A good article on the creation of the classic Ultravox track ‘Vienna’ from Musicradar.com
A.C.I. Analog gear- AI Visuals.
Manufracture Music "Transmutation".
Right. Ha! Ha! Ha!.
This, apparently, is an album. Not a cry for help. Not the sound of a synthesiser being thrown down a staircase. No an album. By Ultravox! Not Ultravox.
And I'll be honest... it sounds like they recorded it in a collapsing laboratory while someone in the corner was being mildly electrocuted.
You see, by 1977 most bands were doing one of two things:
pretending to be angry about the system
or pretending to be Roxy Music
Ultravox, however, decided to do something far more ambitious...
They tried to be both. At the same time. While setting fire to the rulebook.
Frontman John Foxx doesn't so much sing as deliver messages from a dystopian future where emotion has been outlawed and everyone communicates via fax machine. It's cold. It's detached. It's like being told off by a robot.
And the band behind him?
Absolute chaos.
Guitars slash about like they've got a personal vendetta, the rhythm section lurches forward like a shopping trolley with a broken wheel, and the whole thing feels permanently on the brink of collapse.
Which, to be fair.... might be the point.
But then and this is where it gets interesting, right at the end, they drop Hiroshima Mon Amour.
And suddenly...
Everything clicks.
The noise becomes atmosphere.
The chaos becomes intent.
The madness becomes... vision.
It's as if someone briefly switched the lights on and you realised:
"Oh. This isn't incompetence. This is the blueprint."
The problem is, to get there, you've had to wade through a barrage of tracks that sound like a band arguing with itself in real time.
It's jagged. It's awkward. It's frequently irritating.
But it is never not for a single second boring.
So what you've got here is not a great album.
It's something much stranger than that.
It's a band halfway between being a car crash... and inventing the future.
And frankly, in a world full of safe, beige nonsense, l'a take this glorious, dysfunctional mess every single time.
Even if it does occasionally sound like it's laughing at you.
Ha! Ha! Ha! indeed.
(Credit: Steve Austin via Facebook)
Hi everyone! I don’t use AI in my music and I never will. Even though I’m into cyberpunk and sci-fi (kind of ironic, I know), I prefer to keep my music real.
I just wanted to share my track “Witchcraft” with you, made out of pure passion.
Hope you enjoy it, thanks for listening :)
It’s been a year since I released my debut album Human.
I’m still really grateful for all the support it’s received, especially from this community.
Thanks for listening.
Well, for context, I'm a metalhead. I'm mostly into stuff like death metal, brutal death metal, funeral doom metal or atmospheric Black metal. But lately, I feel like I need something more, like a music to experience.
So far, I've enjoyed Ksmmerheit's "The Starwheel" and Forgotten Gods by Atrium Carceri.
For reference, this od my ambient playlist
Pre-save on Spotify: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/arkavoid/strange-sky
A Man of Two Worlds, is widely praised as a refined and meditative return to form, marking Midge Ure’s first album of new material in 12 years. The double album is structured into two distinct halves:
World One: Music, featuring eight ambient instrumentals, and
World Two: Songs, containing eight vocal tracks.
Critical Reception & Key Highlights
Reviewers highlight the album's dual nature, noting that while the two halves are stylistically different, they share a cohesive, melancholic atmosphere born from Ure's isolation during lockdown.
Overall Quality: Critics from Louder Than War and The Scotsman generally rate the album highly, with Scottish Music Network calling it some of his finest work since his 1985 classic The Gift.
The Instrumental Side: This half is described as "cinematic" and "piano-led," inspired by Ure's lockdown listening and his work on Scala Radio. Notable tracks include "A Different View" and "The Dimming Light".
The Vocal Side: These tracks carry a "lyrical bite," often addressing social discord and personal reflection.
The lead single, "Just Words," is cited as a standout for its exploration of public deceit.
Album Structure
World One: Music
Content Style:
Ambient, meditative instrumentals
Key Tracks:
"The Space in Between,"
"Blues and Greys"
World Two: Songs
Content Style:
Sparse, ethereal synth-pop with vocals
Key Tracks:
"The Man Who Stole Your Soul,"
"Fan the Flame"
It’s definitely ‘a grower’; the tracks are sparse -melancholic and atmospheric.
I’ve listened to it twice now and I’m beginning to appreciate the mood he was in when he recorded it during lock-down & shortly after, as the world recovered back to normality: Hence being a man of two worlds, the first one of solitude & quiet introspection, the second, the world reawakening-but is everything the same??
What are your thoughts?
