(July 2010) In 2008 a (new) label emerged in the UK. Quietly it appeared with a 7″ release, and as quietly as it had surfaced it seemed to vanish once again. The label is Attractive! and the 7″, Discreet Affair is by The Phone aka Jonni Mogul and features four varied pieces of synth pop music. It looked like this quartet of minimal synth was going to be the offering of Steven Lippert’s label. This isn’t the case, with Attractive! coming out of hibernation with two new 7″ releases.
First up for the new season is a mini minimal synth compilation, Attractive Too. The 7″ opens in classical new wave form with Poeme Electronique. The group hit synth pop popularity with the hauntingly catchy “Echoes Fade”, and have recently re-issued an album on Anna Logue. For Attractive! the track “Fragile” is loaned from the album, here in the raw glory of its original form. Label boss Lippert teams up with Clive Weston to form Treeline who appear with their shimmering instrumental piece “It’s No Good Trying To Reason With Me.” The flipside sees Anna Logue Records head honcho Marc Schaffer stepping up to the plate, or maybe Platte, under his Complicated Memories moniker. The track, “Remember [You & I] ,” is a wonderfully upbeat piece of synth pop. With just the right tempo, slight of hand synth slides blend effortlessly with gently vocoded lyrics. Attractive!’s premier artist, The Phone, closes the record with a homage to Kraftwerk’s “Trans Europa Express:” “White Noise Symphony.” The trademark chugging tones of the Dusseldorf original are layered over with rich analogue tones and deeply electrified vocals.
The Phone is back for Attractive!’s latest 7″, entitled Cabaret Noir. The release starts out with the title piece, an upbeat track of powerful beats and a heavy synthline strewn across angst filled vocals. “Film In Slow Motion” is a short angry work of brash beats and anti social chords. The flipside introduces the shifting lines of “Scientist X,” with rising analogue tones built over heavily vocoded lyrics producing a really well conceived piece of minimal synth. The finale comes in the form of “Dub Missile,” a rework of “Cabaret Noir” with heavier beats and a squirming synthline, Sharon Abbott of Poeme Electronique lends her vocals to be twisted and shaped by The Phone’s knob twiddles.
7″s are a fading media, but Addictive! is a label keeping them alive. The UK imprint has managed to pack a serious amount of diversity onto the smallest vinyl medium, from cold wave and minimal synth to a more electro pop centred sound. Attractive! has established some great links within the wave world, such as teaming up with the likes of Poeme Electronique and the Anna Logue camp. With this, Lippert’s label are bringing new artists to the fore such as The Phone. The only criticism is that 7″s are too small, and as each one ends you’re left wanting more; though this is fair from scathing commentary.
All released above are out now on Attractive!.
