A Cycle Without End

A dozen picks from my weekend music haul, half-and-half new releases and newly discovered.

I've been dipping into the PRAH label archives, including their annual 'Scratching The Surface...' samplers, mostly name your price and bursting with curiosities from their catalogue. Choice picks here are from Gentle Stranger and Raven Bush, plus a remix of Stroud-based 4-piece The Umlauts by label mate Hiro Ama. All good stuff and well worth a visit.

There's quite an electronic lean to this selection, spanning Prins Thomas, Luke Vibert and Soulwax, from 10:40 to Pye Corner Audio via 100 Poems, with a bold Bowie cover.

Autumns are new to me and I've been listening to the Through The Re-Construction Of Grace EP on repeat. The remix of Trolley Coin featured here has a real Mark Stewart vibe, which I love. A perfect counterpoint is DJ Lui's edit of a Fad Gadget classic, Lady Shave.

Wrapping things up is a remix of Not On The Radar, the title track of Mark Fry's 2025 album. As a teenager in 1971, Mark released Dreaming With Alice, which went on to become a psychedelic cult album. Three and a half decades later, the difficult second album appeared and Mark's been on a roll since, Not On The Radar being album #5.

And who to remix? None other than Richard Norris, delivering another slice of sonic sunshine.

It was such a fruitful shopping trip that a second 12-song selection will be popping up here sometime this week. In the meantime, try then go off and buy!

1) Boiler Suits & Combat Boots (Hiro Ama Remix): The Umlauts (2022)

2) Cycle: Pye Corner Audio ft. Andy Bell (2026)

3) Once In A While: Gentle Stranger (2021)

4) Løveskatt (Prins Thomas Diskomiks): Ora The Molecule (2025)

5) Winner: 10:40 (2026)

6) Perfect We Are Not: Soulwax (2026)

7) To Ziggy With Love (Cover of 'Ziggy Stardust' by David Bowie): 100 Poems (2026)

8) Floss: Raven Bush (2019)

9) Trolley Coin (Dyslexia Mix): Autumns (2026)

10) Lady Shave (DJ Lui Danceteria Edit): Fad Gadget (2015)

11) Don't Touch (Luke Vibert Remix): The Veees (2016)

12) Not On The Radar (Richard Norris Remix): Mark Fry (2025)

2015: Lady Shave EP: 10

2016: The Veees: 11

2019: Jeté EP: 8

2021: Phantom Thoroughfare: 3

2022: Boiler Suits & Combat Boots EP: 1

2025: Løveskatt EP: 4

2025: Not On The Radar: 12

2026: More Songs About The Sun: 2

2026: Partick Sailing Club Presents PSC#001: The Beautiful Flowers Wait For Peace: 7

2026: Perfect We Are Not EP: 6

2026: Through The Re-Construction Of Grace EP: 9

2026: Winner EP: 5

A Cycle Without End (1:02:04) (GD) (M)

Taste The Poison

A brand new Fad Gadget selection today, which was initially inspired by the cover version of debut single Back To Nature by the new electronic supergroup Doublespeak. Comprising Vince Clarke, Neil Arthur and Ben 'Benge' Edwards, Doublespeak in turn chose to release Back To Nature as their debut single earlier this week..

Back To Nature opened The Damage Done, a C90 cassette compilation that I recorded in 1990 and recreated for this blog in 2021. I recorded a further 46-minute Fad Gadget selection in 2024 and so today's collection could be considered 'Side 4' of a mixtape that's been three and a half decades in the making.

Having settled on my today's post, I then realised that today marks the 24th anniversary of Frank Tovey's untimely passing on 3rd April 2002. This post was clearly always meant to be.

Given that creating this selection has pretty much exhausted the Fad Gadget catalogue, bar 12" versions and the odd (with the emphasis on odd) instrumental B-side, this doesn't feel like a barrel scraping exercise in the slightest. In fact, what continues to surprise and delight is how so much of the music sounds like it could have been recorded last week, not decades ago.

The first Fad Gadget album I bought was Under The Flag, Frank's third from 1982, created at a time that the British Army was engaged in war with Argentina over The Falkland Islands. I've listened to the follow up Gag more recently, released two years later and the closest Fad Gadget ever got to a pop album. 1986's Snakes And Ladders by Frank Tovey took it one step further, but he was never going to be O.M.D. or Erasure.

The first two albums, Fireside Favourite (1980) and Incontinent (1981) are wonderfully dark, both in terms of sound palette and lyrical focus, but they are also surprisingly groovy when you least expect it. State Of The Nation from the former and AA-side single Make Room are prime examples of this.

More years have now passed since Frank's death than the entirety of his recording career from 1979 to 2001. Yet, his music continues to inspire and remind us of true innovation, artistry and great, great music.

1) Make Room (1981)

2) Pedestrian (1980)

3) One Man's Meat (Album Version) (1984)

4) Arch Of The Aorta (1980)

5) The Sheep Look Up (1982)

6) Handshake (1980)

7) Innocent Bystander (1981)

8) State Of The Nation (1980)

9) Ad Nauseam (1984)

10) Plainsong (1982)

1980: Fireside Favourites: 2, 4, 8

1980: Ricky's Hand EP: 6

1981: Incontinent: 7

1981: Lady Shave / Make Room EP: 1

1982: Under The Flag: 5, 10

1984: 3, 9

Taste The Poison (46:31) (GD) (M)

For the complete Fad Gadget Dubhed selection, you can pick up The Damage Done (Side 1 & 2) and Watch The Mass Be Served More Trash (Side 3) to add to Taste The {Poison (Side 4)

Inexplicably, you can't buy Fad Gadget or Frank Tovey's music from the Mute Records online shop or via Bandcamp, but you can find their releases on other mainstream platforms.

Agitated, Organised And Over-Educated

Momus' umpteenth album Ballyhoo came out in late July, yet before I've caught up, Nick Currie's popped out another three releases, one new song, one cover version and one revision of an old song.

 

But, Ballyhoo first. Succinctly described as "An album exploring AI composition tools and influenced by K-Pop.", it's exactly that though through Momus' cracked, muddy filter and overlayed with the deft lyricism that typifies his work. And who can resist song titles like The Enshittification Of Everything or Kleptoglade?

Not an album to convert the unconvinced, but if like me you've enjoyed Momus' work over the years, then there is plenty to enjoy here. In an age where Pet Shop Boys, O.M.D. and Gary Numan continue to release new music that reflects but doesn't replicate the sounds of past glories, it's good to see Momus shaking his syrup alongside them.

 

Catchy? Hell yes.

 

I wish I'd caught Orange Pills in time to add it to my post on the US election result last week. The gentle bossanova beat belies the lyrical arrows, each finding their mark. An easy target perhaps, but no reason not to take aim and let fly.

I don't subscribe to Momus' Patreon page although I'm considering it. One of the perks is the opportunity to ask Momus to cover a favourite song of yours, and this has become an ongoing series called, unsurprisingly, Versions. 

In early October, Momus' own choice was a cover of Fad Gadget's "nuclear swinger" Fireside Favourite, (more or less) the title track of his 1980 debut album. Momus' version isn't radically different but in an interesting take on the accompanying video, his vocals are synced to footage of Fad aka Frank Tovey performing the song live, four decades previously.

An early Momus favourite of mine was I Was A Maoist Intellectual from his 1988 album Tender Pervert. A live performance from French TV at the time is available on Momus' YouTube channel, though annoyingly audio is confined to a single channel. Thankfully, "Lee Jones" posted a stereo version a while back. It loses a bit of the song at the start, and the picture quality isn't great, but enjoy the music and the days when Momus had lengthy, lop-sided hair, all his own.

 

Fast forward to last Sunday and Momus posted a 2024 remake of the song, which is frankly wonderful. The music has been updated and although the lyrics are unchanged, they still hit the mark, don't they?

 

I was a Maoist intellectual in the music industry I always knew that I could seize the world's imagination And show the possibilities for transformation I saw a nation in decay, but also a solution: 

Permanent cultural revolution Whenever I played my protest songs the press applauded me Rolled out the red carpet, parted the Red Sea But the petit bourgeois philistines stayed away They preferred their artists to have nothing to say How did I pass my time on earth? Now it can be revealed: I was a Maoist intellectual in the entertainment field I showed the people how they lived and told them it was bad Showed them the insanity inside the bureaucrat And the archetypes and stereotypes that were my stock in trade Toppled all the ivory towers that privilege had made Though I tried to change your mind I never tried your patience All I tried to do was to point out your exploitation But the powers that be took this to be a personal insult And refused to help me build my personality cult How did I pass my time an earth, what on earth got into me? I was a Maoist intellectual in the music industry I left the normal world behind and started living in A hinterland between dissolution and self discipline I burned the midnight oil to build my way of seeing A miner at the coal face of meaning The rich despised the songs I wrote which told the poor their worth Told the shy to speak and told the meek to take the earth But my downfall came from being three things the working classes hated: Agitated, organised and over-educated How did I pass my time on earth, how did I bear witness? As a Maoist intellectual in the entertainment business And how was I treated in this world and in this industry? As a Maoist intellectual in a business would be I became a hotel doorman, I stood there on the doormat Clutching my forgotten discs in their forgotten format Trying to hand them out to all the stars who sauntered in The ones who hadn't been like me, who hadn't lived in vain I gave up ideology the day I lost my looks I never found a publisher for my little red books When I died the energy released by my frustration Was nearly enough for re-incarnation But if I could live my life again the last thing that I'd be Is a Maoist intellectual in the music industry No, if I could live my life again I think I'd like to be The man whose job is to stop the men who think like me Yeah! If l could live my life again that'd be the thing to be The man who plots the stumbling blocks In the lives of the likes of me!

Watch The Mass Be Served More Trash

My first Fad Gadget compilation since a C90 cassette in 1990, which I posted on this blog in October 2021. 

 

The trigger for this wasn't the usual random airing of a song or coming across a video or live performance online. No, it was far more innocuous than that. Surfing the crap TV the other day, I spotted an advert for a Channel 5 show called Your Kitchen: 60 Years Of Fads & Gadgets. I mean, what more sign does one need?

 

As the original selection was a 20-track 'best of', this is arguably the 'best of the rest', but there's absolutely no barrel scrapng here. There are three singles - For Whom The Bells Toll, Fireside Favourite and I Discover Love - alongside the debut B-side from 1979, The Box.

 

Wheels Of Fortune has featured on another various artists cassette that I've compiled and posted here previously. Taken from 1982 Falklands War commentary Under The Flag, it's one of several tracks to feature label mate Alison Moyet on the saxophone.

Sleep appeared on the 1984 album Gag, an earlier version circa 1982 appearing as the B-side to One Man's Meat, the final single by Fad Gadget. Frank Tovey went on to record several albums under his own name and with The Pyros.

In 2001, Mute Records released The Best Of Fad Gadget, which compiled 30 A-sides, B-sides and 12" versions. Amongst them were a couple of new remixes. I Monster tackled Fireside Favourite whilst Frank himself 'regurgitated' Swallow It from 1981 album Incontinent.

On the back of the compilation, Frank revived Fad Gadget for a support slot on Depeche Mode's Exciter tour in late 2001 and then headed out on a headline tour of Europe in January 2002, culminating in the SAMA festival in Gothenburg, Sweden on 30th March 2002. At home in London, on 3rd April 2002, Frank died of a heart attack at age 45. A tragic, shocking loss.

To these ears, Frank Tovey's music as Fad Gadget sounds just as fresh, incisive and relevant as it did when I first heard it in the 1980s.

 

1) Incontinent (1981)

2) Swallow It (Regurgitated) (2001)

3) Stand Up (1984)

4) For Whom The Bells Toll II (Single Version) (1982)

5) Salt Lake City Sunday (1980)

6) Wheels Of Fortune (1982)

7) Speak To Me (1984)

8) Sleep (Electro-Induced Original) (1982)

9) The Box (Single Version) (1979)

10) Blind Eyes (1981)

11) Fireside Favourite (Album Version) (1980)

12) I Discover Love (Single Version) (1983)

 

1979: Back To Nature 7": 9

1980: Fireside Favourites: 5, 11

1981: Incontinent: 1, 10

1982: For Whom The Bells Toll 7": 4 

1982: Under The Flag: 6

1983: I Discover Love 7": 12

1984: Gag: 3, 7 

1984: One Man's Meat 7": 8

2001: The Best Of Fad Gadget: 2

Watch The Mass Be Served More Trash (46:41) (GD) (M)

 

 

You can find my C90 Fad Gadget compilation, The Damage Done, here

A Kick Up The Eighties

Side 1 of a mixtape, recorded 22nd January 1990, and an early Eighties retrospective, a few weeks into the new decade.

This side firmly focuses on 1980 to 1985, with half of the tracks from 1982, now unbelievably (to this listener, at least) four decades ago. It's mostly hits and perhaps obvious choices, with a few oddities from albums and B-sides. All personal favourites.

The title is a nod to the BBC2 TV comedy sketch show of the same name that ran for two series from 1981 to 1984, featuring Rik Mayall, Tracey Ullman, Miriam Margoyles and (from the second series) Robbie Coltrane. A full episode from the first series has been posted on YouTube and is worth a look, if only for the brilliant Rik Mayall as investigative reporter Kevin Turvey.

The cover photo is a even more obscure, a scene from 1987 sci-fi movie, Cherry 2000. You wouldn't know it, but the person precariously hanging on to the car is none other than Melanie Griffith. I've watched the film once, which was possibly one time too many, but the picture seemed a good fit with the title. 

Happy listening!

1) Visage (Album Version): Visage (1980)

2) Today (Single Version): Talk Talk (1982)

3) Europa And The Pirate Twins (Album Version): Thomas Dolby (1981)

4) The Chase (Album Version By Stephen Lipson & Trevor Horn): Propaganda (1985)

5) The Beach: New Order (1983)

6) Blind Vision (Album Version By John Luongo): Blancmange (1983)

7) Night Suit: John Foxx (1981)

8) We Take Mystery (To Bed) (Single Version): Gary Numan (1982)

9) Mad World (Album Version By Chris Hughes & Ross Cullum): Tears For Fears (1982)

10) The Ring: Fad Gadget (1984)

11) The Walk (Album Version): Eurythmics (1982)

1980: Visage: 1

1981: The Garden: 7

1982: The Golden Age Of Wireless: 3 

1982: The Hurting: 9

1982: Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This): 11

1982: Today (7" single): 2

1982: We Take Mystery (To Bed) (7"): 8

1983: Blue Monday (12" single): 5 

1983: Mange Tout: 6

1984: Gag: 10

1985: A Secret Wish: 4 

Side One (45:27) (Box) (Mega)

The Damage Done

8th September marked the 65th anniversary of Frank Tovey's birth; on 3rd April 2022, it'll be twenty years since his death. My recent posting of the 1980s compilation Modern Dance prompted a comment from Mike about the enduring appeal and lasting significance of music we discover as teenagers and, for me, Fad Gadget is a prime example of this.

 

Sometime in 1981, I remember reading - probably in my brother's copy of Smash Hits - that Fad Gadget was supporting Toyah (who I was a big fan of at the time) on tour, mainly because it was accompanied by a photo of Frank/Fad in his "Mr. Punch" costume from the Incontinent album cover. That wasn't my jumping on point, though: that came in slightly reverse order from listening to Tovey's solo album from 1986, Snakes And Ladders, then the final Fad Gadget album from 1984, Gag. The first album that I actually bought for myself, circa 1988 and a couple of quid for a secondhand copy from Replay Records in Bristol, was Fad Gadget's third album, Under The Flag.

 

This is what I had to say about Under The Flag on my old blog, featured in Juicebox Jukebox #4, posted 31st October 2005:

 

Originally released in 1982, the third Fad Gadget album is a direct comment on being British during the Falklands War. Re-released in 1991 (coinciding with the first Gulf conflict), I picked this up recently in a second-hand CD shop, to replace my crackling, worn-out vinyl copy. With the protracted British presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, the album’s lyrical content continues to resonate. Despite being tagged as a leftfield electronic artist, there are traces of the folk tradition in Frank Tovey’s songs, notably the processed accapella of “Plainsoing”, which he would exploit more fully in 1989’s Tyranny And The Hired Hand and his two subsequent albums with The Pyros. 

Tovey’s scepticism of the government’s justifications for war is obvious, For Whom The Bells Toll cynically responding “If I’ve heard them once, I’ve heard them a thousand times before.” The title track’s dismissal that “the script is so damned obvious” could easily be applied to Margaret Thatcher’s cod-Churchill proclamations at the time. Paraphrasing the familiar World War II slogan in Cipher, “Careless talk can cost lives” also implies that criticism of the government’s pro-war stance is seen as unpatriotic, even treasonous, whilst The Sheep Look Up is a self-explanatory expose of the ‘go with the flow’ masses, never questioning the information they are supplied with. The tone throughout is sombre, yet surprisingly rich and layered, with unsettlingly muted contributions from Alison Moyet on backing vocals and saxophone. 

 

Occasionally the tempo picks up but, as the title of robo-disco stomp Love Parasite suggests, this doesn’t represent an escape into hedonistic club culture. Under The Flag was the last fully electronic Fad Gadget album: 1984’s Gag sought a more organic sound, further developed in Frank Tovey’s ‘solo’ albums. 2001’s Best Of reasserted his Fad Gadget persona as an electronic pioneer, and his sole new contribution – a rework of Swallow It – promised much, making his premature death the following year all the more tragic. Under The Flag is not comfortable listening – and rightly so – but it’s political message is one that’s sorely lacking in this generation’s electronic artists.

 

...I'm assuming that last comment was a dig at the electroclash movement, which had been the "next big thing" at the turn of the 21st Century though had already fizzled out by 2002-03. I really liked the music, but found it lacked artists with the social commentary and lyrical heft of 1980s electronica like Soft Cell, Cabaret Voltaire and Fad Gadget.

I followed Frank Tovey throughout his career and, as much as I enjoyed his natural progression to a more organic, contemporary folk sound, it was a thrill when Tovey resurrected Fad Gadget in 2001 for a best of compilation, updated remixes and a tour supporting Depeche Mode. He was reportedly working on an album at the time of his death from a heart attack in 2002. An unreleased song, Sleeper, appeared on a posthumous CD/DVD collection in 2006 so we can only wonder at the shape and sound of his new material.

Today's selection covers both sides of a mixtape that I recorded around 1990. Another 'best of', though heavily favouring Under The Flag, which remains my favourite Fad Gadget album. Frank Tovey was the first signing to the Mute label and what better way to announce Fad Gadget's arrival than with the single Back To Nature. Along the way, the selection takes in other brilliant standalone singles in Ricky's Hand and Lady Shave, as well as King Of The Flies, which improved on the album version with it's faster pace and rolling bassline. The extended versions of Saturday Night Special and Collapsing New People are my preferred takes on both of these songs. The latter song title was inspired by and features German band Einstürzende Neubauten, which translates as "collapsing new buildings". There's a more sombre, reflective feel to the closing four songs, including one which was tucked away on the B-side of the aforementioned Collapsing New People. Spoil The Child showcases the haunting vocals of longtime collaborator Joni Sackett and is one of the greatest Fad Gadget songs in an immense body of work.

 

Side One (45:04)

1) Back To Nature (1979)

2) Newsreel (1980) 

3) Coitus Interruptus (1980)

4) Ricky's Hand (Single Version) (1980)

5) Plain Clothes (1981)

6) Saturday Night Special (Album Version) (1981)

7) Lady Shave (Single Version) (1981)

8) Collapsing New People (Berlin Mix ft. Einstürzende Neubauten) (1983)

9) King Of The Flies (Single Version) (1982)

Side Two (44:54)

1) Ideal World (1984)

2) Jump (1984)

3) Scapegoat (1982)

4) Life On The Line (Version IV) (1982)

5) Sleep (Album Version) (1984)

6) The Sheep Look Up (1982)

7) Love Parasite (Album Version) (1982)

8) Under The Flag I (1982)

9) Cipher (1982)

10) Spoil The Child (ft. Joni Sackett) (1983)

11) The Ring (1984)

 

1979: Back To Nature 7": A1

1980: Fireside Favourites: A2, A3

1980: Ricky's Hand 7": A4

1981: Incontinent: A5, A6 

1981: Make Room / Lady Shave 7": A7

1982: King Of The Flies 7": A9 

1982: Under The Flag: B3, B4, B6, B7, B8, B9

1983: Collapsing New People 12": A8, B10

1984: Gag: B1, B2, B5, B11

Side One (45:04) (GD) (M)

Side Two (44:54) (GD) (M)

Zoo Time Is She And You Time

Side 1 of a mixtape cassette titled heartbeatincreasingheartbeat, recorded 25th September 1991. 

 

Back in Bristol after a year working and travelling in Australia, back at college for a second go at 'A' levels having dropped out after 6 months a few years previously, back living with my parents after a period of independence and freedom and back in local record shops, sniffing out new and old vinyl.

1) The Man With The Golden Arm (Full Length Version) (Cover of Elmer Bernstein): Barry Adamson (1988)

2) Strange Days: The Doors (1967)

3) Trip, Stumble & Fall: The Mamas & The Papas (1966)

4) De-Luxe: Lush (1990)

5) Theme II: Clan Of Xymox (1986)

6) Spoil The Child: Fad Gadget ft. Joni Sackett (1983)

7) This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us: Sparks (1974)

8) Thank You For Sending Me An Angel: Talking Heads (1978)

9) The Light Pours Out Of Me ('One Pound Ninety-Nine' Version) (Cover of Magazine): Peter Murphy (1985)

10) The Sleeper: John Cale (1985)

11) The Avenue: O.M.D. (1984)

12) The 'In' Crowd (Cover of Dobie Gray): Bryan Ferry (1974)

13) Wheels Of Fortune: Fad Gadget (1982)

Side One (47:19)

Find Side Two here 
 

Fever Needs A Cure

Side 2 of a 1996 mixtape, rescued from the loft. 

 

1) Only Baby (Album Version): No-Man (1993)

2) Luxury (Remix): Frank Tovey (1986) 

3) Rope (Extended Mix): It's Immaterial (1986)

4) 1963 (Single Version): New Order (1987)

5) Tarantula (Second Version) (12"): Colourbox (1983)

6) 11 Years (Sabres Main Mix 2 By Sabres Of Paradise aka Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): The Wolfgang Press (1995)

7) It's A Fine Day (12" Mix): Opus III (1991)

8) Mission From God (Single Version): Curve (1992)

Side Two (47:40)