ES7135 seven-inch features Doublespeak
‘BACK TO NATURE’
The lead track on this month’s Electronic Sound seven-inch is a cover of Fad Gadget’s ‘Back To Nature’ by synth supergroup Doublespeak. A darkly funny slab of electro-industrial musique concrète with undertones of Bowie, Eno and JG Ballard, the original 1979 single was a foundational release on Daniel Miller’s Mute label.
Fad Gadget mastermind Frank Tovey, who died of a heart attack almost 25 years ago, was a good friend and early champion of Depeche Mode, playing a key role in the Basildon band signing to Mute.
“Depeche Mode used to record in the same studio as Frank in the early days,” says Vince Clarke. “He was the introduction to alternative electronic music for me. Up to that point, everybody had been into punk, which I wasn’t particularly interested in. So when Neil Arthur suggested we did something with this track, I said yes straight away. It was a very important song for me when I was growing up.”
Neil Arthur knew Frank Tovey too. He says Blancmange played several live shows supporting Fad Gadget in the 1980s, and reminisces about seeing Tovey perform at a festival smeared in shaving cream, his semi-naked flesh steaming after almost electrocuting himself onstage.
In many ways, ’Back To Nature’ is a perfect choice for Doublespeak, who are about to release an album of cover versions, and it’s a brilliant homage to post-punk’s arty experimentalism. The trio give the song a widescreen operatic makeover, while retaining the gnarly and noisy sci-fi oddness of the Fad Gadget track.
“I believe it was the second release on Mute after The Normal,” notes Neil. “So it made me think that it would be a sort of link with Vince and I starting Doublespeak, in the sense that it was a nod to where we both came from. And Frank had so many great songs. With this one, it just seemed right for us to have a go at it.”
‘SUNSET (INSTRUMENTAL)’
The flip-side of our seven-inch is ‘Sunset’, one of only two original tracks composed by Doublespeak so far. A dreamy, airy, gently tumbling and softly glowing synthpop beauty, it’s the first-ever shared writing credit for Vince and Neil, who are long-time friends.
“You know, it’s taken us about 50 years to get to this point,” says Neil, laughing heartily.
‘Sunset’ started out as a Vince sketch and was subsequently reworked by Neil and Benge, who also added lyrics and vocals. The instrumental version is exclusive to this Electronic Sound release.
“We had literally just finished our album, so this would have been around the end of last year, and our record company asked us if we had any tracks that we could use as B-sides on a couple of singles,” continues Neil. “Benge suggested, ‘Well, why don’t we write some new stuff?’. And then Vince said, ‘Oh, I’ve got one or two tunes that might work’. So he sent over these little sequences and they were really lovely instrumentals. I played around with them for a while and ended up adding some lyrics too.”
As well as ‘Sunset’, Neil and Benge also worked on another Vince piece that later evolved into a track called ‘Strange Weather’. It’s a true mark of Vince’s fertile musicality that even the most rudimentary sketches and drafts set aside in his extensive tune bank have a distinctly infectious earworm quality to them.
“They were just some ideas I had for backing tracks,” says Vince modestly. “I’m obsessed with tunes, so it’s great that those two tracks have both been turned into full songs. And it was also especially interesting for the three of us, because writing or working on an original track is a different process to recording covers. There are no rules, no limitations. I would very much like to think that Neil, Benge and I can continue to write more stuff together in the future.”
