Metamatic [Extra tracks] [Original recording remastered] [Import]

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
John Foxx formed Ultravox in 1975 & the band recorded three influential albums for Island, before Foxx decided to go solo in 1979. 'Metamatic', his first solo album, released in early 1980, reached number 18 in the UK albums charts & was preceded by the hit single 'Underpass', included on the album. Also featured is the follow-up hit 'No-One Driving'. 'Metamatic' is remastered by Foxx himself, with expanded artwork & sleevenotes by Record Collector's Daryl Easlea. The seven bonus tracks include two further hit singles 'Burning Car' & 'Miles Away', & five non-LP b-sides, 'Film One', 'Glimmer', 'Mr No', 'This City' & '20th Century'.

Metamatic,John Foxx,Edsel Records UK,Electronic,Pop,Rock,Rock/Pop,Synth Pop

Tracks:

A Funny Thing
Night Life
Camera
Invisible Women
Cities Of Light 5
Uptown/Downtown
When It Rains
Automobile
The Falling Room
Travel
Quiet City

Product Description

1. A Funny Thing
2. Nightlife
3. Camera
4. Invisible Women
5. Cities Of Light
6. Uptown/Downtown
7. When It Rains
8. Automobile
9. The Falling Room
10. Travel
11. Quiet City

Format: CD

Customer Reviews:

Interesting, compelling and a little strange.......2006-08-22

Whilst 'Crash & Burn' was hard-edged and dark, this is much more introverted and vulnerable. The Pleasures of Electricity is a strange album in many ways and very unusual. It is unlike anything else by John Foxx and just about unlike anything else I've heard.
The music "grooves" along in a quiet and beguiling way - sort of like a "Pastoral Kraftwerk". The music is very well crafted, melodic and it has a very infectious feel to it. "Invisible Women" has a quote from "Underpass" - the string synthesizer 'ritornello' from that song.

Many of the songs have a languid and unhurried feel to them. It is as if John Foxx has decided to spend some time with his ideas and music on this album and is happy to let the songs be as long as they need to be. The sound is less "hard-edged" than Metamatic or Crash & Burn, but much more organic and sophisticated than The Garden or In Mysterious Ways. It is a little like a calmer and more thoughtful version of The Golden Section, without the occasional and generally unnecessary intrusion of electric guitars.

The Pleasures of Electricity is a superb album in my opinion. It was rewarding for me the first time I listened to it and it continues to be a source of pleasure and mental stimulation for me. Great "armchair" listening, but, I dare say, it would sound awesome in a nightclub through a big sound system.

Hypnagogic Hallucinations.......2005-06-21

I have always been fascinated by John Foxx's surreal lyrics, and this collection of songs is nothing short of brilliant. A hypnagogic hallucination is a vivid, dreamlike hallucination that occurs as you are falling asleep. Some people see visions or hear people talking in that moment between waking and sleeping. John Foxx perfectly captures that moment on this album, and translates it to music. The lyrics often make you wonder if he is dreaming or awake; or living a moment in time or daydreaming about a moment in time. The music itself is minimal, clear, clean, and surreal without being disruptive. The dance beats of each song are very hypnotic and help to drive the dream like nature of the lyrics. John's voice is as beautiful and as clear as a bell ringing through fog. Relaxing yet exciting, beautiful yet surprising; thought provoking, and thoroughly entertaining.

Syntax for Romantics.......2004-06-19

With this album John Foxx ventures into the thinking part of his brain, much akin to when he was reading the Futurists in his early teens. Step back for a second and encompass what I am actually saying.
This entire album goes above the dance/sex/detached signature that John Foxx and all his work with ULTRAVOX! accomplished. While still using the minimalist beat/melody style, John takes the lyrics to new heights not visited for 200+ years. Don't be afraid or cynical, I am speaking of the English Romantics such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Blake, etc, etc..
Let us look at "Quiet City". Herein lies Wordworth's poem "London". It is what happens in the city, guided by its structure, that is important, not the city in as much; in Foxx's time the quiet in the early morning hours with the paper floating in the sewer wash, with Wordworth in the barges floating down the Thames.
"Invisible Women" smacks with the romantic vision of women always being beyond the humourless treatment/status given them in this male dominated world in much the same situation today as when Frankenstien was first being created in an after dinner conversation 200 some years ago.
"Camera" speaks of the idea that a mechanical/digital device has the possibility of capturing or mimicing thoughts and familiar mental recountings of one's history in photographic form, from which may be syntesised Wordworth's recalling in "Lines written a few Miles above Tintern Abbey" that poetry (in this case music) is best written after the compulsive expression exploding from the mind after much thought.
"Funny Thing" explores the invisible line between men and women that the romantics often adressed but never full identified; in how men and women in essence are involved in sameness but that how social definitions change the individuals mind to somehow socially place and confine both the roles of men and women.
I could go on to explain how "Travel" dances with the romantics traveling to view classical civilisations in their origins, or how "Cities of Light" explores the changing of cities and their histories and universities from being a drawing factor for intellectuals into a drawing force for insects and long lonely early morning walks what with the different technological mediums being used for physical rather than mental illumination, or even how "Automobile" changes metal boxes into seductive women but then I would leave out the important case of John Foxx's and Louis Gordon's much maligned music.
John and Louis have given music much the same beauty, style, and grace, through minimilising while taking away the fluff and unnecessary fury of overthinking and oversimplifying that music is doing today, much as the romantics did for human thought in the late/early 18th/19th centuries. If nothing else, I thank these two New Pioneers for the return to humanity by debugging the music industry with simplicity in this much to often overly digital age.

John Foxx - still a cut above the rest.......2003-07-09

On The Pleasures Of Electricity, John Foxx, along with Louis Gordon, returns to his early 80s Metamatic era sound, which was heavily influenced by Kraftwerk. In fact the song Camera reminds me a lot of Kraftwerk's Europe Endless and Neon Lights combined only Camera is much more dancable. Still Foxx manages to show a bit more emotion into his music on this album than Kraftwerk and he even he himself did on Metamatic
The song Invisible Women is basically a reworking of an earlier John Foxx song Underpass which is available on Metamatic. The same keyboard notes are also played in the song The Garden from the 1981 album of the same name. He's repeating himself but he does it so well. I love the soaring synth solo.
City Of Light is a great song to dance to and it features another soaring synth solo which is one thing John Foxx' is known for.
The Falling Room is probably my favorite song on the cd. Most of the vocals on The Pleasures Of Electricity are electronically altered but on The Falling Room you get John's real voice(for the most of the song) which I really enjoy. That's a bit ironic perhaps because the music is probably at it's strangest on this song.

Some other standouts for me are -
Automobile
Travel
Quiet City

This is some great music from one of the founding fathers of electronica.

Nostalgia for the Future.......2002-05-13

Hmm, very Kraftwerk. In going back to a sound even older than that of his own first foray into Electronic music, 1980's 'Metamatic', John has produced an excellent record of timeless quality. And for lovers of 'Metamatic', the tracks here 'Invisible Women' and 'Quiet City' are clever reworkings of that past glory.

Tracks:

Plaza
He's Liquid
Underpass
Metal Beat
No-One Driving
A New Kind Of Man
Blurred Girl
030
Tidal Wave
Touch And Go
Film One
Glimmer
Mr No
This City
20th Century
Burning Car
Miles Away

Album Description

John Foxx formed Ultravox in 1975 & the band recorded three influential albums for Island, before Foxx decided to go solo in 1979. 'Metamatic', his first solo album, released in early 1980, reached number 18 in the UK albums charts & was preceded by the hit single 'Underpass', included on the album. Also featured is the follow-up hit 'No-One Driving'. 'Metamatic' is remastered by Foxx himself, with expanded artwork & sleevenotes by Record Collector's Daryl Easlea. The seven bonus tracks include two further hit singles 'Burning Car' & 'Miles Away', & five non-LP b-sides, 'Film One', 'Glimmer', 'Mr No', 'This City' & '20th Century'.

Album Details

Digitally Remastered Edition of the Former Ultravox Singer's Debut Solo Album Augmented with Single Tracks and Remixes that were Issued around the Time of It's Original Release to Create a Complete Package Portrait of Foxx's Career at the Time.

Customer Reviews:

A good start to a solo career--but the CDs get better later on.......2007-02-05

All the comparisons are correct in the reviews here, especially to Gary Numan. This album has early 80s synth music written all over it. Foxx's voice is cold and mechanical, the synths are used more experimentally than relying on catchy new wave hooks that would be apparent on his albums only a few years later. For me personally, there just aren't many songs on here that I would listen to again and again or consider new wave gems, but there is promise in songs like Touch and Go and Miles Away. The drum tracks are mostly too thin to make the songs new wave dance, and many of the songs, particularly the instrumentals, suffer from that late 70s/early 80s problem of "look at the noises I can make with a synthesizer."

This is a great introduction to Foxx's solo career after Ultravox, but if you want to find some lost new wave treasures of the 80s that you will want to hear again and again (in other words, more synthpop/dance sounding), check out his 1983 CD "The Golden Section." It's infectious. This one is more for the diehard avante garde synth music lovers.

Gen-yoo-wine Euro Synth Pop.......2007-01-26

Made with very early versions of synthesizers we totally take for granted today. John Foxx was the lead talent in Ultravox before they sold their souls for American pop music success. Sterile, haunting, and markedly European in sound, this is how Kraftwerk would be if they weren't so GD foreign!

A timeless and inspired & inspiring album.......2006-08-08

The things which impressed me with this album so many years ago still impress me - it is uncompromising, imaginative, iconoclastic, colourful, rich, rhythmically creative, weird, pure and unafraid.

Now, I can hear other things - the warmth of the sound (analogue synthesizers abound), the "organic" and "holistic" qualities of the way the songs are put together, and the meticulous attention to detail. The lyrics delve into dreams, the imagination, images, ideas, memories and even thought processes themselves. The music is economical and elegant - the balance between the instrumental music and the voice is just right. Nothing on this album is superfluous.

John Dowland used a lute to accompany his songs. Franz Schubert used a fortepiano. John Foxx uses synthesizers.

In many respects, this album is like a Song-cycle or collection of Lieder. John Foxx's "Winterreise"? I rather fancy that it is. John Foxx is also one of the greatest English language lyricists of the last quarter century.

I have returned to Metamatic again and again over the years. It always says something new to me.

A new kind of album (for eternity).......2006-01-25

Metamatic was John Foxx's first solo album after his departure from Ultravox, and to my own taste, already exceeds every succeeding album of him. It's a masterpiece of its own, totally underrated and unique, using a style of music which was never imitated or reissued, not even by Foxx himself.
But it did not chart very well, and did not have such a great influence as one reviewer exaggeratingly tried to suggest. For example, Gary Numan was indeed inspired by John Foxx, but only from TELEKON onwards, while his two great successes REPLICAS and PLEASURE PRINCIPLE were already published in 1979 before the release of METAMATIC. And The Human League had their massively popupar album DARE released in 1981 (which was quite stylised catchy synthpop, definetely not influenced by Metamatic), but in their original formation, they had already released REPRODUCTION and TRAVELOGUE before or coinciding the publication of METAMATIC.

But still, as I said, METAMATIC is a brillant masterpiece in its own right and is incomparable to any other album. John Foxx was influenced by German electronic music and French new wave movies. His work with Ultravox had been quite well, but with them, as Chris Bohn pointed out, he never quite realised his full potential.

This album employs different imagary, speaking of future and past, which is always quite desolated and disrupted, evoking both atmospheres of science fiction and film noir. It is dark and minimalistic, but the songs never outstay their welcome and each one is distinguisable from the others, has a uniqute effect and contribution, and is worth the purchase. There is no filler, so no song should be skipped.
My favourites are He's A Liquid, which is sombre and evokes an imagary of an old horror movie somehow; Metal Beat, which bears some similarities to Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express (especially Metal on Metal), but is less pompous, bleaker, militant and quite gloomy; No-One Driving, which was released as a single and has, which is quite an exception on this album, a structure of ordinary songs (Stanza, Chorus, Solo), but still is very intriguing and sinister; A Blurred Girl (whose usage of Drum Machines reminds a bit of Suicide); and Touch And Go, which sounds like Ultravox's Mr.X, but of course, preceded the latter, and is much rawer, darker and minimalistic. It would be worth buying this album only for these five.
But the other songs and the bonus material are also worthwile and provide as well an interesting and terrifying journey through a bleack, alternative world, which still has connections to and some pieces of the ordinary old world (e.g. in 030).
Receiving the album can be used both as opportunity of an escapism from as well as an inverted parallelism of the ordinary monotous everyday life and life in general.
So it is especially recommendable for those who have an interest in minimalistic, sinister and desolate "European" electronic music which some classical elements.
The devices and instruments used were mainly synthesizers, drum machines, some taped and distorted noises, and of course, Foxx's unique nasal, resonantless voice, which give it the last touch.
But also, one some tracks, as Foxx later mourned, an "ordinary" E-Bass was used, but I don't find this disturbing in any way, as the E-Bass is only the basis, used in a special manner, and somehow contributes to the specific atmosphere.
Finally, as I tried to suggest with the title, it is a very innovative and "futuristic" album, that did not (and will never) lose its touch, stood very well the test of time, and might also be appealing to people who generally don't listen to this special kind of electronic music.

"Voices blurring . . . Faces merging".......2003-04-16

If you are a fan of Gary Numan, A Flock of Seagulls, the Human League, and other early 80s electronic artists, definitely check out John Foxx's works as he no doubt inspired them all. Metamatic is his first solo album after his stint as founder and vocalist with Ultravox. This album was first released in January 1980, and definitely has that Numan Pleasure Principle sound. A staple of the musical "futuristic" movement, Metamatic is darker and more detached than even Numan's early works. Foxx described this album as "carcrash" music. It is definitely inspired by the cold life of the city with people being reduced to liquid form. When listening to this CD, one hears the soundtrack of the period when the 1970s turned to the 1980s. "A New Kind of Man" has the factory pulse of early Wall of Voodoo, the dark "Blurred Girl" foreshadows A Flock of Seagulls' "The Fall", "Miles Away" is like Numan's "My Conversation" in pop form, "Touch and Go" sounds so much like Ultravox's "Mr. X" it makes one wonder if the track is a leftover from the Foxx years. It is not Foxx taking from others, but Foxx creating a type of music with themes that inspired a generation of songwriters. Still, Foxx added his own imagination to the music. As Foxx states, "We were constantly making new music for the cities. But rather than looking to America, I wanted to make a kind of music which might have happened if America had never existed. A sort of minimalist European urban electronic folk music. I had a picture of a future jukebox in some lost European motorway service station. I just listened to it play what became 'Metamatic.'" What makes this CD definitely worth the price are the additions. Seven bonus tracks are included, as well as lyrics to the original album tracks, several photos of Foxx, and a three-page mini bio of Foxx and the impact of Metamatic. It is a very impressive package.

Average customer rating:

Captures the sound of the era

Metamatic
John Foxx
Manufacturer: Teichiku Japan
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000C9VSM
Release Date: 2004-03-02

Tracks:

Plaza
He's a Liquid
Underpass
Metal Beat
New Kind of Man
Blurred Girl
030
Tidal Wave
Touch and Go
Film One [Underpass B-Side][*]
Glimmer [No-One Driving B-Side][*]
Mr No [No-One Driving Extra Track][*]
This City [No-One Driving Extra Track][*]
20th Century [Burning Car B-Side][*]
20th Century [Burning Car Non LP A-Side][*]
Burning Car [Non LP A-Side][*]
Miles Away [Non LP A-Side]

Album Description

Japanese reissue off 1980 album is packaged in a miniature LP sleeve & features 17 tracks including 7 bonus tracks, 'Film One' (Underpass B-Side), 'Glimmer' (No-One Driving B-Side), 'Mr. No' (No-One Driving Extra Track), 'This City' (No-One Driving Extra Track), '20th Century' (Burning Car B-Side), 'Burning Car' (Non LP A-Side) & 'Miles Away' (Non LP A-Side). Imperial. 2003.

Album Details

Japanese Limited Edition in an LP-STYLE Slipcase. Includes Seven Bonus Tracks.

Customer Reviews:

Captures the sound of the era.......2004-09-28

Stark, metallic, electro beats throbbing, promises of neon lights and 80's chic. Soaring keyboard sounds invoke images of dark futures. Underpass reminds us what 'Electro' music really should be. Often ignored, unfairly forgotten, this album is a must for any who profess an interest in early 80's music. Well worth owning, but difficult to find cheap.

Average customer rating:

An absolutely beautiful listening experience.
Excellent
An excellent ambient album by Mr John Foxx
HAUNTING
Well Yeah,,,

Cathedral Oceans
John Foxx
Manufacturer: Metamatic UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000003RSU
Release Date: 2002-09-02

Tracks:

Cathedral Oceans
City As Memory
Through Summer Rooms
Geometry And Coincidence
If Only...
Shifting Perspective
Floating Islands
Infinite In All Directions
Avenham Collanade
Sunset Rising
Invisble Architecture

Album Description

1995 solo album by Ultravox's original vocalist/ keyboardist, a mixture of instrumental ambient music that he's been developing since 1983. 11 tracks.

Customer Reviews:

An absolutely beautiful listening experience........2006-05-17

Like most of us, I was numbed out by the events of 9/11. I couldn't listen to music at all for days. Eveerything that I tried to listen to irritated me. Then I put this on. This soothing ambient work by John Foxx brought me back, so to speak from that situation. I have since given my copy to a good friend, as I opted to purchase the double cd reissue Cathedral Oceans 1 and 2. Tranquility when you'll want it most. Highly recommended. Very spiritual. An absolutely beautiful listening experience.

Excellent.......2003-01-22

This album is amazing, its nothing like the 'normal' music John Foxx plays and produces. When I met him on the 21st of Jan, 2003 he said that this was his proudest moment in his musical career, becayse it was very personal. I saw pictures slowly moving on a glass screen with this album playing = amazing.

An excellent ambient album by Mr John Foxx.......2002-11-05

Don't judge this CD by John Foxx's background in the pop/rock business. This is totally different, an ambient album, the same genre as Brian Eno, Harold Budd and Steve Roach. Foxx gives a special thanks to Mr Harold Budd, so it seems like he's been involved in some way (the text doesn't explain how). The album has similarities with Eno, Budd and Roach, but at the same time Foxx creates his own sound using his unique voice, often processed by large hall/cathedral reverbs. They're sometimes played backwards, which creates a haunting mood. This is an excellent album for people who like ambient. If you enjoy the works of Eno and Budd, then get this album. You won't regret it.

HAUNTING.......1999-08-28

ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE JOHN FOXX GOES NEW AG

Well Yeah,,,.......1999-08-22

First you have to get this album in perspective. It's by John Foxx - but he's totally reinvented himself. All rock pretensions have gone and he's now a new age guy. In fact, he's trying real hard to be Harold Budd, so if you know who he is, you're right on track.

I bought it because I'm a fan of John's other music. Given the nature of the recording I must confess to being disapointed. I'd die to hear him put out another "The Garden" or "Systems of Romance."

That aside I guess I should talk about the alubm in the correct context. I also am a fan of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schultz, Andreas Vollenweider, Brian Eno - and yes, the aforementioned Harold Budd. So how does Foxx stack up? Well - frankly he doesn't bring anything new to the table. This type of music can be emotive, no doubt about that. But it has nothing to do with the prson making the music - it's the timbre, the instrumentation. After more than ten years break - John has totally lost his way. I can't recommend this. Buy some Eno and get the real deal.

Metamatic
Average customer rating:

Earnest

Made to be Stolen?

A Landmark of UK ELECTRONIC MUSIC

A definitive e-lectronic collection

if you're into analog synths this is the only album you need

Metamatic
John Foxx
Manufacturer: Virgin
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000007U2Z
Release Date: 1993-04-26

Tracks:

Plaza
He's a Liquid
Underpass
Metal Beat
No-One Driving
New Kind of Man
Blurred Girl
030
Tidal Wave
Touch and Go
Young Love [*]
Film One [*]
20th Century [*]
Miles Away [*]
Long Time [*]
Swimmer 1 [*]

Album Details

Includes Five Bonus Tracks.

Customer Reviews:

Earnest.......2001-02-19

The essence of early-80s electronic futurism distilled into forty minutes, this sounds quite silly nowadays - po-faced, deadly earnest, tuneless and generally monotonous, with lyrics about urban decay and lines such as 'he's a tangent, she's an angle'. 'Plaza', 'No-One Driving', 'Underpass', 'Tidal Wave' and 'Touch and Go' grow on you, but Foxx's two-note vocal range and punkish aversion to melody dates the album unfairly. Played fifty per cent faster on bassy speakers, it's quite good as dance music. It's fascinating if you're into analogue synths, though, as it sounds like a more uncompromising version of the Human League's pre-fame albums, all screeching strings and thwupping percussion. It's also apparent that Gary Numan stole most of his vocal inflections from Foxx, although his masterstroke was to add hummable tunes. Foxx followed this up with 'The Garden', a more conventionally poppy record, and a swift slide into ambient music, computer game soundtracks and obscurity.

Made to be Stolen?.......2000-09-13

You can always tell which CD's are the truly great ones: they are the ones that seem to get stolen when you aren't paying attention. This is one of them. Regrettably, it's out of print, so it can not be easily replaced.

At any rate, the few people who have copies own one of the great works analog-synthesizer music. Right up with Bill Nelson's "Sound On Sound", Tangerine Dream's "Stratosfear", and of course, John Foxx's own work with Ultravox.

A bit too cerebral for most of today's teen ravers, dumbed down by "airhead talent" like N'SYNC, Backstreet Boys, and Britney Spears. But a great find for the serious music lover, and the conoisseur.

A Landmark of UK ELECTRONIC MUSIC.......2000-08-04

This is the UK's most influential LP/CD from the early 80's. John Foxx has been sited by Gary Numan as a major inspiration. The music is stripped down to the bare bones (mono synth lines and basic drum machines), but the sound is still full and gives the feel John was looking for. All the tracks are classics. UNDERPASS, ON-ONE DRIVING and MILES AWAY were all hits in the UK. Images of urban concrete, cars and metal claustrophobic intensity (METAL BEAT / HE'S A LIQUID) provide the theme throughout. If you've never heard of John Foxx (former lead singer with Ultravox) I insist you MUST check out this release. It's fantastic even 20 years after it's first appearance.

A definitive e-lectronic collection.......1999-02-20

This album totally rocks. I bought the CD because I had worn my old-fangled LP out. Interestingly enough, some songs I hadn't noticed before began to grow on me. The bonus tracks are cool.

One downside, though--this has to be the worst-quality recording I have ever purchased. It sounds like they used a fifth-generation master to record it. _Lots_ of hiss. But it still totally rocks!

if you're into analog synths this is the only album you need.......1999-02-05

ultravox prepared us for this album,which triggered the electronic scene that flood the world now. The genius of simplicity in the arrangements are simply brilliant...the lyrix are superb...high poetry. j. foxx will forever stand out as a beacon and godhead for bona fidé teknopagans

Average customer rating:

One of the best John Foxx albums of all time
An angel in a ruined suit
Transition Complete
Transition Complete
A triumphant return from the master of electronic pop.

Shifting City
John Foxx & Louis Gordon
Manufacturer: Metamatic UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00000DFEG
Release Date: 1998-12-15

Tracks:

The Noise
Crash
Here We Go
Shadow Man
Through My Sleeping
Forgotten Years
Everyone
Shifting City
Concrete, Bulletproof, Invisible
An Ocean We Can Breathe

Album Description

1995 collaborative effort from Ultravox's original vocalist/keyboardist and Louis Gordon, a mixture of vocal & hard edged material with influences coming from both modern techno acts & pioneers like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, plus occasional traces of '60s psychedelia. Contains 10 tracks, including 'Crash', 'The Noise' and 'Here We Go'. A Metamatic release.

Customer Reviews:

One of the best John Foxx albums of all time.......2006-08-05

Those who loved John Foxx's seminal 1980 album "Metamatic" will find "Shifting City" a triumphant return to that form. Five stars doesn't seem like enough.

Shifting City is a dark, dystopian soundscape. And yet one that is haunted by the ghost of romance. Harshness coexists with a nostalgic warmth. Deep, distorted beats, static, strange but compelling sound effects, and Foxx's fragmented, mysterious lyrics create an unforgettable atmosphere. This would have made a great soundtrack to Blade Runner - or any other movie version of a Philip K. Dick novel.

Foxx's penchant for releasing ambient albums with no vocals is a bit odd to me, considering that he is one of the great lyricists of the 20th (and 21st) century. Happily, Shifting City makes full use of his eloquence. "Shadow Man", arguably the best track on the album, projects a series of bizarre, disturbing, dreamlike images:

"There's a woman asleep
And her skin's like smoke
She loses form
As he loses hope..."

And:

"And he turns to go
He can never leave
And his eyes dissolve
He can hardly breathe..."

Foxx's unique, surrealist perspective, where the world and everything in it seem to be pieces in an eternally changing kaleidoscope, make his lyrics and his music so fascinating. You see or hear something different in them every time.

Shifting City does not suffer from the occasional overindulgence and lack of drive that are a minor annoyance on some of Foxx's other albums. This may be the influence of Louis Gordon. The album feels tighter, stronger and more focused than the other albums.

I keep returning to this one again and again. A must for any John Foxx fan, or anyone interested in the more creative possibilities of electronic music.

An angel in a ruined suit.......2000-03-24

John Foxx, whether as creator of Ultravox or solo artist, has always been a pioneer. His warm and emotional songs are paired with a cold detachment, and resulting albums have always been seductive and inspirational because of this. After fourteen (FOURTEEN!) years in the wilderness, Shifting City brings it all back, redressed for the (then) nineties. The same obsessions with ruined and decayed cities, ghosts and shadows, and lush english wildernesses have now been fused with rhythmic, almost dance-like grooves and slower, smokey, more evocative pieces. As a whole, 'Shifting City' embraces all emotions and styles in a way that even his past work has been unable to do. This is essential to everyone with imagination, and he promises many more albums in the near future. If they are anything like this, then they are already highly recommended.

Transition Complete.......1999-10-20

At last John Foxx, with Louis Gordon makes the transistion between metal machine music and traditional music. Having flirted with the use of feedback, with Ultravox! with their final Lp "Systems Of Romance" Foxx matches, neigh surpases previous releases with the industrial "The Noise" the beatlesesque "Shifting City" and the breezy, "An ocean we can Breathe" All excellent and certainly worth the money, you'll not buy a better CD of this genre.

Transition Complete.......1999-10-20

A triumphant return from the master of electronic pop........1999-04-13

This is the best album John Foxx has released since his groundbreaking Metamatic in 1980. A brilliant fusion of electronica and classic pop melodies.

Average customer rating:

Product information:

Metamatics 3 Jak and Dive
John Foxx , 3 Jak andDive , Metamatics , and Lee Norris
Manufacturer: Metamatic
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000RPYAWC

Product Description

Metamatics limited edition new album features a cd single as well, the album builds on Metamatic's graceful take on electronic listening music, it looks simple at first glance but reveals involving and complicated, lovely detail. Track 2 features electronic music legend John Foxx, who's album 'Metamatics', Norris took his name from.

Customer Reviews:

Product information:.......2007-06-09

3 Jak and Dive (Lee Norris) team up with the godfather of electronic music John Foxx (formally of Ultravox circa 1977) and come up with another masterpiece. It's an amazingly beautiful and richly textured CD that ranges from slow to upbeat electronica (god I hate that term).

Track listing was not listed above, so here it is:

19 TRACKS:
1. Common Ghost - 2. Free Robot - 3. Jak & Dive - 4. Sain Ever - 5. The First Transmission - 6. Lofiscifi 2005 - 7. Play Off - 8. Manchester / Sheffield - 9. Bubbleboarded - 10. Busking Robot - 11. Vlokal - 12. Pebble - 13. Stop This Cd - 14. Am On Spectre Canal - 15. Scs 11 - 16. Her Second - 17. Keek Komplet - 18. Eara 2 - 19. My Frozen Hands -

Pop Music:

Pop Music

pop music

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