xenomania/ brian higgins

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”