ES7141 seven-inch features Soft Cell
‘ELUSIVE’
The A-side of our latest seven-inch is the dramatic and atmospheric ‘Elusive’, the opening track of ‘Danceteria’, Soft Cell’s forthcoming new studio album. With the sudden death of Dave Ball just two days after he and his creative partner Marc Almond had added their final touches to the record, it will also be the duo’s last.
“‘Elusive’ wasn’t originally even going to be on the album,” reveals Marc. “Dave sent me a lot of instrumentals during the recording and this was one that I didn’t end up doing a vocal for. But after he passed, I decided I wanted ‘Danceteria’ to start with Dave and end with Dave.
“So the first track is ‘Elusive’ and then the last thing on there is his vocal on ‘Out Come The Freaks’.
I liked the idea of beginning with an instrumental. I think it sets the rest of the record up. It has this very jazzy feeling, a sort of late-night feeling. The mood is like New York after dark.”
It’s a fitting description, particularly since ‘Danceteria’ is named after the seminal NYC club where Soft Cell spent many long nights in the early 1980s. The vibe Marc talks about is partly down to the contribution of saxophonist Gary Barnacle, whose prolific career has included sessions with everybody from The Clash and The Ruts to David Bowie and Tina Turner.
“Gary’s been an honorary member of Soft Cell from way back in the early days,” says Marc. “He played on pretty much all the Soft Cell records and some of my solo stuff too. I think he probably played on every single record that came out in the 1980s.”
Although Marc doesn’t sing on ‘Elusive’, there’s a spoken word sample of Danceteria DJ Anita Sarko towards the end of the track.
“It came from an interview that she did,” explains Marc. “I wanted to have her on the record because she was such a huge part of our time in New York. She had a relationship with Dave and she became a really close friend of mine throughout the years. I mention her on the song ‘Danceteria’ too.”
‘DANCETERIA REMIX’
Talking of the album’s title track, we have an exclusive edit of a ‘Danceteria’ remix on the B-side of our record. It’s an upbeat and infectious synthpop song, the lyrics recalling all the good times Marc Almond and Dave Ball had at the NYC club.
“It’s essentially my recollection of us being in New York and hanging out at Danceteria, with the focus on the club and all the things that happened there,” says Marc. “In some ways, it’s a series of namechecks of the people we met there. So as well as Anita Sarko, it also talks about Andy Warhol, Madonna, John Sex and Karen Finlay.”
The muscular remix of ‘Danceteria’ is the work of S’Express legend Mark Moore and his sometime studio partner Dan Donovan, the former Big Audio Dynamite keyboardist.
“I’ve known Mark Moore for quite a while,” notes Marc. “He was the first person I thought of for a remix of this track because of his role in club culture. I thought, ‘He’ll get it, he’ll understand it’, plus he knows all about the New York scene at the time we were there. So I really wanted him to do a mix and put his stamp on the track.
“Has Mark remixed Soft Cell before? No, I don’t think he has. Oh, no, hang on a minute, he did a dance mix of our version of Giorgio Moroder’s ‘First Hand Experience In Second Hand Love’ on the last Soft Cell album. I make collage art and I swapped one of my artworks for his mix. Yeah, I would say that was a fair swap actually. Oh, wait, there’s also the electroclash version of ‘Chips On My Shoulder’ on ‘Heat’, our remix album from about 20 years ago. Mark did that as well. He worked with Kinky Roland on it.
“Anyway, going back to ‘Danceteria’, I really love what Mark and Dan have done here. The full version of this mix came out as a limited edition 12-inch for Record Store Day. I wanted a lot more people to be able to hear it, so I think it’s great that we’ve done an exclusive edit to get it onto this release.”
