Cosmic

Chris Massey's Sprechen kicks off 2026 with a new EP from The Thief Of Time, Chris' cosmic disco/ new wave band now joined permanently by Lady Lady (Sally Summers). The new single, Cosmic, is a decades old demo updated by Sally and Chris, all 80s synths, soaring vocals and sci fi dreams. 

Cosmic comes with two remixes- one by WH Lung's Tom Sharkett and the other by Frederik Hendrik, a new Sprechen signing. Tom loads up big breakbeat, isolates the synthlines and heads for the rave at the end of the universe, six minutes of fun with a breakdown at four minutes filled with garbed voices and then a finale with laser beams and synths firing off all over. Frederik's remix is cosmic disco/ Italo house, builds slowly, achieves lift off, breaks down, re- enters, and then continues to fly. Find Cosmic at Bandcamp. 

In 2024 Tom Sharkett's band WH Lung released their third album, Every Inch Of Earth Pulsates, a really well put together nine song set of cosmische indie, both atmospheric and with fully realised songs. The songs pulse with synths and guitars, motorik drums and soaring melodies, that sound like lots of other bands best bits and also like themselves. This song ended the album in fine style, a big emphatic, widescreen kiss off.

I Will Set Fire To The House

In 2020 an album of remixes of songs from Incidental Music was released including remixes by Kid Machine and Fijiya and Miyagi. In 2019 Piccadilly Records made Incidental Music their album of the year and the CD of remixes was a bonus disc for punters who bought the album at Oldham Street's finest record shop. The Fujiya and Miyagi remix fits in very well alongside the WH Lung one above and The Thief Of Time EP, all very cosmic. 

Second Death Of My Face (Fujiya and Miyagi Remix)

WH Lung are named after a Chinese and Asian supermarket on Upper Brook Street, Manchester, open seven days a week.

Sprechen Fest

Chris Massey's Sprechen label started ten years ago, run out of a spare room at his home in Bolton. Since then it's had a decade of releases and parties, a record label that's become a home for life enhancing, psychedelic/ electronic music that is always interesting, always changing, never standing still. To celebrate this Sprechen are releasing an album called Ein Null: 10 Years Of Sprechen. The album has a really strong line up of artists- A Certain Ratio (with a track, Faster But Slower,  not available anywhere else), Bagging Area favourite Psychederek, The Utopia Strong (featuring former snooker champion Steve Davis), Lena C, PBR Streetgang, Gina Breeze, and Low Pulse. 

As well as this Norwegian producer Lindstrom has joined up with Chris' band The Thief Of Time on a song called Escape Into Neon- a title that sums up much of Sprechen's vibe- with an instrumental and vocal version of the song. The instrumental is available to listen to here, Lindstrom's Scandi-disco synths and The Thief Of Time's 80s indie- pop combining in a flare of light and arpeggios. Ein Null is out on vinyl and digitally and can be ordered here. 

The other track on Ein Null is Walk... Now Walk, a slow mo acid disco chug romp with vocals from RuPaul and Supernature that builds and builds without ever quite exploding, the tension kept in check. 

Also on Sprechen but back in June, was an EP from Ed Mahon called Recreations, a trio of edits and covers. The first is the Poolside Rerub of Voice Of Africa's classic Hoomba Hoomba, the original's beatific piano set over a 98 bpm chug and the chanted vocal fading in. 

Following that there's What You Deserve, a hard edged, uptempo early 80s number from the EBM/ Nitzer Ebb/ DAF sound- sweaty industrial proto- house with a vocal from Snem K. The EP is completed with a version of Corina's Temptation, originally out in 1991, and done by Ed with a vocal from Louise Spiteri, stripped back and full of end of the night/ under the stars love. Get Recreations here. 

Rendezvous In A Manchester Basement

A week ago, the Thursday before Christmas, Chris Massey's Sprechen label celebrated a successful year with an evening of DJs and bands at Yes. Yes is a great venue, situated on Charles Street, a stone's throw from the old Factory offices in one direction and the old BBC Oxford Road studios in the other- but, crucially, relying on none of the nostalgia that some parts of Manchester drape themselves in. Yes has a ground floor bar and several gig spaces. In the past few years ACR and Sonic Boom have both played upstairs. Chris held Sprechen's gig in the basement, a room that probably holds a hundred people. Psychederek was on the decks with his bag of comische tunes, followed by Mike Grubert's band Love Letters From Space, a psychedelic space rock four piece. 

Chris' group The Thief Of Time have grown through 2023 and '24. The album, Where Do I Belong?, was one of last year's highlights, a summation of all of Chris' loves and life- clubs, music, comics, cult films, cosmiche synths and mid- 80s electronic indie pop- with some beautiful songs. The Thief Of Time's live outings have included gigs at Yard in Cheetham Hill and in November at The Golden Lion, Todmorden. With each gig, they've taken bigger steps and filled out, the line up expanding to include the leopard skin clad guitarist Mike and now keys/ co- vocals Lady Lady, plus at Yes, vocals from Bay Bryan on one of the songs. 

Chris is centre stage, singing, playing synth drums and keys/ synths. They play the whole of Where Do I Belong?, Imposter Syndrome sounding especially good, the vocal sample kicking things off, 'It was as though I had no place in the world', before the mid 80s New Order gone to Cologne keyboard parts achieve lift off and Bryan's vocals surf on top

The influence of early 80s forward thinking pop, stuff that came out of the post- punk underground and then went pop such as The Human League, is strong, as is the ever present thud of club music and Manchester's past although this is absolutely not a Manchester revival thing in any way. Rendezvous For A Lost World throbs in Moroder- esque fashion with blissed out vocals, the clean lines of 80s sci fi brought to life in a basement in December. After that, there are a trio of new songs which promise that next year for Sprechen will bring more and bigger still (see also the album from Causeway that is scheduled for release early '25). 

Where Do I Belong? can be found to listen to and buy at Bandcamp.  

Sprechen Presents...

On Saturday night gig goers in Manchester had multiple options. The new Co- Op Arena in east Manchester hosted Liam Gallagher who was playing Definitely Maybe in full and then whatever else it is Liam plays after he's done all the good songs. Old Trafford cricket ground had Foo Fighters. Manchester city centre on Saturday afternoon was packed with people coming and going, Liam and Foo fans, hen parties and earlier on glammed up Taylor Swift fans heading for trains to Liverpool. The other option was a walk up Cheetham Hill Road to The Yard and a Sprechen Records Presents night with live performances by Chris Massey's The Thief Of Time and Psychederek. I took the non- Liam, no- Foo option and headed to The Yard. 

The Thief Of Time's debut album Where Do I Belong? came out towards the end of last year and became one of my favourite albums of 2023 very quickly. Chris Massey usually makes dance music and ultimately that has one aim- to make people dance. The Thief Of Time is song based and more autobiographical, Chris bringing together a lifetime spent soaking up pop culture- music, films, comics, songs, bands, clubs- and forming into one seven song record. There are nods of the head to 80s pop, to mid- 80s New Order, electronic music and guitars. A Certain Ratio helped out as did Psychederek, Bay Bryan and Alison Rae who all provided vocals. At 9.45 pm on Saturday night Chris stepped on stage at The Yard for the debut live appearance as The Thief of Time, switching between guitar, synth drums, keys/ synths and vocals with a guitarist to his left. The songs definitely work live, pulsing and building, electronic pop with psychedelic and lots of film references. The projections behind added a visual dimension, sci fi loops, Manchester tower blocks, the footbridge over the M60 at Stretford and pulsating computer animations. Many of the songs have snatches of dialogue sampled from film and TV and Chris had synced up the vocal samples to the moments of the films he took them from, the actors from various black and white films appearing on the screen as their voices came through the PA. It was hugely impressive and hopefully the first of many future performances. Towards the finale, with twin guitars chiming away, as the motorik/ cosmische rhythms thumped on and the synths soared, the effect was magical and hypnotic. This one, Rendezvous On A Lost World, with the ghostly refrain sung by Psychederek, 'You're not alone', echoing through the Victorian school building, sounded especially good.

The Thief Of Time were followed by Psychederek. His single Test Card Girl was one of my favourite releases of 2023 and his recent EP Alt! is already shaping up to be one of my favourites of '24. Behind a bank of synths, drum machines and a laptop, a microphone and a guitar, Psychederek began with the dreamy, phased, blissed out synth chords of Test Card Girl, stretching the sounds and filtering them before the drum beat kicked in...

From there he went from one song straight into the next, a blend of gig and DJ set, the songs joined seemlessly. Hapi from Alt! had his singing, his voice floating from the PA, followed by the crunching cosmische rhythms and Neu! guitar/ synthlines of Nowhere To Nowhere. I had to leave before the end of Psychederek's set but what I caught was superb and I'll be back for more next time he plays. 

Psychederek's Alt! is available at Sprechen, four songs for summer '24 including his sun baked cover of 808 State's Pacific. Digital and vinyl here. 

The Thief Of Time's Where Do I Belong? is here, digital, CD and vinyl options plus posters and tote bags. 

The Love Letter From Space

Chris Massey is a resident of Stretford, just up the road from me, a recording artist and record label owner- Sprechen has put out music by a wide variety of people including Psychederek who has featured here before, not least with this year's gorgeous Test Card Girl single.  Chris has recently released an album under the name The Thief Of Time, a seven track record titled Where Do I Belong? When I first listened to it, one cold, dark evening this week, it hit me so hard that it sounded like it had been recorded with me specifically in mind. 

Where Do I Belong? finds inspiration in both the celestial and the more earthly, an album that is equally informed by the sounds of cosmic electronic music and South Manchester. There are sounds here that those raised in the 80s will recognise as formative influences- sequenced basslines, electronic pop, synths from rave and the technicoloured space of Andrew Weatherall's remixes. When I clicked play at Bandcamp the album began playing on track five, the aptly named Love Letter From Space, which begins with a ringing guitar part that could be late 80s Manchester or just as easily from yesterday's Coyote edit of Monsoon. The percussion and drums pad in softly, gently building, a widescreen feel of things opening up. Eventually a sampled voice drops in and the cosmic synths flit about, the two guitar notes carrying everything onwards. 

There are guest appearances from Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson of A Certain Ratio, Marshall Watson and Allison Rae on We'll Find Each Other and Bay Bryan on Imposter Syndrome, a song which opens with a voice saying, 'It was as if I had no place in the world', and then a kick drum thumps away, synths glide in and an ecstatic lift off is achieved, the sounds of dance music, pop and Balearica stirred together in a day glo sunshine. 

Psychederek turns up on the album's final song, Rendezvous On A Lost World, one of those pulsing, propulsive, space age, half ecstatic/ half melancholic songs that mid 80s New Order excelled it, but sprinkled with 2023's dust, Psychederek singing, 'I'm not alone... the present sees me through', as the bass, drums, synths and guitars push away into the horizon. 

Where Do I Belong? is a superb sounding album, arriving just in time for the end of the year, songs and sounds filled with emotion and depth, the result of several decades of living in and soaking up culture, the music, TV, film, sounds, comics, clubs, dancefloors, books, clothes and magazines, absorbed and stored away inside. Where Do I Belong? is out now on Sprechen, on vinyl, limited hand created CD, digital and with a tote bag if you're looking for something extra. Find them all here.