Blancmange feel connected ahead of new album.

Synth-pop innovators Blancmange enjoyed their biggest success in the early 1980s but their 21st-century renaissance has been even more prolific. Starting with the 2011 album Blanc Burn and undeterred by the subsequent departure of fellow founder-member Stephen Luscombe due to ill health, vocalist Neil Arthur has continued making new music to the present day.

This week’s release, Everything Is Connected: The Best of Blancmange 1979–2024, brings together highlights from both phases of their career, and is as much a celebration of current creativity as a tribute to past glories. “I’m very proud of the old stuff, but I’m equally proud of the new stuff,” says Arthur. The running order is broadly chronological, the first CD showcasing early hits such as “Living on the Ceiling”, “Blind Vision” and “Don’t Tell Me”, while the second CD closes with the new song “Wish”, recorded this January, and “Empty Street” from 2021’s Commercial Break. “There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing because there's an awful lot of material,” Arthur explains, so songs were frequently swapped as the final tracklist came together. He gives the example of “Lorraine’s My Nurse” from the third Blancmange album, Believe You Me, which he wanted to include because it’s one of the few songs in their catalogue to have been recorded with completely live instruments. But it was also important to him that Luscombe’s central role in the history of Blancmange wasn’t forgotten, so “Lorraine’s My Nurse” eventually made way for “Vishnu” instead: “I thought it was such a brilliant song. I wanted that to be on for Stephen’s sake, really, because it's his song – although it’s down as Blancmange, it’s really Stephen who put that together. ‘Lorraine’s My Nurse’ is nearer to me at that point, so I ditched it, and I think it was the right decision. I adore ‘Vishnu’: I can stand back from that song and really appreciate what Stephen did.”

“The idea is the most important thing, and your confidence to stand by that idea and not over-complicate it – try and keep it simple”

— Arthur

One of the tracks spans the entire length of Blancmange’s existence: “Again, I Wait for the World” started life in 1979 as a demo by L360, a band that Luscombe and Arthur also belonged to during the earliest days of Blancmange. But the song was only finished last year after he came across a box of old cassettes in his attic while moving house. “One of the cassettes said ‘Blancmange/L360’, so I got the old professional Walkman out and had a listen to it – I had a pencil very handy, just in case it got stuck!” After listening to the tape a few times, he found one particular song stayed with him, and eventually inspiration struck. “It was a moment for me – ‘I know exactly what to do with this’ – so I went into the studio and put the thing together very quickly.”

Although now officially a solo act, Arthur has long worked with electronic musician Benge on recordings as both Blancmange and their shared project Fader, while the next album by Near Future, his collaboration with Jez Bernholz, is ready for mixing. “I enjoy it. I get to work with some fantastic musicians who teach me an awful lot.” And the songwriting process is rarely solitary, as he explains. “I don’t often sit in a room to do it. The ideas tend to come to you on a cycle ride or halfway through a football match: somehow you’ve got to keep hold of the idea, which probably morphs whilst it’s whizzing round inside my bonce.” From that initial inspiration, he comes up with a melody and lyrics, creating stems and MIDI files for Benge to work on before they get together to produce the final track. “The wonderful experience and learning curve that you're on, working with people,” is how he describes it. “That's a joy.”

Another collective, The Remainder, with Liam Hutton and Finlay Shakespeare, will open for Blancmange when they head out on tour this month. “I’m foolish enough to have agreed to support myself, so people need to get there early! We will be playing songs from last year's Evensong album, and then we'll go and have a drink of water or a cup of tea, and then come back on in our Blancmange togs.” They are currently busy programming ready for the tour and Arthur says that the setlist will be drawn from across the decades. “Obviously, I’d be daft not to play some of the hits that we were fortunate enough to have but there might be a few more obscure ones in there as well. There’ll be lots of crazy synths because Finlay is playing and controlling synths, so that will be interesting because Liam’s going to be on the electronic drums. I’m trying to put him off on stage!”

In on the ground floor of the synthesizer revolution (although initially unable to afford them and forced to improvise with kitchen utensils instead), Arthur has witnessed massive changes in music technology. “Early Blancmange was tape loops and cassette machines, and at best a four-track TEAC. And then Suitcase [Arthur’s 1994 solo album] was MPCs and computers – alright, maybe the computers were only running MIDI, but when we started with Blancmange there wasn't even MIDI. And obviously nowadays you can record directly into a computer.” But having started out with just the basics, Arthur knows what the true essentials are for making music. “It doesn’t matter how many tracks you’ve got, how many plug-ins you’ve got, VST synths, real synths, it’s nothing without an idea. The idea is the most important thing, and your confidence to stand by that idea and not over-complicate it – try and keep it simple.”

Everything Is Connected: The Best of Blancmange 1979–2024 is out May 10th.

Author: Rachel Goodyear