Comsat Angels - The dark angels of Sheffield

Geography

No city, between the late Seventies and early Eighties, managed to condense such a varied array of sounds as Sheffield, with a force capable of upending the entire made in UK musical landscape. A city steeped in its own gloomy grey, where the clanging of its steel mills merged with the icy rhythmic sequences of Kraftwerk, giving rise to bands like Cabaret Voltaire, Human League and Clock Dva. Over time, though, the "industrial" sounds also made room for melody, without ever dismantling the rhythmic backbone that defined them, eventually flirting with Black American dance music.

A new forge of artists emerges under the names Abc (formerly Vice Versa), Human League again, and, splitting off from them, Heaven 17. They're among the leading figures of the then-nascent synth-pop scene, the sound filling the trendiest dancefloors across half of Europe. There's something for everyone in Sheffield: bands capable of sending shivers down the spines of metal fans, like Def Leppard, or rockers whose songs have the power to "chain hearts" more attuned to classic song form, like Joe Cocker; there's also a bewildered Jarvis Cocker, Joe's nephew, just starting to shape his own creature, Pulp. Yet within this thicket of magical Sheffield essences, there are also those who look beyond the city limits: Artery, I'm So Hollow and Comsat Angels turn their gaze toward the Manchester of Joy Division and the Liverpool of Echo & Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes.

Artistic education

Like Joy Division, Comsat Angels also fall under the spell of avant-garde novelist J.G. Ballard's fiction, and while the former name one of their tracks after one of his stories, "Atrocity Exhibition", the latter go so far as to steal the title for their own band name: Comsat Angels is a short story by the aforementioned writer.

It's history

The band forms in '78, led by Stephen Fellows (guitar and vocals), alongside Kevin Bacon (bass), Andy Peake (keyboards) and Mike Glaisher (drums); before their Ballardian epiphany, they cut a first single under the name Radio Earth, the lysergic "Red Planet", but it's not until September 1980 that their first long-player finally arrives, the wonderful Waiting For A Miracle.

The urgency and freshness running through the grooves of this record would make it, to this day, their undisputed masterpiece. An album in which psychedelic moods, pop steeped in Sixties echoes, and darkwave refractions merge into a single sonic vortex that washes over the listener, shaking the senses in an indelible way.

The opener "Missing In Action", with its slashing guitar bursts, lays down a driving groove that builds dizzyingly thanks to a powerful, finely calibrated drumming performance, while the keyboards engage in an unlikely duel with Fellows' deep vocal delivery. The following "Baby" moves with a dub-inflected gait filtered through gothic undertones, the guitar cutting through the circular rhythm laid down by the rhythm section like a blade. "Independence Day" is a marvel that still retains all its charm today, with a verse and chorus among the most memorable ever written; the instrumental fabric starts out quiet, then grows increasingly urgent, lending the track an imperious, epic crescendo. Next comes the title track, where a hyper-compressed bass draws hypnotic lines beneath Fellows' lyrics, countered by the disruptive interference of Peake's keyboards.

The martial cadences of "Total War" give Fellows a precious chance to unleash the full depth of his vocal register; next comes the furious "On The Beach", before arriving at "Monkey Pilot", a track that seems to wink at the ska inflections brought back into vogue by contemporaries like Specials and Madness. "Real Story" is the gem that bands like Interpol and Editors are still vainly chasing; the following "Map Of The World", on the other hand, sets aside the gothic shading to swerve abruptly toward the more hysterical atmospheres dear to Xtc.

"Postcard", the final missive steeped in dark moods, seems to venture as much into the territory of Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures" as into that of Sound's "Jeopardy", yet the hypnotic trance of the keyboards, with its characteristically unsettling gait, reflects a sound that is unmistakably "made in Sheffield".

Grueling tours follow to promote the album: anyone lucky enough to have witnessed the Comsats on stage will hardly forget the emotional impact and explosive force of their live shows. Among those who shared stages with them during these tours were: U2, Siouxsie, Sound, Captain Beefheart, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Gang Of Four, Wall Of Voodoo, Depeche Mode and Pere Ubu.

Critics heap praise on them, but the album fails to break through. A string of incredibly fine singles come out during this period, destined to remain criminally overlooked: the epic gallop of "Eye Of The Lens", the moving "It's History" and the psychedelic "Empty House", tracks that would later find a home on the compilation Enz.

Sleep No More, from '81, presents a band that has decided to swerve completely into darkwave territory. Fellows' lyrics, delivered in his characteristic Yorkshire accent, grow more menacing; in place of the debut's expressive urgency there's now a more enveloping, fuller-bodied sound, perhaps less immediate, but still capable of delivering real emotion. The opening track "The Eye Dance" immediately shows how thoroughly the Joy Division lesson has been absorbed, while the title track conjures a suspended atmosphere, with bass hits marking out the anguish bred by those years of tension: the years of the Cold War, unemployment and economic crisis. "Be Brave" carries a decisive, energetic groove thanks to the power of the rhythm section, over which bursts the epic, cutting guitar of a Fellows ever more in command of melodic structure; the following "Gone" likewise feeds hungrily on sinister six-string interplay, and the track would later be covered by Depeche Mode's Martin Gore on his 1989 EP "Counterfeit".

"Dark Parade" is a murderous litany that plunges into a psychological nightmare built from lyrical demons, tribal drumming and spirals of guitar noise, while "Restless", where the guitar's echo reaches dissonant frequencies, drifts off toward distant galaxies steeped in psychedelic mood.

There's no shortage of more driving tracks, like the lysergic "Goat Of The West", but it's above all the hypnotic trance and the heaviness of the slowed-down closing tracks, "Light Years" and "Our Secret", that define a deliberately dark and tormented album, drawn from that dark wellspring that only the magic of those fateful years could give us.

Though not without a few instrumental excesses, like the echo on the snare drum or the wildly overcompressed bass sound, Sleep No More is another excellent effort. Beyond critical acclaim, even the sales turn out less modest than those of the debut album, though of course we're still talking about a band unable to break out of cult-band status.

The introspective, measured mood of "After The Rain", the opening track of the following Fiction, presents us with a band exploring sounds with a romantic, melancholy cast, but what's astonishing, despite the loss of some of that dark vein, is the presence of yet more extraordinary songs. Take "After The Rain" itself, a captivating ballad centred on the theme of love, built on Fellows' lyrics, which lie gently over a fabric of guitars that, rather than scratching, now offer soft caresses. "Now I Know" redraws romantic-decadent horizons, throwing us straight into the arms of Sad Lovers And Giants and Modern English; its blend of crepuscular cadences and melodic instincts proves thoroughly convincing.

"Ju Ju Money", however, is dressed in magnificent tribal accents, projecting us into the anguished atmosphere evoked by "Sleep No More". It's once again Fellows' delicate guitar melody that reigns supreme on "Pictures", a sublime ballad that's a twin to "After The Rain". There's no shortage of angrier episodes either, such as "Birdman", "Zinger" and "Not A World", tracks close to the rock songs bearing the U2 stamp; it would in fact be Bono's band who set out on tour with the Comsats after the release of Sleep No More: naturally, in '81 both outfits were making their way through the underground scene, so they performed as co-headliners. A special mention goes to the closing "What Else?", where the frenzied synth and guitar arpeggio give us a wonderful melodic weave, over which Fellows' solemn, deep voice unfolds.

Dropped by Polydor due to underwhelming sales, the Comsats signed to Jive, the label with which they would hit the lowest point of their artistic journey, even ending up losing part of the cult following they had built up until then. The success of fellow townsmen Human League and Abc, with their output devoted wholesale to the altar of consumerism, would shake the identity of the Comsat Angels, leading them to believe they too could soon become popstars.

Land, their first album for Jive, delivers - as one might expect given the above - a sound stuffed with keyboards, dressing up the new pop-oriented textures that yield at least one radio hit, "Will You Stay Tonight". The album still fails to break through, though: "Nature Trails" and "Island Heart" are tracks with decent melodic appeal, but unsuited to the old audience, who during a London show don't hesitate to shout "sell-outs" at Fellows and co. The new record even features a new version of "Independence Day", still their most famous song to this day, taken from their masterpiece debut album.

1985's Seven Day Weekend would prove another flop, vainly chasing songs with easy melodic appeal capable of guaranteeing a climb up the charts. Four singles were pulled from the album, but none of them would enter the pantheon of hits of the era. "I'm Falling", "High Tide" and "Day One" are light, enjoyable tracks, but they had to compete with singles boasting far stronger commercial pull, churned out by a new crop of young new pop artists.

Jive was disappointed at the failure to crack the charts, but the band was even more so, losing the trust of their own fans in the process. The partnership with the label that wanted to turn them into new new-pop stars was therefore abruptly cut short.

A return to the past, as a way out of the frustration that had accompanied their recent efforts, is the idea the Comsats settled on for 1986's new Chasing Shadows, finding in icon Robert Palmer a valuable new ally. Ironically enough, it was the popstar from Batley himself who convinced them to go back to flaunting the darkwave sound that had preceded their ill-fated commercial detour.

Produced by Palmer, who also lends his voice to the beautiful "You'll Never Know", the record marks a return to spare arrangements, with piano replacing keyboards on some tracks. "The Cutting Edge" carries the flavour of the beauty found in the simplicity of a handful of chords, where Bacon's powerful, rounded bass lines come to the fore. "Pray For The Rain", for just piano, bass and voice, gives off elegiac tones but also moods charged with dramatic tension.

The whole record, in any case, has a decidedly more substantial sound compared to the pale efforts made for Jive, and will therefore be regarded by fans as a true Comsat album, one that directly links back to the early records released on Polydor.

A long four-year gap would precede the recording of a new album; in the meantime, however, Fellows would reinvent himself in the unusual role of producer. Having received some demos from Lowlife, which would end up on the album "Godhead", he was favourably impressed and got straight to work with the band, offering them all the experience he had by then accumulated.

The embarrassing interlude under the name Dream Command produced the dismal Fire On The Moon. With this record, the band intended to move closer to the American market, leaning towards a sound halfway between Aor and formulaic hard rock. The need for a new moniker had arisen due to legal issues with Communication Satellite, which complained about the similarity between its own company name and the band's.

After six long years, the Comsats burst back onto the market under their original name, bringing to life the excellent My Mind Eye and catching off guard both critics and fans, who had written them off as finished. In Britain the shoegaze craze was exploding, and some bands from that scene, like Catherine Wheel, Curve and Swervedriver, cited our heroes as a reference point: what better opportunity, then, for Fellows and co. to throw themselves into the thick of the prevailing trend, of which they had unwittingly been the blueprint? The molten magma produced by "Driving", the opening track with its abrasive wall of distorted guitars, carries all the power found in the sound of Ride, while the incendiary "Beatiful Monster" throbs with adrenaline jolts that once again give us the measure of the versatility and class of Fellows' ill-fated talent.

There are tracks with a reflective, measured mood, such as "Shiva Descending", a ballad that unwinds over syncopated drumming, with the vocals resting on delicate guitar phrasing. "My Mind Eye" offers up an even more saturated, thunderous sound, driven by powerful, relentless drumming: the effects-laden vocal gives the track an obsessive, lysergic streak that crashes down on the listener with uncontrolled violence. The album continues with the apocalyptic "Route 666", the hypnotic, Floyd-esque "Mistery Plane", right through to the romantic closer "And All The Stars", a ballad with crooner-like, Walker-esque vocal inflections.

Only partly consistent with the shoegaze appeal of the album that preceded it, The Glamour is the last stand of a band not yet ready to lay down its arms. The roaring machinery of grunge had found its way into the band's studio sessions, but remarkably, despite the heaviness of the arrangements (shoegaze instincts tangled up with grunge infiltrations), the songs don't seem to suffer excessively for it; the intensity of Fellows' voice rises above every sonic blend.

The breakneck "Goddess" wins you over with its gorgeous vocal melody, standing tall over a sound built on the same rhythmic sequences; together they conjure a "wall of sound" of unheard-of power. Magic unfurls when the notes of "Pacific Oceans Blues" ring out, a ballad awash in oceans of shimmering harmony. "Anjelica" carries a lyrical sweep of moving beauty that will melt the most romantic of hearts, even as the guitars keep churning out their usual wall of feedback and distortion. "Valley Of The Nile", on the other hand, is a distillate of electro-acoustic textures, evoking distant ethnic echoes with an Eastern flavour.

"Audrey In Denim" echoes Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun", but the mood of Fellows' lyrics glows with a light of its own, even where the heaviness of the sound ends up laying bare, unmistakably, its debt to grunge trends from across the Atlantic. "Demon Lover" and "The Glamour" are twin tracks, pulsing with adrenaline-fuelled guitar-noise; the sound is very close to Catherine Wheel's "Happy Days", another record from the same period that tried to blend UK shoegaze instincts with grunge sonorities.

Though not as seminal as Joy Division and Cure, the Comsats were among the key players of the golden age of British new wave; the constant references made by bands now reviving their sound, together with Renascent's recent reissues of their albums, confirm that interest in the band is still very much alive in the hearts of those who learned to love them.

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