British synthpop stalwarts Nature of Wires release their new double album ‘Modus’ on August 16 via Manchester‘s Analogue Trash label. This album speaks directly to the collective consciousness of all fans synthpop/ futurepop music from the early glories of the late 80s until the interstellar EBM haze of the mid-90s and all the way until now. I chose ‘First Light’ from the album because not only it has an official video but it also includes and presents almost the whole artistic psyche of ‘Modus’ LP. Speaking about the album I must inform you that it is a double CD release with 18 tracks. CD 1 comprises of 8 tracks while CD 2 includes 10 remixes all from these 8 prototypes ‘Modus‘ songs. Among the remixers, we find names like Mesh, Klammer, The Cowls, and Leaether Strip too. CD1 was mixed by Steve Whitfield who has worked with bands like The Cure, The Mission, Terrorvision, Shed Seven, Jah Wobble, The Drift, etc, and mastered by Mike Marsh (OMD, Human League, Chemical Bros, Moby, Shamen, Massive Attack, Erasure, 808 State, The Prodigy, Depeche Mode). We talk about very big, massive sound on ‘Modus’ with the required wall of sound which is the appropriate enhancer for musings as such.
Photo by Russ Dalen
But what about the musical part of it? One thing I’ll tell you and I’ll stick to it; If you are in the likes of everything Vince Clarke, everything Gary Numan and everything from the Mesh, then this double album is absolutely for you, guaranteed. Synthpop with futurepop electronic music, the required and the suspected anthemic and sweet stellar synthesized matter is all included in these pretty serious and well-worked songs. Last, I’ll give you one more hint; I started listening to the album and I was like “Oh man, this comes directly from back in the day when alternative synthwave music started launching its engines again”. Then, I opened the press release and I must share with you what I read in it; “Modus has been 33 years in the making and includes songs written between 1986 and 1993, recreated using 21st-century technology. We want to look back on this album in 20 years’ time and be satisfied that it is as good as possible,” says Gary Watts (synths and programming). And it all came clear why this album is and why it sounds like that. You see, Nature of Wires was formed in 1986 in Herefordshire, originally comprised of Gary Watts (synths & programming) and Andrew Stirling-Brown (vocals). The band went on hiatus in 1994 until reforming in 2015. In 2016, they released ‘Cyber Rendezvous’ with California’s CountessM on lead vocals, their first album since 1993’s ‘Modus Operandi’. The band’s live shows were enhanced by the addition of Tim Powell-Tuck on electronic drums, with a UK tour and BBC appearances.
Here is ‘Modus’!!!
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Written by Loud Cities Mike
