a car, windows open and hot breeze on my lilywhite young skin. Needing to feel closer to something than youth itself, something closer than a body. Closer than a diety.
Within the works of Christian Death (Rozz and Valour nonwithstanding) I found a taste of that obscure and intimate pallette. It was either this track or “As Evening Falls”- you get the gist of this dance between shadow and light and oftetime combining.
8
MANUFACTURE
AS THE END DRAWS NEAR
Maybe not a favorite song, but one of those breathrough listens wherein the more visceral is paired with programmed drums and electronic processing. Riding trains for hours with my closest friend, delerious on strong coffee and watching the industrial backyards blur for miles.... the same feeling I have in my dreams of movement and passing visual vignettes. Euphoric dreams sometimes need a soundtrack. Sampled sounds and electronic beats integrate into the smooth sea of a female voice, the first time I really heard this seamlessly sensual pairing. We hear the underlying mechanics and programming but the effect is elevation, in sync with the machines, still so warm and inviting; to be feminine in this syncopated and often artificial world.
9
XYMOX
BACK DOOR
Absolute perfection. Here I find nearly all of the elements of music that have penetrated my cells all life long. When I discovered Clan of Xymox I felt like I had walked into a large hall that was occupied by the embodiment of my tender and dazzled psyche. So full of elegance and depth, heartbreaking in the beauty of it all. Valleys of sadness and exhilarating crescendos that portrayed how I had often felt. Also one of the most glorious live shows I've experienced. And as the years go by, I hear more and more subtle layers- those impressionistic or succinct moments that I want to extend futher each time. This band has/had such an exquisite dynamic together, nothing out of place yet no sterile moments to be found. Those layers of electronic and acoustic instruments along with Ronny (or Anka)'s fearless plaint---- we have found a perfectly sustained modern aural ecosystem.
10
BRANDY KILLS
UNDRESSED
A new era emerges. Cold Wave and urgent social and personal messages, a shattered message in a bottle. Arm's length sensuality. An artist or two, in whatever oppressive environment they find themselves in, creating something so powerful. Right there, engaged at once. Is is dark karaoke with oneself? Is it total expansion within the confines of one's mind and given equipment? We don't need many tools to break down the walls....just a spirit bigger than whatever prison we finds ourselves in. Even better if you can dance to it alone in the dark. I will not refer to any later cold/darkwave artists, it becomes too close to this new moment.
THE NEW ARCTIC - ‘BARDO’
From a unique voice in contemporary electronic and cold-wave comes ‘Bardo’, the TONN Recordings debut from The New Arctic. A 4 track EP exploring themes of loss and separation. Available on TONN Recordings Bandcamp.
