Blancmange
– Commuter 23 (Blanc Check Records)
CD
/ DL
11
March 2016
9
/ 10
British
electronica act releases eighth album.
The
second incarnation of Blancmange has already released more albums than its first,
more commercially accepted outing. With the
inclusion of Happy Families Too (a re-recording of the debut long player and
regarded as a ‘new’ album – see here), five albums have been released since
Neil Arthur re-appeared in 2011 with Blanc Burn. Indeed, five albums in five years is quite
some output.
It
is also an unusual case of quality and quantity. Original partner Stephen Luscombe continues
to be absent due to an abdominal aortic aneurysm which has seen him drop out of
the limelight whilst Neil Arthur carries the torch further and further.
Commuter
23 sees Blancmange continue to mature.
As Darwen born Arthur continues well into his fifties, so the music
develops beyond the perfect pop of the 80s and further into a more comfortable sounding,
often experimental phase. The occupation
of film score composer, which he nestled into during the in-between years with
soundtracks for the likes of SCARRED and Tom Sweep, has clearly had an eternal effect
with half of the fourteen tracks on Commuter 23 being instrumental. In the wake of the instrumental album Nil By
Mouth last year, it is a route which he seems extremely comfortable with.
As
original fans of Blancmange mellow, so too does the act. There’s a sense of freedom on Commuter 23, an
air of ambience and sometimes even rawness which adds a stark reality to
proceedings. It would surely be easy for
Neil to knock out timeless (often classic) pop again, but now a darker,
enriched side is the dish of the day.
There is still a humour, as there always has been, but it’s not as
obvious and needs to be honed in to. The
2016 Blancmange is now probably as close to 1980s debut EP, Irene & Mavis,
as it ever has been.
Album
opener, Red Shift (Blame Thrower) has more than a hint of the Human League’s
Being Boiled about its intro and that’s certainly no bad thing, in fact, the
whole album has a sort of modern day retro feel about it. Don’t be put off by the amount of non-vocal
tracks either, as they display an incredible amount of depth and thought as Flight
2157 proves – whether it tracks the route from Salt Lake City to Seattle or
Luton to Amsterdam – it’s an indication of the precise moments to come on
Commuter 23.
The
dry wit of Arthur continues in titles Jack Knife (though the storyline isn’t
quite so amusing) and Judge Mental which slowly crawls along with a low pitched
bass and sparse backing and words which are more often spoken than sung.
Last
Night (I Dreamt I Had A Job) is probably as commercial as the album gets as the
incisive words imagines a laborious box packing job. Neil’s insecurities perhaps on display in a
machinelike anthem with haunting undertones.
I Wish I Was You has echoes of Sad Day from Happy Families with a looped
guitar melody and recurring title mentions.
Once
more, Neil Arthur has come up with the goods and confirmed that his talents lie
not only in writing fine songs but also in equally impressive
instrumentals. A man possibly at the top
of his game with a striking back catalogue and ideas seemingly brimming from
his perceptive Northern eccentricity.
Links
Blancmange website
Blancmange on Twitter
Blancmange on Facebook
Blancmange on hiapop
Published on Louder Than War 09/03/16 - here
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