Interplay

Description

Limited Vinyl Edition.

One Of The Finest Electronic Records Youll Hear In 2011 The Quietus. The debut album by John Foxx And The Maths. Interplay is a collaboration between John Foxx and electronic composer and synthesizer collector, Benge (Ben Edwards). Hes best known for his 2008 album, Twenty Systems which was described by Brian Eno as a brilliant contribution to the archaeology of electronic music.

Moody and atmospheric, but also full of songs that are actually more pop than avant garde, Interplay pulls various strands of electronic music together from early 80s electro to 70s Krautrock, even flashes of Cabaret Voltaire and Foxxs first band, Ultravox! One track, Watching A Building On Fire features Mira Aroyo from Ladytron, who also came up with the original synth riff. Although Interplay sounds nothing like the ambient experiments of Twenty Systems, both albums are based around the waves, frequencies and vibrations of analogue synthesizers. Many of the songs on the new Maths album started with an electronic rhythm from a 1960s Moog system built into Benges studio, with the pair then coming up with ideas live in the studio.

As Benge says, the idea of Interplay is in the lyric from the title-track. We calculated everything, but not the interplay. In the studio we left a lot of things to chance and let the various combinations of sounds and colours and connections trigger our imaginations.

Foxx and Benge will be performing tracks from the album, plus a selection of early Ultravox material (with Robin Simon on guitar) and material from Foxxs dark electro classic Metamatic at the Troxy, London on 2nd April, alongside live sets by Gary Numan and Motor. This follows their triumphant analogue performance last summer at the Roundhouse as the headliner of the 2010 Short Circuit festival. Meanwhile in recent years John Foxx has also collaborated with I, Robot film director Alex Proyas, writer Iain Sinclair and Robin Guthrie (ex-Cocteau Twins). Hes currently working on new material with Paul Daley (Leftfield).

Foxxs music still sounds futuristic, accompanied by flickering footage and images of design that never dates: imagined cityscapes, endless motorways. As these time machines whirr to silence, its clear that Mr Foxx is still fantastic. NME review of John Foxx, the Roundhouse, June 2010.

One of the finest electronic records youll hear in 2011. The Quietus

Meeting of synth-fetishists is a triumph. The albums echoes four decades of avant pop. **** Mojo

Foxx has released an album which equals the high-point of his rich back-catalogue. BBC

One of the most enlightened synth records in years. **** The Stool Pigeon

Forceful, stripped-down music that sounds as new as its old, and as imaginative as it is familiar. Uncut

Enigmatic but song-based, evoking early incarnations of Cabaret Voltaire, The Human League and Roxy Music. Q Magazine

Interplay is a consistently strong piece of work. **** Music OMH

Synthesizer archivist Benge (aka The Maths) turns out to be a superb foil for Foxx. The Wire

Fresh and powerful. Tracks move from glistening-crisp and growling-fierce to tender, the latter mood captured by the melancholic beauty of A Falling Star and The Good Shadow. **** Clash Magazine