Electronic Sound Magazine Issue 93 Back Issue

As one of the exemplar electronic duos of the early 1980s, Blancmange snuck cool and arty pop into the charts thanks to Neil Arthur’s skewed lyrics, Stephen Luscombe’s memorable keyboard lines, and some fine record sleeves. The supremely catchy ‘Living On The Ceiling’ gave the pair their defining hit and was followed by a long string of UK Top 40 singles over the next two or three years. They departed gracefully in 1986 after just three albums, two of them certified as gold discs. And that, it seemed, was that.

Fast forward to 2011 and Blancmange were back. ‘Blanc Burn’, the title a play on Blackburn, a couple of miles along the road from Neil’s home town, marked the beginning of a new era so prolific that it’s been hard to keep up. In the last 11 years, there have been no less than 13 Blancmange albums, plus three more from Fader, Neil’s side project with synthmeister Benge, who is also now the other half of the main pudding, Stephen Luscombe having sadly stood aside due to an ongoing health issue. It’s a track record that threatens to put The Fall in the shade. In fact, you might even think of Neil as a benign synthpop Mark E Smith, a wordsmith whose inventive lyrics have long set the band apart.

This purple patch shows no sign of tailing off, with the group back on London Records, the label that paved the way to their initial success. Their new album, ‘Private View’, is a corker, a glorious example of left-field synthpop that’s up there with those early gold discs. It’s as at home on daytime radio as it is on the shelf of the most ardent Minimal Wave collector, but then that’s where Blancmange have always been. And as well as making great records, Neil Arthur gives fabulous interviews, skipping between subjects, telling endless anecdotes, offering interesting opinions, and all without missing a beat. He is, as our writer Bob Fischer says, a master at joining the dots. Hence this month’s cover image.