Private View

Product Information

Private View is set for release on London Records almost exactly 40 years to the day since they released their debut, Happy Families. When not immersed in music, Aaron enjoys spending time with the loves of his life -- his wife Andrea, and daughters Emily and Linda (all of whom have an intense love of music too). So Fader and Blancmange have fundamentally different starting points, even though it’s the same two people.

MAEVE STEELE HONEYLAND INDEPENDENT Some artists need a few albums to establish their artistic presence. In 2021, Blancmange released the wonderful Commercial Break, and it seemed that Arthur rediscovered the guitar. This led to a career in radio, writing for various publications, and ultimately a radio show about The Beatles (Beatles Universe), which ran for over four years. I’d have people coming up in the pub saying really nice things, and others saying ‘Are you looking at my girlfriend? Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site.The bittersweet story of Blancmange is like the plot of some great, unmade Richard Curtis synthpop film. More sequencer driven, ‘Reduced Voltage’ echoes CAN in its groovy kosmische precision but the guitars are turned up in the second half, contrary to the title. Private View will be released on London Records almost exactly 40 years to the day since the label released Blancmange’s debut album Happy Families.

Did the clobber make a slightly overawed 1980s pop star feel more at home with the trappings of celebrity? Like to make my life look super cool and exciting online, but usually found at home, with my dogs, sipping wine and listening to Nicki French!Four decades on from Blancmange’s first release, ‘Private View’ is a cohesive body of work and, with a creative streak that shows no sign of slowing down, one that has us itching to see where Neil takes his sound next. Forty years after Happy Families, Blancmange are back on London Records with a new album, Private View. Private View is not a confessional album, but rather an album from an artist who knows how to use his art and talent to tell his stories and explore not only his own emotions, but also the impact of the world around him.

Forty years after adding understated guitar lines to Blancmange’s 1982 debut album Happy Families, Rhodes has brought equally tasteful textures to Private View. True, but what’s great about Blancmange is that the songs never feel like they’re self-consciously about Big Things. Their latest - 'Private View' - is an accumulation of 40 years of musical knowledge to create perhaps their most free flowing to date. Since reforming just over a decade ago, Neil Arthur has used Blancmange to experiment with sounds and express new found soundscapes across a further ten records.Originally from the UK’s post punk DIY scene, Blancmange found success in 1982, long player Happy Families selling Gold in the UK, and its 3 singles becoming international hits. David Rhodes and Dinesh were in hysterics, and Stephen had his back to me in his sari… I thought ‘Oh God, he’s really pissed off with me’. With plans to take it across the UK, we caught up with Neil to discuss how touring life has changed over the past four decades. Mindset… then Expanded Mindset… then Nil By Mouth III… then Commercial Break… then Nil By Mouth IV and V, then the Fader album, Quartz… and now Private View. The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.

A lot of people are frightened of the future and are quite happy to have a repeat of something that was done before,” he says. Continuing FADER partner Benge as producer who worked on the recent BLANCMANGE albums ‘Unfurnished Rooms’, ‘Wanderlust’, ‘Mindset’ and ‘Commercial Break’, ‘Private View’ presents a striking opener in ‘What’s Your Name’; not a cover of the 1981 DEPECHE MODE tune, despite a sparse vibey start, it strums and crashes into action while Arthur uses a manipulated voice treatment to give a sense of other worldly alienation away from the indie rock track that this could easily be. In your user account, you can import your Spotify library or ‘follow’ artists you find on our site to add them to your ‘favourites’.while John Grant continues to profess his love for Arthur’s music, old and new, and has invited Blancmange to perform as part of Grace Jones’ Meltdown festival. I used to do a lot of swimming, and Stephen was keen too – so we challenged them to a competition and we whupped their arses.