UK | CD | 2015
Visage: Demons To Diamonds UK 2xCD [2015]
DISC 1
- Before You Win
- Become
- Loving The Alien
- Days Become Dark
- Seven Deadly Sins Part Three
- Aurora
- Your Skin Is My Sin
- Clubscene
- Star City
- Never
DISC 2
- Before You Win(Radio Edit)
- Never Enough (John Bryan and Richard Stone In Prague Remix)
- Star City (Orbital Ambient Version)
Well, well, well. I knew this was in the vicinity, but it’s due any day now. The long awaited [if you’re me] final Visage album, “Demons To Diamonds.” When singer Steve Strange died abruptly in February, I had been aware that the band were not wasting any time, hot on the heels of their “Orchestral” project of 2014. I had hoped against hope that the album could be finished posthumously, and it has. The “Orchestral” album featured one new song, “The Silence” and the recent 12″ single of “Lost In Static” featured the tantalizing “Seven Deadly Sins [Part 2]” which was reputed to be from “Demons To Diamonds.” As you can see, that track is on the album in a designation of “Part 3.” My question is: where will “Part 1” surface?!
That new track was heavily laced with Mick MacNeil [ex-Simple Minds] and still featured Robin Simon on guitar, so I am guessing that much the same Visage core are on board for the new album. I’ve certainly not heard otherwise, though all of the PR focuses on Steve Strange, and his absence, naturally. The band were so hot that a small part of me even blasphemes the notion of the band carrying on without Steve, but you didn’t read that here. This time, the release is another ten track “old school” album, with the Bowie cover [“Loving The Alien”] giving it the distinction of being the second time that the band had covered Bowie. The first time, they covered “Fame” albeit re-titled as “We Move!”
The album will be released on November 6th, 2015, and they have spilled the beans that Boy George was responsible for the cover. This time there was no advance single as with the last two albums, but with Steve gone, and no one to front the band any more, this one will likely have no singles. So let us savor the wondrous 12″ mixes that filtered out since 2013 as we may not hear their likes again. I still need the 12″ of “Never Enough,” and the CD singles of “Hidden Sign” and “Fade To Grey [Orchestral]” [in addition to the “Orchestral” album] but those will have to wait a while as I will definitely be pre-ordering the album this week. Pre-orders will receive a bonus CD with the three mixes detailed above for disc two, but they are only available from orders made at the Visage Webstore. So make your moves now. I was saving money for a big trip during the brief window of the DLX ED of “Orchestral” and I will be hunting down that bonus CD to the ends of time, methinks. Expect a review of this soon, as the “Hearts + Knives” album is still rocking my world like no other Synth Brittania heritage act!
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Post-Punk Monk 
Purchased!
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I am so looking forward to this,had an email today saying mine was in the post!
If there is a coloured vinyl edition I may go for that too as I managed to snag a red vinyl of ‘Hearts and Knives’
The snippet of ‘Loving the Alien’ sounds brilliant.
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Gavin – I get paid tomorrow. Then I buy!
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The snippet of Loving The Alien gives me hope that it’s an improvement on the Detroit Starzz version Steve fronted in 2012. That one was just much flatter sounding than it should have been.
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Echorich – Thanks for reminding me about the ill-fated Detroit Starzz project. I keep forgetting to look that one up. One day I need to round up all the stray bits of Strange that came between “Beat Boy” and “Hearts + Knives.”
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I’d be curious on your opinions on Strange Cruise. I certainly have a few opinions on that project.
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My cds arrived this morning,rest assured it is a superb companion to and extension of “Hearts and Knives”… ;-)
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Gavin – I ordered this morning, so I await the discs with bated breath. The taster on the “Lost In Static” 12″ was very convincing! I have been quarantining any hype to hear the album when it arrives. I have to admit that when Visage MK III emerged, I did sample “Shameless Fashion” to see of they still “had it.” It was pretty convincing. Robin Simon scored the goal there for me. So when the brief taster for “Never Enough” dropped I listened and afterward, I was so hot to get the album that I didn’t bother with any other online samples! I pre-ordered ASAP.
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Robins guitar is dripping all over this new album,it’s sublime.I had a brief chat with my friend Logan Sky this morning,the analog synth-meister of Visage, to let him know I was very much enjoying the fruits of their labour.
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Gavin – Visage is such a powerful band now I almost wish that the core would stay together as a new band [with a new name] crafting instrumental music.
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Aurora is beautiful, this album’s Lost In Static.
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SimonH – That’s right. Lord it over us Yanks! I only ordered mine on Friday, but eagerly await its arrival.
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Simon you are so right,Aurora is just incredible.I have not stopped playing the album since it arrived.Our U.S. chums will hopefully love it too.
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Sorry:)
It’s worth the wait….
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