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LOW STOCK LEVEL
1-2 Weeks
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ARTIST
TITLE
Howl
FORMAT
CD
LABEL
CATALOG #
META 067CD
META 067CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
9/4/2020
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John Foxx And The Maths return with a new line-up on their fifth studio album, Howl. Former Ultravox guitarist Robin Simon joins Foxx, Benge (Ben Edwards), and Hannah Peel after previously guesting with The Maths at their debut Roundhouse show in 2010. Work on the album began back in April 2019 at Benge's Memetune studios in Cornwall with Rob Simon involved right from the start, his contributions instantly mutating the original ideas into something new. Foxx who first worked with Simon on Ultravox's Systems Of Romance album in 1978. Forward-looking, intuitive and risk taking from the start (Critic Mark Fisher summed them up as "a glimpse into another world in which rock 'n' roll was invented on Moogs") their passion for the strange sounds and atmospheres they seduce and rip from the machines in Benge's studio has inspired a series of fiercely personal electronic records -- The Shape of Things (META 029LP, 2012), Evidence (META 031CD, 2013), and The Machine (META 062CD/LP, 2017), an eerie instrumental score for the theatre production of E.M. Forster's The Machine Stops. Along the way they've collaborated with The Soft Moon, Gazelle Twin, ADULT., Xeno & Oaklander, Gary Numan, Matthew Dear, and many more, but at the core of everything is Foxx and the Cornish-based artist/producer. Hannah Peel joined the line-up on the Interplay tour in 2011 and has played every show since, while also adding violin to Evidence and of course, Howl. Foxx describes her string-led contributions as "luscious, expansive and eloquent." The Maths have created an album of dark, writhing glamor. Opener "My Ghost" sounds like haunted static in a cold wind, the title track is a twisted glam-punk celebration of "the outsider" who leaves the fringes to make himself visible, while Foxx switches to a sinister Ferry-esque croon on "Tarzan And Jane Regained". "New York Times" is a report back from the city of the 1970s, with Foxx's vocals gently coaxing out the vulnerability of its street characters and Factory stars, while "Last Time I Saw You" revels in an ice-cool narrative illuminated by neon-lit transformations and flickering revelations -- this song is built for streets and strobes. The album ends with "Strange Beauty", where Foxx sounds like an echo from the 1950s -- a voice that is still searching across all these years for something just out of reach.
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