ultravox! / john foxx

The first three Ultravox albums are very different from the band that hit the big time in 1980 with Vienna. Under the leadership of John Foxx, Ultravox! (with the ! apeing that of the German band NEU!) issued three albums between 1976 and 1978 which run the gamut of trashy glam, punk,  and eventually synth pop. It’s occasionally a bit rubbish, especially when they try too hard to be punks, and clearly they’re way too nice and middle-class to pull it off convincingly. But on the whole it’s a cracking mixture of the punk sensibility, the clear musical influences of Roxy and Bowie, and Foxx’s literary inclinations (especially his JG Ballard influences which see his lyrics peppered with lines about machines and liquids and stuff). Plus this band can play.

The first self-titled album sees all sorts of instruments thrown into the mix – wobbly synths, manic violins, incongruous acoustic guitar on the epic "I Want To Be A Machine", even some r’n’b style harmonica. It’s all a bit of a muddle to be honest, but in the same way that first Roxy album was a huge mess of ideas. It’s not as good as the first Roxy album, not be a long chalk, but the ambition is clear. The whole thing is a bit rough and ready, but the assistance of both Steve Lillywhite and Brian Eno helps pull the album together. Eno was at Island studios mixing some of this album when one of Ultravox took a call for him. Eno didn’t like being interrupted, but he was told it was an international call, and the guy on the other end says he’s David Bowie. Still thinking it was a prank, Eno reluctantly took the call, and by the end of the week he was helping Bowie record Low at the Chateau d’Herouville just outside Paris.

The second Ultravox album, Ha! Ha! Ha! was recorded in the first few weeks of 1977 and has an appealingly vital live sound. The songs are way more focused and tighter and display a far stronger commercial sense than on the debut. And the best ideas are those that clearly point the way forward – the closing track, the hugely electronic "Hiroshima Mon Amour" is an astounding leap forward from the opening punky thrash of "ROckWrok" (and check out that crazy spelling folks, and surely the title came from the not at all punk 801’s "RongWrong"?) But despite the chilly Germanic soundscapes of "Hiroshima" that song on this album that really sums up the Foxx era is "The Man Who Dies Every Day" – a stomping electronic beat, woozy keyboards, jagged guitars and a very English lyric which marvellously rhymes ‘a moment in the rain’ with ‘a gesture of disdain’, delivered in Foxx’s clinical croon. And it’s supremely catchy.

The third Foxx album, 1978’s Systems Of Romance, is more of a precursor to Vienna in terms of the overall sound, but apart from a few key songs, it seems to me to be rather confused as to what’s it’s trying to achieve. There’s still a number of guitar-led tracks that try to hang onto the punk sound even though it’s clear by now that Ultravox don’t do that very successfully. The more synth based songs are notably much better – the dreamlike "Slow Motion" is especially good and "When You Walk Through Me" is basically a psychedelic Beatles-type song (complete with phasing and Warren Cann playing the drum part from "Tomorrow Never Knows"). It’s a good album, but perhaps not as enjoyable as Ha! Ha! Ha!.

And then Foxx was gone, intent on becoming a Machine, delivering the astonishingly good Metamatic at the start of 1980. Gary Numan steals much of the Systems Of Romance sound for Replicas and The Pleasure Principle (and steals Billy Currie to help him achieve it) and has massive success with a sound and style that Ultravox had originated. By then of course Ultravox had basically split up, during the middle of 1979 (Warren Cann drummed for the Buggles for a while, and Currie played with Numan and then Visage where he met Midge Ure.) Ultravox then reformed with Midge in the winter of 1979 / 1980 and came up with Vienna. And they didn’t look back after that!

ultravox!

Today’s music – early Ultravox! That’s the John Foxx stuff and the band’s name with the ! (an idea nicked from Neu!)

The first self titled Ultravox! album is a bit of a muddle, with half a dozen directions indicated, lots of scratchy new wave style guitars, incongruous violin, some punky stuff, some surprisingly sophisticated songs (like the hugely commercial sound of "Dangerous Rhythm"). It doesn’t really hang together terribly well, but it’s interestingly inventive, and although they were lumped together with the emerging punk movement this debut album proves that Foxx and the boys were on an entirely different course. In many ways it reminds me of the first Japan album, in that it has many punk / new wave elements, (plus some not always successful attempts at spiky white boy funk) but these are surface trappings and there is something entirely different, and impressively original, at its heart. There are synths here, but only to contribute occasional additional ‘weirdness’.

And the first album is produced by Steve Lillywhite and Brian Eno. John Foxx recalls taking a phone call which began "Hallo, this is David Bowie, is Brian Eno there please?" Foxx was speechless. DB was actually inviting the Domed One to Paris to help with the Low sessions…!

Second album Ha Ha Ha starts off very punky and frantic for a few tracks, and it’s all a bit patchy and samey (unlike the debut album), then all of a sudden "Distant Smile" begins with some lovely keyboards and atmospherics. Sadly once the vocals begin it’s as if Ultravox are trying to be the Buzzcocks, and failing rather badly.

Then it all perks up with "The Man Who Dies Every Day", strange, moody and unusual. And despite Foxx’s John Lydon snarl on "While I’m Still Alive" it’s better than much of the early PiL stuff that it sounds like.

But the real killer on this album is the Kraftwerkian drum machine led "Hiroshima, Mon Amour" – it clearly points the way towards both Foxx’s later electronic balladry and Ultravox’s most successful period under Midge Ure. The Andy Mackay-esque saxophone adds a lovely mournful air. And it’s totally out of place on this record! (There is a totally different recording of this track which was used as a b side, and is all guitars and real drums, and would have fitted far better on the album. Interestingly they dropped the more conventional sounding track for the more machine-like version).


1978’s System’s Of Romance takes the band even further from scuzzy guitars and punked up beats. Picking up from "Hiroshima"s lead here we see many more synth dominated tracks, and where the guitar is used it’s often for atmosphere rather than the lead instrument. The opening "Slow Motion" is terrific, and although there are still some of the more frantic New Wave type songs, these are clearly the weaker tracks. The drumming is more machine-like too, the songs pulse and throb rather than rocking out. "Quiet Men" exemplifies this – over a martial drum machine and synth bass Foxx sings in a monotone, and although the guitars are still present the overall impression is that this is a synth band now. The following eerie "Dislocation" takes this further and it is clearly Foxx’s preferred direction as it prefigures tracks like "Burning Car" or "No-One Driving" much more than it does "Sleepwalk" or "Passing Strangers". "Cross Fade" is another pointer to Metamatic. Having said that if you substituted Foxx’s unusual vocals for Midge’s on "When You Walk Through Me" then it wouldn’t be a bad fit on Vienna. Robin Simon’s guitar sound is very close to Midge’s too.

Ultravox split during early 1979 with Foxx going off to record the totally mechanised Metamatic. Billy Currie joined Gary Numan’s band for a while. Numan was a huge Ultravox fan so he was delighted – Currie’s involvement really cements the similarities between Systems Of Romance and Numan’s Replicas and Pleasure Principle. In fact you could mix up many of the songs of these albums and you’d be hard pressed to tell which was which! (Ultravox’s "Maximum Acceleration" is a clear blueprint for Numan tracks like "M.E", especially in the rigid drumming, deep bassy throb and fat minimoog). Numan really copies Foxx’s blanked out whiney vocals too


Currie also worked with Visage during 1979 and it was there that he met ex-Rich Kid (and then a member of Thin Lizzy, weirdly) Midge Ure. Midge connected with Billy straight away – both had strong ideas for atmospheric synth dominated, yet still commercial, music. Midge was introduced to the other members of Ultravox and it was decided to give the band another try. This proved to be a good idea, as the exploratory sessions resulted in an album called Vienna…