First Listen: Vince Clark + Martin Gore

Instrumental electronica from two titans of the genre. More here. Purchase. (Via - Allure Of Sound)

Erasure + Depeche Mode = VCMG

Two of my favorite musicians have collaborated for a new release.

After 30 years working on their respective ongoing music projects, Vince Clarke (Erasure/Yazoo/Depeche Mode) and Martin L. Gore (Depeche Mode) come together for the first time since 1981 as VCMG to release a brand new album preceded by a series of EPs. VCMG is the fruit of initially tentative discussion and subsequent enthused collaboration where Vince and Martin, both influential as pioneers in electronic music, get to exercise their lifelong love of the genre as the techno-inspired VCMG.

First to be released will be an EP titled Spock, which will be available through Beatport beginning November 30th.

RELATED: Erasure's latest single, Be With You, is out today. Check out the entries in the contest for the best fan-created video to support the single.

The Great British Synth Documentary

It took me half the day to watch this fantastic 2009 documentary because it kept sending me spinning off into Wikipedia and YouTube holes. It's a bit strange that so many of the records that I thought was randomly picking out of the import 45s bin turned out to be such groundbreaking and influential tracks. And most of them I purchased unheard, usually basing my decision on the label, the producer, and most often - the hairstyle. I missed my calling.

Yaz At Terminal 5

Last night Aaron and I attended the first of three NYC shows by Yaz (Yazoo to you Brits) as they close out the American leg of their Reconnected reunion tour. It's been over 25 years since Alison Moyet and Vince Clark released the second of their meager two album output, but you wouldn't have known that by the reaction of the audience at the sold-out show at Terminal 5 in Hell's Kitchen. People sang, they swayed, they waved, Alison beamed - it was a total love fest.

The duo played pretty much every song from their two classic albums (1982's Upstairs At Eric's and 1983's You And Me Both), as well as my personal favorite State Farm, which was the non-album b-side to the show's opener, Nobody's Diary. Alison Moyet sounded amazing. A-mazing. You would never ever dream it's been 26 years since Situation blew the roof off every gay club in the world. Vince Clark stayed in his usual stoic Erasure-mode, occasionally lending a vocodered vocal over his very slightly re-worked versions of their beloved catalog.

The audience, as might be expected, consisted primarily of gay men in their late 30's - late 50's, guys who once danced to Yaz in shiny buckled shoes as they tossed their blue-black asymmetrical bangs out of their mascara'd eyes. But last night they waved their heavily tatted arms over their shaven/bald/salt-and-pepper heads and sang along to every song. Who knew so many people knew all the words to Winter Kills and Ode To Boy? (The link to Ode To Boy is a performance clip from last night already on YouTube.) During the encore of their immortal Only You, somebody in the front of the audience passed out a couple of hundred red paper hearts, which the audience waved slowly over their heads, bringing Alison to visible tears. It was lovely.I've seen Vince Clark many times as part of Erasure, of course, and I'd seen Alison perform solo at SF Pride in '99, but like probably everyone else last night, I'd never seen them as Yaz. Now all I need is a proper Alison Moyet solo tour so I can hear Love Resurrection, Invisible, or my all-time Moyet favorite, the uber-fabulous Whispering Your Name.

Terminal 5 Set List: Nobody's Diary, Bad Connection, Mr. Blue, Good Times, Tuesday, Ode To Boy, Goodbye 70s, Too Pieces, In My Room, Anyone, I Before E Except After C, Walk Away From Love, State Farm, Sweet Thing, Winter Kills, Midnight, Unmarked, Bring Your Love Down (Didn't I), Don't Go. ENCORE: Only You, Situation.

Below is my blurry, shaky video of Don't Go, the last song before the encore. I pan around a bit at the end so you can get a sense of the crowd and the venue. Ah, the venue! I kept saying to Aaron, "This place would make a GREAT nightclub!" Then it finally dawned on me that it had been a club, Exit, and that I'd been there many times five or six years ago. Time has not been as kind to my memory as it has been to Alison Moyet's voice.

Yaz plays Terminal 5 again tonight and closes the tour at the Beacon Theater on Saturday. Get there. Or wait another 25 years.

(Photo via Troubled Diva)

Yaz Tour Dates For U.S.

Six U.S. dates have been announced for the Yaz reunion tour I mentioned here last month.

Jul 07 - Oakland, CA Paramount Theatre
Jul 10 - Los Angeles, CA Orpheum Theatre
Jul 11 - Los Angeles, CA Orpheum Theatre
Jul 14 - Chicago, IL Chicago Theatre
Jul 16 - New York, NY Terminal 5
Jul 17 - New York, NY Terminal 5

Ticketmaster starts selling the U.S. dates on Friday. I'm told that tickets for the NYC shows will be $65, a bit pricey in my opinion, but it's not like I'm gonna wait another 25 years for the next tour.

Yaz To Tour UK

Fab 80's pop music duo Yaz (Yazoo in the UK) is set to reunite for a tour of the UK in June. Comprised of (post-Depeche Mode/pre-Erasure) keyboardist Vince Clark and (Andy Bell sound-alike) Alison Moyet, Yaz only put out two albums, both huge favorites of mine: Upstairs At Eric's and You And Me Both.

The tour is in support of In Your Room, a "4-disc box set which includes remasters and 5.1 stereo mixes of both of Yazoo's classic albums (Upstairs At Eric's and You And Me Both), b-sides, remixes and a DVD featuring new interviews with Clarke and Moyet, along with the promo videos for Don't Go, The Other Side Of Love, Nobody's Diary, Situation (1990) and Only You (1999)."

Here's a clip of Yaz performing their smash hit, Don't Go.

After Yaz broke up, my friends and I became obsessive collectors of Alison Moyet's fantastic solo work, which featured such unforgettable classics as Love Resurrection, Invisible, and All Cried Out. Here's my all-time favorite Moyet track, Whispering Your Name, a song written by Jules Shear. Moyet doesn't change the lyrics, making it appear that she's singing about another woman. The clip features the always hilarious Dawn French, of the pre-AbFab duo French & Saunders, trying to make Moyet crack up during the song.

A better mix of Whispering Your Name can be found on this fantastic live performance clip. Oh, that last note! I last saw Moyet perform on the main stage at SF Pride 1999. Here's hoping the Yaz tour comes to the States. By the way, Alison Moyet is a blogger.