xenomania/ brian higgins

There was an interesting debate about Xenomania in the Annie thread. I would like to read more about it, for example here.

what are xenomania's recent chart-showings?

They currently have the number eight single.

interesting interview with higgins here: http://xenomanianews.blogspot.com/2009/08/brian-higgins-interview-literally.html

from the psb literally fanzine. would love to read the full unedited version.

guesses on who the big band is that he swipes at - my money is on new order, possibly franz

Yeah, my bet is on New Order as well. They seem to be the kind of band Higgins would regard as "heroes" (re: his comment about people meeting their heroes).

the 'taste test' bit is really interesting

also So Girls Aloud's records were more driving and pumping and innovative then than they are now because that's not what's required. They need to be fulfilled as the big stars they've become, so "The Promise" was the sound of a big group, a group about to be huge. They needed the theme tune to that. They didn't need "The Show". They didn't need "Biology". They needed the theme tune to the biggest girl group on the planet, and that's what we felt "The Promise" said to us. That's where I'm doing the right job for the girls. But generally speaking my own default position in music is to have something aggressive.

I'd be able to take that interview a lot more seriously were it not for Xenomania's recorded output over the last couple of years.

^^yeah. i stopped taking it seriously at "It's very difficult to get in. Everyone's hand-picked. Your talent just gets you an interview - it's character and attitude and application that determines things".

dudes we have all heard gabriella cilmi, sadly.

tbh the "all we know is what we do" attitude he displays throughout, and seems so proud of, is not surprising in light of the turgid, formulaic crap xenomania have been churning out for ~2 years now.

in a way it's not so bad. most producers have finite ideas, and their time starts ticking towards the decline from the minute they hit their peak. i just wish that xenomania's decline didn't infect the old, good stuff as much as it does. or maybe the old stuff just didn't have staying power.

yeah but that quote sums that up - their priorities changed. can't argue with that really, even if it makes them less interesting or whatever. xposts

Definitely New Order that he's referring to; Peter Hook is on the record as saying this about NO's work with Xenomania:

"We scrapped the Brian Higgins stuff because we didn't like it. I thought he did quite a good job on Girls Aloud but he didn't do a good job on us."

yeah halfway through reading and thinking wow what a great attitude & how i love the ideas/concepts he applies to making music, i did think how i hadn't liked all that much of their releases for a good while. cpl of good tracks on the psb album, but i think my personal tastes have changed. they're still getting charts hits though aren't they, so i guess his way of thinking *works*, just not in the way i'd prefer

what have been the best/worst of xenomania's recent releases? without thinking too deeply i'd say the promise was their last big brilliant single

the stuff about under pressure was fascinating, ive heard it many times but never realised how it never repeated itself. awesome pop trick that, would love to read a nuts&bolts breakdown of it. what other songs do this?

'Memory Of You' was the b-side of 'The Loving Kind' and i liked that far more than anything from the last album

and I still like their stuff for Annie, good just not great.

http://xenomanianews.blogspot.com/2009/09/xenomania-x-factor-q-magazine-october.html

the new q magazine article about xenomania too

WORST: Fix Me Up (Girls Aloud), Ooh Baby I Like It Like That (Alesha), Sweat Until The Morning (Vagabond)

BEST: Memory Of You (Girls Aloud), The Boy Does Nothing (Alesha), Bad Times (Annie), Left My Heart In Tokyo (Mini Viva), the Pet Shop Boys album

I guess it doesn't really count since it's really from 2005 but I also love "Gotta Jump" by Saint Etienne, which appeared recently.

'On a Mission' - worst thing they've done, surely?

actually I can't even tell whether or not the production's any good, since Cilmi is just overwhelmingly the worst.

The new Alex Gardner song is pretty... though i'm not sure it suits his voice.

"On a Mission" wasn't produced by Xenomania, it was produced by the Invisible Men: http://www.myspace.com/theinvisiblemenmusic

oh! Stupid wikipedia. My sincere apologies to Xenomania.

I think the whole Mini Viva project shows that Xenomania aren't the force they used to be. I Left My Heart In Tokyo was a quirky song with a pretty good tune but the follow up was just another attempt at a Call The Shots type hit, which is actually their third attempt if you include The Loving Kind. It showed them running out of ideas and it failed really badly in the charts (number 72!)

I think when Girls Aloud put out Tangled up that was almost when they peaked, they kind of got the balance right. It had a exciting and unique lead single with Sexy No No No and an even better follow up with Call The Shots which is maybe Xenomania's best example of the ballads they can do really well. The album was actually really consistent and since then they've only had a few good moments in my opinion. Out Of Control was a huge disappointment, it's a shame they can't just get them to rerecord the Frank album from a few years back for their next album.

I do like some of they songs they did on the Pet Shop Boys album but apart from Love Etc. they were quite a similar batch of songs. Five years ago I wouldn't think of Xenomania repeating themselves so much.

I would love hear what they did with New Order, that must have been around 2004? I wonder if they didn't really fancy the idea of doing Love Machine?

It's weird because they are branching out to a varied set of artists and yet they hand them out the same sort of electronic mid-tempo ballads. I do like them, but I miss that explosive energy they had with "Something Kinda Ooooh", "Sexy No No No" or "Biology". "Left My Heart In Tokyo" was fun, cute and a bit messy, but that was it.

They have done quite a few atrocious things lately: on the Alesha album, on the Vagabond album, and even on Out of Control. I never thought I would hate a Girls Aloud song until I heard "Fix Me Up". But there are recent things like Girls Aloud's "Memory of You" or a few tracks on the Pet Shop Boys album that lead me to believe that they still have something quite special.

By the way, they have produced one song on the new Gabriella Cilmi album: "Hearts Don't Lie" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g082XoA5qhM

Not a fan of the falsetto, but the beginning seems promising and the post-chorus bit is cool. Then you realize that everything in the first part of the song is repeated in the second part. It's like they couldn't even bother to write a second verse. It's lazy and gratuitously repetitive.

Yeah Fix Me Up is a strange one, one of those failed experiments that you can't believe no-one stopped and said hang on this just isn't working. I've not heard Memory Of You, I'll have to track that one down. I've not heard any of their B-sides since the Chemistry era.

There's a lot of pressure on them to come up with something amazing for when Girls Aloud return, if they do return. I want that feeling I got from hearing Biology for the first time again.

My favorite song on Yes was The Way We Used To Live which is a really beautiful song but as you say it's that same kind of mid tempo ballad they keep doing.

"Memory Of You" is my favourite GA b-side (closely followed by "Singapore") and it might even be one of my top 5 Xenomania tracks. It's such a subtle and gentle raved-up track but it ticks all the right boxes. There's actually a line about "electric angels dancing in the rain" that describes the song perfectly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1hrDLv_W44

There's another recent b-side, "It's Your Dynamite", that's also definitely worth a listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJzd6AuHn5k

"Memory of You" is definitely the best song of the Out of Control sessions. I kind of like it when a little gem like it gets relegated to a b-side, but from the commercial point of view, what were they thinking? I feel like Xenomania have mellowed a little, they've become too competent at what they do, and now they're doing "pretty" things (the Alex Gardner single, "I Wish", Alesha's "The Light") which are kind of neat but, like ana says, don't have the bite and the stamina of their early and mid-period upbeat records. I've also noticed they've gone more synth, I think they need go back to using guitars.

Hadn't heard 'Memory of You' before, it has a very 2005 Get Physical sound to it, but maximalised.

Much better than a lot of their album tracks.

It's also on Spotify \(^_^)/

apart from I Left My Heart In Tokyo i can't remember the last xenomania song that truly blew me away. are they still getting chart hits? have higgins & co been involved in the recent cheryl cole singles?

more interested in the way they're using remixers like fred falke and treasure fingers to beef up their songs, i hope they do more of this

The only Xenomania top 10 hits in 2009 were "Left My Heart In Tokyo" and "The Loving Kind". The Pet Shop Boys album also did quite well around Europe (top 5 in three countries).

Xenomania did work with Cheryl but none of the songs made it onto the album (perhaps they will end up on the next Girls Aloud album...). 2009 was a pretty bad year for Xenomania in that respect - they worked with a lot of people (Cheryl, Leona, Alexandra Burke, Saturdays, Alphabeat), but no Xeno song ended up album on those albums.

Fred Falke is actually part of the Xenomania team now, just like Annie (from Norway). Xenomania definitely need that kind of fresh blood.

when you say team what exactly do you mean? does falke do anything more than just remixes of the singles? and what does annie do for them?

Yeah, they both write for Xenomania. Fred Falke didn't just remix "Left My Heart In Tokyo", he also co-wrote the song (as did Annie). He's also credited as the bassist, co-mixer and did a bit of programming/keyboards. Other Xenomania songs that Falke co-wrote/programmed/etc.: Sarah Harding's Too Bad, Alesha's The Light and Jessie Malakouti's Standing Up For The Lonely.

aha i didn't know falke and annie both wrote that song. did higgins and cooper contribute too? would love to read a sound on sound 'classic tracks' type breakdown of the creation of that song. thanks a lot btw, where do you get all this info from?!

not strictly related (or at least i don't think it's a xenomania-related song?) but fred falke has done an awesome remix of 'nasty little rumour' by shena:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4POlfxVFgWQ

where do you get all this info from?!

I assume lots of it's from CD sleeves or whatnot, but I read one Xenomania profile in the last year (probably a link above!) that talked about Falke now spending half his time working at Xeno HQ, and the other half at home in France on his own stuff

where do you get all this info from?!

yeah, this (http://xenomanianews.blogspot.com) is definitely the place to go.

i didn't know falke and annie both wrote that song. did higgins and cooper contribute too? would love to read a sound on sound 'classic tracks' type breakdown of the creation of that song.

"Left My Heart In Tokyo" was originally going to be recorded by Annie for her album, until she decided that it didn't fit her vocal style. This is the full list of credits of the song:

Written by Miranda Cooper, Brian Higgins, Annie Strand, Fred Falke, Carla Marie Williams and Xenomania.
Published by Xenomania.
Produced by Xenomania.
Mixed by Fred Falke, Brian Higgins and Tim Powell.
Keyboards & programming: Fred Falke, Brian Higgins, Tim Powell.
Guitar: Jason Resch.
Bass: Fred Falke.

Fred Falke's remixes have been pretty much flawless, the guy doesn't seem to put a foot wrong. I LOVE what he did with Heavy Cross by The Gossip. He makes Beth Ditto sound like a disco diva, completely lost in time.

Err, and on that note... brand new remix from Mr. Falke of a new Xenomania artist calledd Florrie Arnold:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtv7cvOr70E

^can't stop listening to this. I absolutely love it!

Right, this new Mini Viva single sounds potentially brilliant:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFXcQCcCrN0

Wow, that Falke remix of Florrie Arnold is awesome.

^ It's available to download for free on Florrie's site: http://bit.ly/9mKG7r

It's a bit strange that they're giving this away for free, but hey, I'm not complaining.

Thanks! It seems like Fred Falke's in similar shape currently to Stuart Price a few years back ie. turning out reams of stupendous remixes, with his particular touch being those devastating basslines all over them.

The video from "One Touch" premiered on Popjustice today:

http://www.popjustice.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4586&Itemid=206

Love that Alex Gardner track

The only official Xenomania act left after the near total collapse this year. Just released an EP that's kind of meh (I doubt Xenomania will be able to survive with the current songwriting team), but this one is ACE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5D-bWGK0l0

near total collapse of xenomania? what's the story here? (or do you just mean GA's extended hiatus and mini viva splitting up)

are there any recent interviews/essays about xenomania worth checking out? i've not heard anything great coming from them in quite a while, disregarding treasure fingers and fred falke. not keen on much of the florrie stuff i've heard, just sounds like sparkless stageschool pop-by-numbers. uk pop is pretty bad at the moment though. are richard x and xenomania still producing/writing songs for other acts? (other than their own stable in the case of xeno)

are richard x and xenomania still producing/writing songs for other acts?

re richard x : http://www.dominorecordco.com/uk/albums/08-03-10/boys-outside-/

Richard X produced about half the tracks on the last Hundred in the Hands album (which no one on ILX seems to love except me.)

Hundred in the Hands

new name to me. clearly i need to be more on the ball as it sounds rather fine (ta amazon previews)

ah yeah forgot about the steve mason thing.

heard a couple HITH songs already (pigeons and commotion) but wasn't aware rx was involved.

big list of what he's recently done here: http://www.blackmelody.com/

what's going on with xenomania though, other than florrie?

Richard X and... Belle And Sebastian? Colour me intrigued.

near total collapse of xenomania? what's the story here?

All the core members left except for Brian, who sat behind with nothing but a few engineers, as far as I understand.

3 key Xenomania members left this year: Miranda Cooper, Nick Coler, and Tim Powell. Besides that Mini Viva are gone, Alex Gardner is not doing any better, and no one seems to be using any of their songs anymore (both Kylie and Alesha decide not to include the Xeno tracks on their albums). That's what I meant by total collapse. There is still, of course, Brian Higgins... plus F. Falke, Toby Scott, Florrie, Jason, Kieran and occasional collaborators. That seems to be the new songwriting team.

christ, didn't know cooper left - i thought she was as much a part of xenomania as brian. where did you hear of all this? do you have any links?

also, did treasure fingers become a fully-fledged xenomanian? im guessing the distance makes it difficult

The only new acts (other than Florrie) that may be releasing Xenomania tracks are Soundgirl and MNEK afaik.

Here: http://xenomanianews.blogspot.com/

could lead to a revival of fortunes? http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/news/a295491/spears-teams-with-girls-aloud-producers.html

article doesn't seem to know that it's not the same Xenomania anymore

POP'S ONLY GOOD WHEN IT'S ROCK

article doesn't seem to know that it's not the same Xenomania anymore

does say 'founded by' and that's right ain't it? as in the whole thing was founded by brian and miranda. making out that jessie j has some major role (and was involved from the start) seems hugely wrong though

keeps saying "the producers who did all GA singles" and the like, which plural is unwarranted

First Xenomania (commissioned) production in ages. Sounds like a completely generic, by-the-numbers "in the club" track... but I love it. Better not pay attention to the lyrics, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWn37lqpqXc

First Xenomania-launched "girlband" since ...Mini Viva?

They seem to have dialed it waaay down.

You can almost imagine them starting from a Girls Aloud demo, removing the whole backing track and then building it back with bare minimum production.

I like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si954EdfMNQ&start_radio=1&list=RDMMSi954EdfMNQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si954EdfMNQ

i like it too. i'm no expert on their output but i certainly don't expect to hear a xenomania production where guitar work is one of its more striking features. i haven't really kept up for the past few years, has their ship basically sailed as far as top-tier commercial success goes? the imperative to release huge hits being somewhat out of the picture might actually make their work more interesting.

rmde at a youtube commenter on the vid saying "Ok but where is the chorus?"

has their ship basically sailed as far as top-tier commercial success goes?

I would say probably yes. afaik, they haven't had a solid hit since maybe 2012 with that brief, Girls Aloud comeback.

The unperfect debut EP is out and largely being ignored. It's kind of a mixed bag but this is something else:

https://youtu.be/o5t3t8bjUNs

Xenomania seem to be trying to make a comeback this year. In addition to unperfect, we have a new track from Florrie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fYHf_bcWb8

and a new artist launch (Paige Cavell):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ4l7d0LMO0

Her first single is a vintage Xeno banger (and by this I mean it sounds like Girls Aloud/The Saturdays circa 2012). I like it, but I don't know if it's only because I miss this kind of stuff.

The Florrie single bores me to tears :(

Oops, wrong link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtVy2NaO91Q

incidentally "shot you down" is among the first florrie tracks to have made me lose interest in her as an artist

Xenomania > Stock Aitken Waterman

this rules but yeah partly because it sounds like it came out beside rihanna’s “where have you been”