Blancmange – Unfurnished Rooms (Blanc Check Records)
LP / CD / DL
29 September 2017
29 September 2017
8.5 / 10
Legendary synth act releases brand new album.
It’s been quite a
year for Neil Arthur, the now sole permanent member of Blancmange, the act with
its origins in the early 80s now firmly established in its second coming. Re-releases of the first three Blancmange
albums in superb deluxe form and a collaboration with Benge as Fader for their excellent
First Light album preceded this latest release, Unfurnished Rooms.
Benge once more appears, this time as co-producer and one
could quite easily assume that a more permanent fixture with Blancmange might
be on the cards. There’s clearly been an
influence on the direction taken by Arthur, last year’s Commuter 23 album saw
him carry on down a darker path and that journey has continued with this new
ten track collection where Benge has added percussion and analogue synths.
The black humour is still an ever present, sometimes gelling
itself to a wicked perspective whereby Arthur’s lyrics fall somewhere between
fun and serious, and often struggle to separate. It’s an interesting form and one which suits
him extremely well. This new album is
often sparse in presentation, allowing the textures of both voice and melody to
carry each track along. The album opener
and title track explores a house waiting to be inhabited, emptiness prevails
and a blackness descends.
Share It Out is a near instrumental, as ever with Blancmange,
a risky one with no obvious catchiness, it drifts along until the line ‘I could
be your ocean wave’ softly sings before the sounds of an electro Bolan come
into view with the spoken word What’s The Time?
It’s brilliant, simplicity personified and sits as a wonderful entrée to
Wiping The Chair a song themed around long last friends and, Anna Dine continues
the dark theme amidst a spiralling backdrop of synth lushness and
characteristic bass lines.
Old Friends has a Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane feel to it. A song written in a traditional style with
classic twists and turns allowing it to sound almost like a cover of some 70s
standard with that undeniable Arthur effect.
It could quite easily have a sweeping bank of strings behind it as it approaches
its close. Conversely, when long-time friend
and collaborator David Rhodes rips his guitar open on Gratitude, the Blancmange
party is in full swing. Once more a
Glam influence meets a punkesque anarchism with some delightfully inserted
reverb. It screeches and screams as Arthur
too becomes electro punk for a while.
Album closer, Don’t Get Me Wrong is the predictably
unpredictable Blancmange. John Grant
guests on piano and backing vocals and Arthur keeps a beautiful resistance by
allowing the track to drift in and out seamlessly and in a dreamlike
state. It touches on the preceding
tracks too, cleverly intertwining themes of secrecy, loneliness and lost friendships
and at over eight minutes long is a wonderful finale.
Unfurnished Rooms is a clever album. It sees Neil Arthur on top form and putting
together a listening experience that has taken thought, passion and a great
deal of bravery. This is mature music
for the inquisitive mind and an album that marks a milestone in modern Blancmange
whilst also delving confidently into the past.
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