Bill Red Noise Nelson - Sound on Sound

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Free Music Notes for Sound on Sound

Free Music Review: Nelsons finestelectro pop perfection digitally remastered
Hit: 5 Stars

Bill Nelson had established his name as singer/songwriter in the mid-seventies with Be Bop Deluxe, releasing five studio albums in five years, each of which progressed their initial Ziggy-plays-Yes hybrid, evolving it into a highly distinctive quasi-futuristic commercial rock sound. By 1978 Nelson was lauded as one of the most gifted and creative guitarists this country has ever produced, regularly featuring in the top-ten polls run by the music press, and lionized by magazines such as International Musician and Guitarist. Yet he was becoming increasingly bored by the musical limitations of his role as axe hero and the expectations that went along with it. He thus split Be Bop and, with one ear on New Wave acts such as Magazine and fellow labelmates Wire, and another on the emerging electronic influence of Kraftwerk and The Yellow Magic Orchestra, he produced a record which sounded unlike anything else released that year. With its angular rhythms, layered synthetics, and Dave Mattacks' idiosyncratic drum patterns, 'Sound-on-Sound' was immediately notable for its total absence of guitar solos. To many Be Bop fans, still in a quandary after the minimalism of the previous year's `Drastic Plastic' release this was like Jimi Hendrix recording an album on the flugel horn. Yet, as Bill himself sung, with Be Bop he was "out of touch" but with Red Noise, essentially a troupe of session musicians rounded-up for recording purposes, he was cutting edge, and that meant discarding the self-indulgent guitar solo that had been the trademark of rock music for well over a decade and an intrinsic part of his own previous work. Yet the most exceptional feature of this album is not the way it rejects conventional rock cliches, although that in itself is refreshing, but the actual songs themselves. This is by far the most commercial record Nelson ever made, each track a pop gem, every chorus a radiant burst of understated sing-along passion. Titles like 'Art/Empire/Industry' and 'Don't Touch Me (I'm Electric)' belie the outright catchiness of their hooks. This was pop music of the future, firmly grounded in the now, whilst simultaneously waiving goodbye to the seventies and the musical excesses that went with it.

'Sound on Sound' was indeed a record ahead of its time - but only just! Within eighteen months David Bowie would release his own rock/pop/science fiction vision for the eighties, 'Scary Monsters' (recorded with Be Bop and Red Noise keyboard player Andrew Clark), and the synth-pop movement, typified by Ultravox and Gary Numan, would storm the UK charts, giving birth to New Romanticism en route. Yet somehow, unlike his peers output, 'Sound-on-Sound' still sounds fresh, as though it were recorded last month rather than two decades ago. Perhaps that is because the resonances of this sole Red Noise album can still heard today in major label acts such as Elastica, Ultrasound and Gay Dad, as well as in underground outfits like Cardiacs (their entire recorded output - thirteen albums worth - all contain variations on the 'Sound-on-Sound' template).

Now turned fifty, Nelson continues to make albums, last year signing to Robert Fripp's DGM label. Since the late-eighties he has become increasingly infatuated with capturing the creative spark at work, improvising material direct to tape and describing it as 'sonic snapshots', sketches rather than finished pieces. This resulted in many of his innumerable CD releases sounding like a collection of half-baked ideas haphazardly flung together as opposed to the fully-rounded soundscapes he used to construct. Although his latest, 'Atom Shop', is something of a return to form, 'Sound-on-Sound' captures Nelson at his creative and artistic peak. Buy it, enjoy it, stay young (and keep in touch).

Richard Scarr

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