By Keith Walsh
Modern Romance is the much-anticipated new album by British band Taurus 1984. It’s everything we had hoped for –skillfully crafted tunes with lots of passion and those electronic keyboard sounds we love. Songs from “America” to “All Night” and “Wyld Love” capture lighting in a bottle, with insanely good performances and production. An added bonus is songwriters – Alastair Jenkins and Bobby Cole – who aren’t afraid to present lyrics that describe the darker side of life.
Modern Romance features five amazing vocalists throughout, along with pristine synthesizers and stellar saxophone work, on an album that conjures up recollections of our treasured 80s memories – pastel artwork and cool beats, as well as our dreaded ones – George Orwell and the deepening of social inequity. I asked Jenkins about the album and the singers who contributed, as well as the instruments and technologies they used to match their devotion to a retro sound.
Dana Jean Phoenix: Dana does vocals on “Dreaming” and “Rosebud (Reprise).” She’s also the romantic partner of (the still eligible bachelor) Jenkins.
Jenkins: “Dana is one of those artists that has such a giant and extremely versatile list of musical talents, she is an incredible vocalist, a beautiful lyricist and keys player, she brings so much swagger and electricity to performances. It was a fantastic experience to work with on Modern Romance. Dana wrote the vocals and vocal melody line for the track Dreamin’, this was the first time anyone other than myself had taken on that role, what Dana produced was sensational and really exceeded my expectations. Both her and I are big 90’s R&B fans and what she did in the reprise for Rosebud echoed that era and style so well. We can’t wait to work with her again on the next Taurus venture.”
Laura Jayne Davies sings on “Wyld Love” and “New Body.”
Jenkins: “Laura and I have known each other for some time-we went to school together, but only recently started working together. Her voice is so beyond sweet and has such a rich and interesting tonal quality to it, She sings a lot of country music and I was really interested in having that quality of her voice amalgamated into the Synth pop that we make. Her vocals sit perfectly on the two tracks that we worked on, she has such a keen ear for vocal harmony and melody so it was such a great experience working and molding these tracks with her. We got really creative and played with ideas in the studio regularly and got some great results I feel.”
Jeris Spencer performs on “Drowning In The Dark.”
Jenkins: “Jeris and I met while singing backing vocals for US popstar Demi Lovato, we hit it off and became fast friends, Jeris has such a unique and diverse voice, she can be soft and subtle one second and belting high notes with the best the next- She really brings so much emotion to the table and the track “Drowning In The Dark” is haunting and powerful in equal measure. She sang vocals on our breakthrough track Dream Warriors which we reference as a little Easter egg in Drowning in the dark. She has a great ear for ideas and her energy is infectious to be around.
Karl Lewis performs on “America” and “Rosebud.”
Jenkins: “Karl is the man! I’ve had such a blast getting to know and work with Karl, I remember seeing him on TV as a contestant of the hit BBC television show All Together Now, he had so much power in his voice, I love his gravelly tone that he has mixed with the pop sensibility of his voice, a points I hear Phil Collins in his style. His range is pretty insane and hits high notes in melodies with absolute ease. He’s such a laugh to work with and we just instantly gelled. Karl really got what we were going for and works really well as a partnership! We are excited to work together in the future.”
Shellyann sings on “Broken Bones,” “Somebody Like You,” “All Night” and “Modern Romance.” Shellyann sings in a variety of styles, and Taurus 1984 represents only a small part of her repertoire.
I asked Jenkins about the tech that they used to achieve their authentic retro sound.
Jenkins: “We recorded the record between our two studios using Cubase 10.5, We use a number of vintage physical synths on the album, we utilized the following on Modern Romance quite heavily which we have to hand in the studio- Juno 106, a Dx7, a Wurlitzer, a Clavinet, and a fender Rhodes to name a few, The rest of the sounds you here were software instrument based, I’m a big fan of u-he Diva. Tal uno-106 and Serum to name a small fraction of what we used. We also recorded a live string quartet which you can hear on a number of tracks as well as live guitar, live drums and a lot of Saxophone played by Steve Sax.”
Taurus 1984 Links
Taurus 1984 On Synthbeat.com
Taurus 1984 On Spotify
Taurus 1984 On Facebook
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