REVIEW OF THE SHAPE OF THINGS (RELEASED ON 19 MARCH, 2012)
4/5 MOJO MAGAZINE
Early Ultravox enigma’s second with Benge.
Never a man to shout from the rooftops when an electronically distorted murmur will do, John Foxx is quietly top-ranking among techno heroes, revered by everyone from Eno and Gary Numan to today’s Coldwave crew. Reuniting here with his co-conspirator from last year’s Interplay (Benge is The Maths), Foxx consummately spirits up a breadth of mood rare in electronica, from ‘Tides” exultant motorik and ‘Vapour Trails” giddy, Depeche Mode-like-synth-pop, to the macabre ‘Talk’ – an unilluminated collision of Plastikman and Bauhaus. Bringing also a literary gravitas to his emotional dissections (wistful memory, feverish longing etc), plus some savage Keith Levene-style guitar on ‘Falling Away’, he sings sometimes with the measured dignity of Man Machine-era Ralf Hutter (‘September Town’), at others with operatic melodrama (‘Rear-View Mirror’). Yet, The Shape Of Things is consistently absorbing, as good as any of Foxx’s early-80s benchmarks.’
You must be logged in to post a comment.