In the early 1980s with Wire in hiatus and nominal front man Colin Newman exploring a more classic sound on A To Z and Not To, his bandmates BC Gilbert and Graham Lewis delved into abstract ambient, electronic and musique concrete under the name Dome. A studio encounter with Mute founder Daniel Miller (The Normal and Silicon Teens) led to the recording and 1982 release of this one-off collaboration which was and has been largely disregarded but has now been remastered by Stefan Betke AKA Pole.
Duet Emmo is an odd combination: the austerity of Gilbert and Lewis knocking against Miller’s playful synth pop proclivities. Or So It Seems plays with this dichotomy with mixed results finding some intersections and common ground between the three. Something of a time capsule, the album looks backwards to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Brian Eno’s ambient works, nods to contemporaries like Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle and displays some DNA of future synth pop, industrial ambience and techno.
On the song-based side, Gilbert takes lead vocals on the title track with the orotund theatricality typical of a section of the English synth scene. He aims for deep seriousness but leaves enough wriggle room to combat accusations of pretense. The result sounds like a lesser Eyeless in Gaza played over a slowed down version of Silicon Teens souped up synth rendition of “Memphis Tennessee.” “The First Hand” has a rolling squelchy Radiophonic riff and proto-techno arpeggiated synths as Gilbert and Miller intone sententious lines about love in a consumerist climate. Both are more interesting for what they could have been and how they point to the future.
“Long Sledge” is a 16-plus minute long ambient drone piece. Distant bass drum and tom beats back machine noise that ebbs and flows like an aural tour of an ironworks in winter. When the drums drop out, it feels like the gates and windows have been thrown open to snow filled gusts as the molten metal cracks and screams at the affront. “Gatemmo” sounds like an outtake from any number of modern voice based ambient records.
Or So It Seems is a fascinating document of its time, an anomalous entry into the discographies of its producers but nonetheless of interest to fans of both and the scenes from which they emerged and in Miller’s case championed. A step on the path from Eno, COUM Industries and Western Works to synth pop and beyond.
Life´s too short for weird music Adventskalender - 13.12.2018
Duet Emmo / Or so it seems
Daniel Miller hat insbesondere in den ersten Jahren sein Label Mute Records immer wieder auch dazu benutzt, seine aberwitzigen musikalischen Ideen zu verwirklichen. Nach The Normal und den Silicon Teens setzt Miller 1982 das One-off Projekt „Duet Emmo“ gemeinsam mit Bruce Gilbert und Graham Lewis (Wire) in die Welt. One-off, weil nach einem Album „Or so it seems“ schon wieder Schluss ist. Zwar kommerziell (leider) völlig unbedeutend, ist aber bis heute der Titelsong „Or so it seems“ eines der kultigsten Musikstücke in der 40-jährigen Werkschau von Mute Records.
