Chart for stowaways – 15 July 2017

Summer is the time when the charts go quiet, but here are the singles:

1. Saint Etienne – Sweet Arcadia
2. Erasure – Love You To The Sky
3. Pet Shop Boys – Reunion
4. Saint Etienne – Magpie Eyes
5. Jean-Michel Jarre – Oxygène (Part 17)
6. Kraftwerk – Trans Europa Express
7. Jean-Michel Jarre & Pet Shop Boys – Brick England
8. Erasure – Be Careful What You Wish For!
9. Depeche Mode – Where’s the Revolution
10. Pet Shop Boys – Undertow

Stowaway Heroes – Daniel Miller

Our first stowaway hero is Daniel Miller, boss of Mute Records, and one of the most influential and seemingly hands-off individuals in the world of electronic music. In his late twenties, he was working as a film editor, and scraped together enough money to buy a synthesiser. His resulting 1978 solo double a-side single T.V.O.D. / Warm Leatherette, released as The Normal, is fundamentally brilliant:

It’s not clear to me whether Miller actually intended for Mute to become a fully fledged record label or whether it was all supposed to just be a one-off, but always way ahead of the curve, he also came up with his own virtual group Silicon Teens, who released a couple of great singles including Memphis Tennessee:

But of course, Mute is most famous for the astonishing roster of artists who were signed over the decades that followed, including mainstream acts such as Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Moby, Nick Cave, New Order, underground and cult successes including Fad Gadget and I Start Counting, and even (briefly) Kraftwerk. And he didn’t completely keep his hands off their output either – here’s his take on Erasure‘s Supernature:

He also presented a radio show on Berlin’s Radio Eins and remains well respected throughout the music industry, despite the slightly questionable sale of Mute to EMI for £23 million in 2002 (which was fortunately rectified by a split in 2009). It’s rare for someone so influential to turn up in so many places but be so unknown. So he’s a worthy first hero for this blog – hats off to Daniel Miller.

Chart for stowaways – 8 July 2017

These are the top albums right now:

1. Saint Etienne – Home Counties
2. Erasure – World Be Gone
3. Kraftwerk – 3-D Der Katalog
4. Depeche Mode – Spirit
5. Goldfrapp – Silver Eye
6. Jean-Michel Jarre – Oxygène 3
7. New Order – Music Complete
8. New Order – Lost Sirens
9. Jean-Michel Jarre – Electronica 2: The Heart of Noise
10.  Erasure – Hits! The Very Best of

Chart for stowaways – 1 July 2017

Here’s the latest singles chart:

1. Saint Etienne – Sweet Arcadia
2. Erasure – Love You To The Sky
3. Saint Etienne – Magpie Eyes
4. Depeche Mode – Where’s the Revolution
5. Jean-Michel Jarre – Oxygène (Part 17)
6. Pet Shop Boys – Undertow
7. Jean-Michel Jarre & Pet Shop Boys – Brick England
8. Erasure – Be Careful What You Wish For!
9. Kraftwerk – Trans Europa Express
10. New Order – Restless

Begin again – revisiting the beginner’s guides

In all, between 2014 and 2015, this blog posted 66 beginner’s guides. The idea was to present six things:

• Key moments – why you might have heard of these people before
• Where to start – my thoughts on which of their albums to buy or listen to first
• What to buy – the three items you should track down next
• Don’t bother with – an item that is probably best avoided, or definitely should wait until you graduate to the level of completist
• Hidden treasure – one song that’s hidden away somewhere and should be located at all costs
• For stowaways – some collected highlights from their posts on this blog

They were very popular – in fact, for a long time, Depeche Mode‘s was the most popular post on this blog, and while that does suggest to me that it reached the wrong audience slightly, it’s still a good thing. They were also divisive – inevitably, people disagreed with a lot of what I wrote and told me so in angry or passive-aggressive ways. This is the internet, after all.

So what’s happened since they were written? Here are some highlights:

• Air released a vinyl-only box set called Music for Museum, which you can probably skip for now
• Conjure One released Holoscenic, which is nearly as good as their debut album, so is probably worth tracking down
• Crystal Castles came back with a new lineup – I haven’t heard it yet, but the feedback seemed positive
• Depeche Mode returned with the fantastic Spirit. You wouldn’t want to start with it, but it should be high on the list
• Erasure keep churning albums out every couple of years, and finally seem to have returned to the consistent quality of the late 1980s and early 1990s
• Goldfrapp have a new album, but it’s not quite as good as the previous one
• The Human League have a new best of to consider, A Very British Synthesizer Group
• Hot Chip keep throwing out great albums every time you turn your back for a moment
• Jean Michel Jarre has managed three fantastic new albums: the two Electronica volumes and Oxygène 3
• Kraftwerk now have a diverting live collection to consider
• New Order now have the fantastic Music Complete to add to the list, which wouldn’t be a bad thing to add to the “what to buy” list either
• Pet Shop Boys brought us the lovely Super
• Röyksopp reappeared with two albums, Do It Again and The Inevitable End, before taking what looked at the time like an early retirement
• Saint Etienne reissued their reissue series and just came back with Home Counties

You can find the index to all the beginner’s guides here.

Chart for stowaways – 24 June 2017

Here are the albums this week:

1. Kraftwerk – 3-D Der Katalog
2. Saint Etienne – Home Counties
3. Erasure – World Be Gone
4. Depeche Mode – Spirit
5. Jean-Michel Jarre – Oxygène 3
6. New Order – Music Complete
7. Goldfrapp – Silver Eye
8. New Order – Lost Sirens
9. Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon
10. Gorillaz – Humanz

Chart for stowaways – 17 June 2017

Here are the week’s top singles:

1. Erasure – Love You To The Sky
2. Saint Etienne – Sweet Arcadia
3. Jean-Michel Jarre – Oxygène (Part 17)
4. Depeche Mode – Where’s the Revolution
5. Saint Etienne – Magpie Eyes
6. Kraftwerk – Trans Europa Express
7. Pet Shop Boys – Undertow
8. Erasure – Be Careful What You Wish For!
9. New Order – Restless
10. Jean-Michel Jarre & Pet Shop Boys – Brick England