On Jun 21, 2005, at 3:46 PM, Cyclone Wehner wrote:
I unearthed an Ultravox 'best of' for very little the other day. This
is one
of the most underrated electronic bands ever... - always found Midge
Ure's
soulful tones very affecting. I was not in favour of their later
material -
too Big Country/Simple Minds like for me - but anything circa Vienna
was
great. The comp I got, The Finest, has Midge's rendition of Fade To
Grey
(live) which is vastly different to the version they did with Steve
Strange
as Visage but kinda cool since Midge possesses a stronger voice, and a
very
soulful one. More guitar oriented, less atmospheric, but edgy and
cool.
Anyone heard it? It's interesting that Visage should retain their cool
longer than Ultravox, but I think on the whole the Visage material was
excellent and still sounds compelling.
Whoa, this must be the Generation Gap[tm] speaking. (Sorry Cyclone :-)
)
To me, there's Ultravox! and then there's Ultrasheen. Ultravox! were a
great band, fronted by John Foxx. Ultrasheen was (IMHO) pompous wank,
fronted by Midge Ure. I can't stand any of the Ure era stuff, it's
awful.
Visage retains their cool longer than Ultrasheen because they were a
better band. There's a reason you'll still hear Visage's "Frequency 7"
and not the Midge Ure/Ultrasheen stuff; the former pisses all over the
latter from a great height. IMNSHO, of course :-)
I'd never heard the Ultravox (or poss Midge solo) version of Fade To
Grey
but I knew Ultravox basically were Visage with the addition of Steve
Strange.
Nope, nope, nope. Visage was half of Ultrasheen with half of Magazine
(Barry Adamson, Dave Formula) and John McGeogh (Magazine/Banshees/PiL)
along with Steve Strange.
Ultravox's Vienna is one of the best records EVER.
BGAK! *Sputter* ;)
My own (highly biased) suggestions:
Foxx's "Metamatic". (One of the Greatest Albums Ever Made)
"Systems Of Romance". (Classic)
"Ha! Ha! Ha!". (If only for "Hiroshima Mon Amour", one of their best)
"Ultravox!" (first album) if the rest made you a fan.
Avoid all Ure-era Ultravox like the plague :-)
Ob313: Someone's been posting a lot of good 313 to Usenet's
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.electronic newsgroup lately. (And I found the
Visage album and German "Fade To Grey" 7" single posted to
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.gothic-industrial)
- Greg
