Hello, Aetix is once again featuring an old favorite of mine, underrated as so many really great artists are, John Foxx ( Dennis Leigh). an English singer, artist, photographer and teacher. He was the original lead singer of the band Ultravox and left to embark on a solo career in 1979. Primarily associated with electronic synthesizer music, he has also pursued a parallel career in graphic design and education currently as senior lecturer at The London College of Music and Media TVU in London, working with art, media and music students across a range of courses.
December will be something of a John Foxx month here, splitting into his Aetix work and his Sundaze ambient work. last week we had the band he founded Ultravox, too underrated at the time he was there. Today a collection of bonus albums too his main eighties releases. Music is never made in isolution, there's a process going on and after enough is condensed an album sees the day of light. What is left are mixes and tracks that didn't fit but ultimately were essential to the creation of the album. So today i present here 3 tasty "leftover dishes"
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Dennis Leigh (Foxx) was born 26 September 1947, in Chorley, Lancashire. His father was a coal miner and boxer, his mother a millworker. He attended St Mary’s Primary and St Augustine’s Secondary schools. During his youth in the 1960s he embraced the lifestyle of a mod and a hippy. Dennis experimented with tape recorders and synthesisers while on a scholarship at the Royal College of Art in London. His first band, formed whilst at art college in Preston, was called Woolly Fish. Prior to 1973, he was singing and playing a 12 string guitar, and occasionally supported Stack Waddy in Manchester, from where he later moved to London in order to escape what he saw as a lack of musical stimulus.
In 1973 he formed a band that would eventually be called Tiger Lily, comprising initially bassist Chris Allen and guitarist Stevie Shears, with Canadian drummer Warren Cann joining shortly afterwards, in early 1974. The band played their first official gig at the Marquee club in August 1974. After the gig Billy Currie was recruited as violinist. Tiger Lily released a single on 14 March 1975 on Gull Records, the A-side of which was a cover of the Fats Waller track "Ain't Misbehavin'". It was commissioned for a soft porn movie of the same name. The B-side of "Ain't Misbehavin'" was the group's own song - "Monkey Jive". The small amount of money they received for recording this single was used to buy Billy Currie an electric piano.
Tiger Lily played frequently in London pubs between 1974 and 1975, however their Bowie-esque glam rock sound was rendered superfluous by the advent of punk. After several name-changes, the band transformed into Ultravox!, with an exclamation mark, in July 1976. The group's style fused punk, glam, electronic, reggae and new wave music. Around this time, Leigh adopted his stage name of John Foxx (while Chris Allen, changed his name to Chris Cross).
Among the elements that set the band apart from their contemporaries were Foxx's lyrics and vocal delivery, and Billy Currie's violin and synthesiser playing. Once the band signed to Island Records, they released three LPs during 1977-1978. The first Ultravox! single, Dangerous Rhythm, was released 19 January 1977. Their first album (the self-titled Ultravox!) was released shortly afterwards, produced by Steve Lillywhite and the band, with assistance from Brian Eno. The album attracted a lot of attention, but did not sell well. It was quickly followed by their second album Ha!-Ha!-Ha!, which featured a more jagged punk sound, and included the single ROckWrok, although both were commercial failures. A notable track from "Ha! Ha! Ha!" was Hiroshima Mon Amour which saw the band's increasing use of synthesisers come to the fore and pointed the way for a new musical direction. The song is also notable for its use of a Roland TR-77 drum machine, possibly the first recorded use of a drum machine by a British band.
On their third album, Systems of Romance, Ultravox adopted a smoother sound, and abandoned the exclamation mark in their name. Also missing was their first guitarist, the punk-oriented Stevie Shears, who was replaced by Robin Simon. The album was co-produced by Conny Plank. The punk sound of the previous records was abandoned in favour of a sleek, electronic production that was a precursor of the synthpop sound. Sales were modest, but the album did gain the band exposure to a wider audience, including the United States. Systems of Romance is often regarded as the first synthpop album and, as such, it strongly influenced bands that were to follow. During the recording of Systems of Romance, a song of the same name was written, but the band had no time to record it. It was later included on Foxx's second solo album The Garden.
Despite being dropped by their record label at the beginning of 1979, Ultravox undertook a self-financed tour of the United States in February, which was successful in terms of crowd enthusiasm and ticket sales. Foxx had informed the band that he wished to leave. The band came to a parting of the ways at the end of the tour on the west coast of the United States, Robin Simon deciding to stay on in New York and Foxx announcing his plan to go solo upon returning to England. Ultravox then built on some of the ideas explored on Systems of Romance, achieving huge worldwide success with the album Vienna in 1980, after which the band released a series of popular albums and singles, overshadowing Foxx's concurrent solo career
After signing to Virgin Records, Foxx achieved minor chart success with his first solo single, "Underpass" (UK #31) and "No-One Driving" (UK #32). Its parent album Metamatic appeared in record shops on 17 January 1980. Foxx played most of the synthesisers and "rhythm machines", as they were listed on the sleeve. The name of one of the album's songs, "Metal Beat", takes its name from a CR-78 drum machine sound used on the record. Virgin released the album under the imprint name "Metal Beat Records", which was used for Foxx releases throughout his contract with them.
In 1982, Foxx set up his own recording studio, designed by Andy Munro, also called The Garden, housed in an artists' collective in Shoreditch, East London, in a former warehouse also occupied by sculptors, painters and film makers. Artists such as Depeche Mode, British Electric Foundation, Brian Eno, Trevor Horn, Bronski Beat, The Cure, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Tina Turner, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Tuxedomoon also recorded in Foxx's studio. In September of 83, his third solo LP The Golden Section was released. A development of the sound of The Garden, Foxx described this album as a "roots check" of his earliest influences such as The Beatles, psychedelia, and other pre-punk sources.
The album In Mysterious Ways was issued in October 1985. Musically it was not considered a significant advance on the sound of his two previous releases, nor was it a commercial success although the album's lyrics are far more romantic than any of his previous albums. After In Mysterious Ways, Foxx gave up a public career in pop music. He sold his recording studio and returned to his earlier career as a graphic artist, working under his original name of Dennis Leigh. He also continued experimenting with reverberation, vocal treatments and echo in ambient music, working on a project he called Cathedral Oceans....more next week
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
On Metamatic, Foxx cultivates a curious air of disinterest that never seems truly bored, but is much more extreme than even his unarguably distant vocal style for Ultravox!. It holds up as one of the peaks of the early-'80s fascination with emotionless, Kraftwerk-inspired synth pop.
John Foxx - Metamatic bonus (flac 278mb)
201 Film One 4:03
202 This City 3:08
203 To Be With You 4:24
204 Cinemascope 3:27
205 Burning Car 3:16
206 Glimmer 3:38
207 Mr No 3:19
208 Young Love 3:10
209 20th Century 3:09
210 My Face 3:21
211 Like A Miracle (Alternative Version) 3:56
212 A New Kind Of Man (Alternative Version) 4:32
213 He's A Liquid (Alternative Version) 3:00
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
John Foxx's second solo effort is a lovely slice of underrated, early-'80s pop/rock with a decidedly electronic touch. The Garden is polished, epic post-punk of the finest variety. Foxx himself plays a fine guitar, but Robin Simon gets the lead guitar credits throughout the album and turns out to be an under-appreciated figure of that era, relying on quick, sudden bursts of chords and feedback to carry his work. The album presents a striking combination of mysterious, haunting moods and keyboard parts.
John Foxx - The Garden bonus ( flac 323mb)
201 Swimmer II 5:16
202 This Jungle 4:44
203 Miles Away 3:19
204 A Long Time 3:51
205 Swimmer I 3:34
206 Fog 5:53
207 Swimmer III 5:27
208 Swimmer IV 3:58
209 Dance With Me (Early Version) 3:52
210 A Woman On A Stairway (Early Version) 5:02
221 Fusion/Fission (Early Version) 3:53
212 Miles Away (Alternative Version) 3:23
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The third solo album by John Foxx focused on fusing the experimental fringe of synth pop with a melodic preoccupation that almost put him into crossover territory. Capped by the superb single "Endlessly," The Golden Section again distanced Foxx from the glut of synth bands on the market.
John Foxx - The Golden Section Bonus (flac 447mb)
201 Endlessly (Single Version) 3:52
202 My Wild Love (Early Version) 2:48
203 A Long Time (Alternative Version) 5:04
204 Annexe 3:10
205 Sitting At The Edge Of The World (Alternative Version) 3:59
206 A Kind Of Wave 3:38
207 Twilight's Last Gleaming (Early Version) 3:51
208 Running Across Thin Ice With Tigers (Extended Mix) 5:50
209 A Woman On A Stairway 4:26
210 The Lifting Sky 4:50
211 Shine On Me 3:46
212 Young Man 2:56
213 Wings And A Wind 5:17
214 The Hidden Man (Alternative Version) 4:41
215 Dance With Me 3:30
216 Endlessly (Extended Mix) 6:03
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
December will be something of a John Foxx month here, splitting into his Aetix work and his Sundaze ambient work. last week we had the band he founded Ultravox, too underrated at the time he was there. Today a collection of bonus albums too his main eighties releases. Music is never made in isolution, there's a process going on and after enough is condensed an album sees the day of light. What is left are mixes and tracks that didn't fit but ultimately were essential to the creation of the album. So today i present here 3 tasty "leftover dishes"
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Dennis Leigh (Foxx) was born 26 September 1947, in Chorley, Lancashire. His father was a coal miner and boxer, his mother a millworker. He attended St Mary’s Primary and St Augustine’s Secondary schools. During his youth in the 1960s he embraced the lifestyle of a mod and a hippy. Dennis experimented with tape recorders and synthesisers while on a scholarship at the Royal College of Art in London. His first band, formed whilst at art college in Preston, was called Woolly Fish. Prior to 1973, he was singing and playing a 12 string guitar, and occasionally supported Stack Waddy in Manchester, from where he later moved to London in order to escape what he saw as a lack of musical stimulus.
In 1973 he formed a band that would eventually be called Tiger Lily, comprising initially bassist Chris Allen and guitarist Stevie Shears, with Canadian drummer Warren Cann joining shortly afterwards, in early 1974. The band played their first official gig at the Marquee club in August 1974. After the gig Billy Currie was recruited as violinist. Tiger Lily released a single on 14 March 1975 on Gull Records, the A-side of which was a cover of the Fats Waller track "Ain't Misbehavin'". It was commissioned for a soft porn movie of the same name. The B-side of "Ain't Misbehavin'" was the group's own song - "Monkey Jive". The small amount of money they received for recording this single was used to buy Billy Currie an electric piano.
Tiger Lily played frequently in London pubs between 1974 and 1975, however their Bowie-esque glam rock sound was rendered superfluous by the advent of punk. After several name-changes, the band transformed into Ultravox!, with an exclamation mark, in July 1976. The group's style fused punk, glam, electronic, reggae and new wave music. Around this time, Leigh adopted his stage name of John Foxx (while Chris Allen, changed his name to Chris Cross).
Among the elements that set the band apart from their contemporaries were Foxx's lyrics and vocal delivery, and Billy Currie's violin and synthesiser playing. Once the band signed to Island Records, they released three LPs during 1977-1978. The first Ultravox! single, Dangerous Rhythm, was released 19 January 1977. Their first album (the self-titled Ultravox!) was released shortly afterwards, produced by Steve Lillywhite and the band, with assistance from Brian Eno. The album attracted a lot of attention, but did not sell well. It was quickly followed by their second album Ha!-Ha!-Ha!, which featured a more jagged punk sound, and included the single ROckWrok, although both were commercial failures. A notable track from "Ha! Ha! Ha!" was Hiroshima Mon Amour which saw the band's increasing use of synthesisers come to the fore and pointed the way for a new musical direction. The song is also notable for its use of a Roland TR-77 drum machine, possibly the first recorded use of a drum machine by a British band.
On their third album, Systems of Romance, Ultravox adopted a smoother sound, and abandoned the exclamation mark in their name. Also missing was their first guitarist, the punk-oriented Stevie Shears, who was replaced by Robin Simon. The album was co-produced by Conny Plank. The punk sound of the previous records was abandoned in favour of a sleek, electronic production that was a precursor of the synthpop sound. Sales were modest, but the album did gain the band exposure to a wider audience, including the United States. Systems of Romance is often regarded as the first synthpop album and, as such, it strongly influenced bands that were to follow. During the recording of Systems of Romance, a song of the same name was written, but the band had no time to record it. It was later included on Foxx's second solo album The Garden.
Despite being dropped by their record label at the beginning of 1979, Ultravox undertook a self-financed tour of the United States in February, which was successful in terms of crowd enthusiasm and ticket sales. Foxx had informed the band that he wished to leave. The band came to a parting of the ways at the end of the tour on the west coast of the United States, Robin Simon deciding to stay on in New York and Foxx announcing his plan to go solo upon returning to England. Ultravox then built on some of the ideas explored on Systems of Romance, achieving huge worldwide success with the album Vienna in 1980, after which the band released a series of popular albums and singles, overshadowing Foxx's concurrent solo career
After signing to Virgin Records, Foxx achieved minor chart success with his first solo single, "Underpass" (UK #31) and "No-One Driving" (UK #32). Its parent album Metamatic appeared in record shops on 17 January 1980. Foxx played most of the synthesisers and "rhythm machines", as they were listed on the sleeve. The name of one of the album's songs, "Metal Beat", takes its name from a CR-78 drum machine sound used on the record. Virgin released the album under the imprint name "Metal Beat Records", which was used for Foxx releases throughout his contract with them.
In 1982, Foxx set up his own recording studio, designed by Andy Munro, also called The Garden, housed in an artists' collective in Shoreditch, East London, in a former warehouse also occupied by sculptors, painters and film makers. Artists such as Depeche Mode, British Electric Foundation, Brian Eno, Trevor Horn, Bronski Beat, The Cure, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Tina Turner, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Tuxedomoon also recorded in Foxx's studio. In September of 83, his third solo LP The Golden Section was released. A development of the sound of The Garden, Foxx described this album as a "roots check" of his earliest influences such as The Beatles, psychedelia, and other pre-punk sources.
The album In Mysterious Ways was issued in October 1985. Musically it was not considered a significant advance on the sound of his two previous releases, nor was it a commercial success although the album's lyrics are far more romantic than any of his previous albums. After In Mysterious Ways, Foxx gave up a public career in pop music. He sold his recording studio and returned to his earlier career as a graphic artist, working under his original name of Dennis Leigh. He also continued experimenting with reverberation, vocal treatments and echo in ambient music, working on a project he called Cathedral Oceans....more next week
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
On Metamatic, Foxx cultivates a curious air of disinterest that never seems truly bored, but is much more extreme than even his unarguably distant vocal style for Ultravox!. It holds up as one of the peaks of the early-'80s fascination with emotionless, Kraftwerk-inspired synth pop.
John Foxx - Metamatic bonus (flac 278mb)
201 Film One 4:03
202 This City 3:08
203 To Be With You 4:24
204 Cinemascope 3:27
205 Burning Car 3:16
206 Glimmer 3:38
207 Mr No 3:19
208 Young Love 3:10
209 20th Century 3:09
210 My Face 3:21
211 Like A Miracle (Alternative Version) 3:56
212 A New Kind Of Man (Alternative Version) 4:32
213 He's A Liquid (Alternative Version) 3:00
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
John Foxx's second solo effort is a lovely slice of underrated, early-'80s pop/rock with a decidedly electronic touch. The Garden is polished, epic post-punk of the finest variety. Foxx himself plays a fine guitar, but Robin Simon gets the lead guitar credits throughout the album and turns out to be an under-appreciated figure of that era, relying on quick, sudden bursts of chords and feedback to carry his work. The album presents a striking combination of mysterious, haunting moods and keyboard parts.
John Foxx - The Garden bonus ( flac 323mb)
201 Swimmer II 5:16
202 This Jungle 4:44
203 Miles Away 3:19
204 A Long Time 3:51
205 Swimmer I 3:34
206 Fog 5:53
207 Swimmer III 5:27
208 Swimmer IV 3:58
209 Dance With Me (Early Version) 3:52
210 A Woman On A Stairway (Early Version) 5:02
221 Fusion/Fission (Early Version) 3:53
212 Miles Away (Alternative Version) 3:23
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The third solo album by John Foxx focused on fusing the experimental fringe of synth pop with a melodic preoccupation that almost put him into crossover territory. Capped by the superb single "Endlessly," The Golden Section again distanced Foxx from the glut of synth bands on the market.
John Foxx - The Golden Section Bonus (flac 447mb)
201 Endlessly (Single Version) 3:52
202 My Wild Love (Early Version) 2:48
203 A Long Time (Alternative Version) 5:04
204 Annexe 3:10
205 Sitting At The Edge Of The World (Alternative Version) 3:59
206 A Kind Of Wave 3:38
207 Twilight's Last Gleaming (Early Version) 3:51
208 Running Across Thin Ice With Tigers (Extended Mix) 5:50
209 A Woman On A Stairway 4:26
210 The Lifting Sky 4:50
211 Shine On Me 3:46
212 Young Man 2:56
213 Wings And A Wind 5:17
214 The Hidden Man (Alternative Version) 4:41
215 Dance With Me 3:30
216 Endlessly (Extended Mix) 6:03
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
7 comments:
Hello, Rho. You don't know how happy I am to have found the bonus Metamatic up on FF. What a treat! None of Foxx's works have ever been released in my country EVER! I can't thank you enough for the opportunity to have lossless files for these albums. Can I be greedy and ask you to re-up the bonus Garden and GS? I'd be extremely grateful if you re-upped them too. Many thanks again and all the best to you.
Roland
Well Anon you're being spoiled here all flacs have been re-upped to filefactory. N'Joy
Ha! You're definitely spoiling me, Rho, many thanks for the FF upload! DLing now as I type and looking forward to give all this bonus material a proper listen. It was very kind of you to re-up all those files, many thanks again!
Cheers,
Roland
looking forward to *giving*, of course.
When you have a chance, can you re-up The Golden Section bonus disc? Thanks.
Dear Rho, would it be possible for you to re-upload John Foxx - The Garden bonus? (the Zippyshare link is no longer functional)
Once again, thank you kindly for all of your lovely, admirable work!
And a final re-up request for the companion to RhoDeo 1151 Aetix, cheers!
Post a Comment