Lent Series

Liminal times be liminal. If there’s one thing that typifies the period i’m focusing on in this Lent Series, 1977–81, it’s the extent to which, with the proliferation of electronics, more than usually strange and wonderful things suddenly seemed to be possible. As i’ve explored previously, this led to some …

For the next album in the Lent Series – and this won’t be the only time – the chronology becomes more fluid. Cabaret Voltaire, comprising Richard Kirk, Stephen Mallinder and Chris Watson, formed in Sheffield in 1973, but it would be five more years before their music would start to …

Many of the albums i’m featuring in this year’s Lent Series feel as if they came out of nowhere, less part of a process of evolution than a sudden, out-of-the-blue flash of something fully-formed and entirely new. That’s very much the case with The Bridge, a remarkable one-off creation resulting …

The encroachment and infiltration of electronics into pop and rock caused, among other things, a whole lot of disquiet, disagreement and division. One of the recurring themes of this most liminal period are band shake-ups and break-ups, in which opinions about the presence, role and importance of electronics were often …

Through the 1970s, Bill Nelson was the driving force behind Be-Bop Deluxe, a band that took art rock in some highly progressive directions. Futurama (1975), though conventional, had as its highlight ‘Sound Track’, energised, expansive and imaginative, showing off Nelson’s outstanding guitar skill. Sunburst Finish (1976) included ‘Sleep That Burns’, …

Though synthesizer technology was new, throughout the 1970s various artists began to demonstrate its potential in serious, thoughtful ways. As early as 1971, Tonto’s Expanding Head Band created Zero Time, showcasing an astonishing array of dramatically intimate and immersive soundworlds, the kind of which would be explored further in years …

Where Suicide sought to reduce, compress, focus and minimise music in order to maximise its emotional charge, Ryuichi Sakamoto goes in completely the opposite direction in his remarkable debut album Thousand Knives. Two aspects of it are particularly striking. First is its diversity, an absolute panoply of polystylism that nonetheless …

When i conceived this year’s Lent Series, it didn’t take long to realise which album had to come first. US duo Suicide, comprising vocalist Alan Vega and Martin Rev on electronics, brought out their eponymous debut album at the very end of 1977.

Last year, while i was interviewing the composer Märt-Matis Lill, he related an idea – expressed by his father – that we feel most comfortable during the period of time when we were born. Lill was born in November, and feels particularly at ease at that time of the year, …

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To view this content, you must be a member of Simon’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon’s Patreon at £5 or more