Lloyd Cole - 1D Electronics 2012-2014

by Tony Gaughan

published: 23 / 10 / 2015

Label: Bureau B
Format: CD

Experimental and difficult instrumental-only electronic album from acclaimed 80's star, Lloyd Cole

Review

Okay, so the title should have given away that this was not going to be vintage Lloyd Cole from the heyday of the stunning 'Rattlesnakes' debut with his Commotions, nor indeed the solo material released up to now by Scotland's adopted son. Now residing in the U.S. of A with his family, he has returned to do the odd show which feature many of the incredible hits he had which work with or without a band. '1D' is an "experiment" and doesn't feature vocals or guitars,nor a drum or a piano. Well, that is not strictly true as there probably was a piano and a computer used in the recording process. Cole, following a collaboration with German composer Hans Jochiam Roedelius, designed and built a modular synthesiser and programmed it to produce this record. The hardest part according to him was choosing the length of the pieces and exactly when to end each of the programmed sequences. Opener 'Slight Piece' sounds not unlike a Kraftwerk-inspired piece, but I expected a vocal, maybe a strum or two of twelve-string but there is none of that. It features eleven almost completely circuited tracks. In fact it's evident that each 'piece' is a self-contained electronic circuit which had to be edited and blended into this very different release. If you want to hear vintage Lloyd be ready to be heartbroken, but if you like electronica you might find a place for this