Visage - Visage -Reissue- (c) 1997 One Way Records - Polygram
Artist....: Visage
Album.....: Visage
Type......: Album
Source....: CDDA
Tracks....: 11
Genre.....: New Wave
Label.....: One Way Records - Polygram
Catalogue#: OW 34519
Encoder...: LAME 3.97
Quality...: VBR kbps / 44.1KHz / Joint-Stereo
URL.......: http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,181305,00.html
Tracklist:
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01 Visage 03:40
02 Blocks On Blocks 03:55
03 The Dancer 03:58
04 Tar 03:31
05 Fade To Grey 04:03
06 Malpaso Man 04:01
07 Mind Of A Toy 04:41
08 Moon Over Moscow 03:45
09 Visa-Age 04:38
10 The Steps 03:17
11 Fade To Grey (Dance Mix) 06:44
Total:64,3 MB / 46:13 min
Release Notes:
--------------
Note: The One Way Reissue includes a longer and different Fade to Grey
(Dance Mix) (6:43) Bonus Track
[Note to collectors: The 1997 One Way reissue of the album adds a bonus
track, the longer (and far superior) dance mix of "Fade to Grey."
Opening with the tune's arresting synth-bass riff, and featuring a
extended fade marked by exploding backbeats, it heightens the song's
moody atmosphere, and is the way this club classic was meant to be
heard.]
With apologies to Spandau Ballet, Ultravox, and even Duran Duran, this
is the music that best represents the short-lived but always underrated
new romantic movement. That's fitting, because Visage's frontman, Steve
Strange, was the colorfully painted face of the movement, just as this
album was its sound. Warming up Kraftwerk's icy Teutonic electronics
with a Bowie-esque flair for fashion, Strange and the new romantics
created a clubland oasis far removed from the drabness of England's
early-'80s reality -- and the brutality of the punk response to it. And
no one conjured up that Eurodisco fantasyland better than Visage, whose
"Fade to Grey" became the anthem of the outlandishly decked-out Blitz
Kids congregated at Strange's club nights. With its evocative French
female vocals, distant sirens and pulsing layers of synthesizers, "Fade
to Grey" is genuinely haunting, the definite high point for Visage and
their followers. But the band's self-titled debut is a consistently
fine creation, alternating between tunes that share the eerie ambience
of "Fade to Grey" ("Mind of a Toy," "Blocks on Blocks") and others that
show off a more muscular brand of dance-rock (the title track, filled
with thundering electronic tom-tom fills, and the sax-packed
instrumental "The Dancer"). Strange and drummer/nightclub partner Rusty
Egan had wisely surrounded themselves with top-level talent, primarily
drawn from the bands Ultravox and Magazine, and the excellent playing
of contributors like guitarists Midge Ure and John McGeoch, bassist
Barry Adamson, synthesist Dave Formula, and, especially, electric
violinist Billy Currie, all of whom give the album a depth unmatched by
most contemporaneous techno-pop. And despite the group's frequently
dramatic pose, Strange and his bandmates were hardly humorless; the
first single, "Tar," is a witty anti-smoking advertisement, while the
Eastwood homage "Malpaso Man" adds some incongruous cowboy twang to the
dance beats. Only the closing track, the instrumental "The Steps," is
inconsequential -- the rest of Visage proves the new romantics left a
legacy that transcends their costumes and makeup. [Note to collectors:
The 1997 One Way reissue of the album adds a bonus track, the longer
(and far superior) dance mix of "Fade to Grey." Opening with the tune's
arresting synth-bass riff, and featuring a extended fade marked by
exploding backbeats, it heightens the song's moody atmosphere, and is
the way this club classic was meant to be heard.] ~ Dan LeRoy, All
Music Guide