Thursday 13 May 2010

Walk through polaroids of the past



Scary though it is to think about it, this year marks the 30th anniversary of John Foxx's seminal electronic solo album Metamatic (a work that was hugely influential in my teenage life).

To celebrate, he is curating an all-analogue synthesiser "festival" at the Roundhouse on 5th June. Among the artists expected to appear at the Short Circuit event are Gary Numan (whose success - although later than John Foxx's debut with Ultravox, the band Mr Foxx founded - eclipsed his own) and Holger Czukay of the esoteric German synth pioneers Can.

I am very tempted to go along but, in any case, let us celebrate the brilliance of the fantastic Mr Foxx with a number that really shook me to my core when I first heard it... Underpass!


And here is another masterpiece by Mr Foxx - one of my all-time favourite songs, ever!


Somehow we drifted off too far
Communicate like distant stars
Splintered voices down the 'phone

The sunlit dust, the smell of roses drifts, oh no
Someone waits behind the door
Hiroshima mon amour

Riding inter-city trains
Dressed in European grey
Riding out to echo beach

A million memories in the trees and sands, oh no
How can I ever let them go?
Hiroshima mon amour

Meet beneath the autumn lake
Where only echoes penetrate
Walk through Polaroids of the past

Future's fused like shattered glass, the sun's so low
Turns our silhouettes to gold
Hiroshima mon amour

Read the article on the BBC

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