I’d posted ages ago about an ill-fated regroup of a Visage lineup by Steve Strange and a host of electro youngsters that was known as Visage MK II [though I’d personally have called them Visage MK III…]. But that never quite got aloft, apart from the one or two tracks released like “Diary Of A Madman [early version] or the Punx Soundcheck cut “When Machines Ruled The World.” This period seemed to last between 2005-1010 before it receded and another project took its place.

The period just prior to the re-emergence of Visage had a different Strange-led project with Detroit Starrzz. The Starrzz were a trio with Strange, producer Rachel Ellektra, and singer Lauren Duvall who would also join Strange in the final Visage lineup that actually were prolific near the end of his life. I recall seeing a few tracks out there embedded in websites with Strange interviews in the 2010-2012 period, but those leads have dried up by now.

The impetus to revisit came from interesting circumstances. I got a package from a commenter in Scotland yesterday. He had bought a huge dump of CDs from Last Night In Glasgow and knew of two titles therein which would be a better fit with my Record Cell than with his, so he graciously offered them to me and when they arrived lo, there were other titles he was divesting after reading my wantlist on Discogs. Yes. In my dotage, strangers send me their records they are tired of! And then I write about them. Then a text thread with a friend turned to Visage last night and I knew it was pre-ordained to discuss Steve Strange today.

In this package were two CDs so obscure, that I had put them in my want list and forgotten about them. They were two sampler CDs bundled with the UK’s Music Week magazine and they featured possibly the only physical manifestations of two Detroit Starrzz cuts.

HALO

The first of these tracks was the song “Halo,” which I remember Strange touting online as the song had been involved in some way with the video game that ultimately Microsoft released after seemingly years of development for their video game thingy. I can’t recall if the song was actually used in the game or was simply use to synergistically promote the thing, but the extended version can be heard below.

This was a terribly disappointing track that was all jittery drum programming and worst of all, features some unknown guy actually singing the track. In a gritty “rock” fashion alien to the Steve Strange style and even more adrift in the “bangin'” dance track music bed. The extended version I was able to embed here is over twice as bad as the under 4:00 version on the Music Week CD. Best heard incomplete and soon forgotten! If this also went out into the world with the Detroit Starrzz name on it, then I understand why the project gets swept under the rug over time. I can state that it contains zero percent of any Visage mojo.

PHONE $EX

After the deeply disappointing “Halo” the sketchy-sounding “Phone $ex” had better make up for no shortage of musical sins. It was already operating on a higher plane right out of the box with a glassy, pulsating Moroder vibe. Then when Steve Strange made his appearance, he was liberally quoting the lyric of “Der Amboss” over the music bed. Sprechgesang style with his vocals shrouded in effects.

Once the chorus kicked in the song very honestly came by its R-rated title with lyrics that didn’t play coy in the slightest. If Tory DJ Mike Read was swept into a frenzy with “Relax,” one airing of this one would have set his wig on fire! The breathy femmevox backing vocals served to heighten the sense that Strange was like a seedy red light district hawker, pimping the phone lines. Frankly, it comes off all very joyless to my ears.

The sleek construction of the track got a necessary injection of a great Gilmore-esque guitar solo; dripping with bluesy sustain in the middle eight. Set into this relentless Eurodisco setting only served to make each component stronger. This was intended to be the debut Detroit Starrzz single, but La Strange got too much pushpack with the necessary censorship of the track resulting in it being demoted to “safe harbor” playlists at best. So the best of the four Detroit Starrzz songs fell into the cracks. That was sad because it was a huge improvement to the “Halo” track in that is actually had plenty of Visage DNA. Sounding like the logical next step into a world of decadence that would have followed the one in the track “The Anvil” quite easily. I wish there were a way to embed it, but you’re on your own.

SHOOTING FOR GOLD

The only other Detroit Starrzz music still out there apart from a few more mixes of “Halo” that frankly, we don’t want to hear, was the sole “album” by the band released in 2012. “Shooting For Gold” and “Aiming For Gold” were more in a Stadium Rave style as the London Olympics themed tracks have constituted an “album” of ten mixes thereof which might strain my sensibilities to hear them all in one mass. Lauren Duvall was harmonizing with Steve in the same fashion that she would also bring to her Visage work. Once more, the hot guitar solo rose above the somewhat perfunctory vibe that saw Strange’s voice dripping in effects once more.

A decade ago, there was also the Detroit Starrzz cover version of “Loving The Alien” somewhere online, but I can’t find it now. That’s no matter because Visage reclaimed that one on their final album in a much more successful fashion. So if I had to rank these three cuts on the Rock G.P.A. 4-point scale, here’s how they would stack up.

• Halo – 0
• Phone $ex – 3 [docked a half point for the seaminess of the lyric – yes, I’m prudish!]
• Shooting For Gold – 2

One day I expect that the “Shooting For Stars” album will go the way of the dodo online, so if I’m serious about that Steve Strange collection, Maybe I’d better make a move and buy it at iTunes before it’s too late. Just like all of those dodgy “Fade To Grey” covers Steve made a cottage industry out of recording in the noughts. None of them absolutely ghastly, yet none of them necessary either.

-30-