The first age of synth-pop was a shot in the arm that British music didn’t realise that it needed as the 60s utopian dream gave way to the pressurised vacuum and realistic demands that the 1970s pushed upon a beige and dispirited land. Punk and Disco had filled the void left by the power pop years and the muscle of the first wave of Progressive Rock, the new wave of Heavy Metal was still come and blow the minds of many, but the advent of bands such as The Human league, Depeche Mode, Heaven 17, ABC and Blancmange were ready to add a sense of new direction to the charts and the lives of those who were too young for Punk, too cool for Disco.
The big three from Sheffield always seemed to dominate the headlines, the beauty of Basildon was always going to make itself known, but to the absolute craft always displayed by the duo that made up Blancmange, that was arguably the seminal display of what the genre could achieve, one that was proved eternally by their reading of Abba’s The Day Before You Came, which to this day surely ranks as one of the all-time cover version ever produced.
On 19th October 2018, Blancmange released a new album of ten songs composed by Neil Arthur, and arranged, co-produced and mixed with Benge (Wrangler/Creep Show) at the latter’s Memetune Studios in Cornwall. This followed their collaborative project Fader (the debut First Light album came out in June 2017) and they also worked together on last year’s Blancmange record Unfurnished Rooms, described by Mojo as “detached, wistful, touched by computer-age unease.”
Blancmange will now be returning to Liverpool, the scene of many a conquest of synth-pop hearts and will be taking in The Arts Club on May 4th as part of a U.K. Tour.