- Artists going full circle with their art is not that uncommon a trope. Nor was the early/mid '80's trend of duos (usually male) blending electro-pop with new wave rhythms and vibe. Yazoo, The Assembly, Erasure, Soft Cell, Pet Shop Boys and Tears For Fears. Curiously, three out of those aforementioned featured Vince Clarke who along with Andy Bell keep Erasure going strong and doing their own “full circle” this November with a re-release of their debut 1985 eponymous album along with a set of alternative takes, remixes and the like.

Prior to that album and during Yazoo’s heyday there was another duo -Blancmange- whose quirky pop-cum-electro-cum-new wave tracks briefly stole the limelight with the exotic flavoured banger Living on the Ceiling. They even managed to get higher in the UK charts with an audacious cover of ABBA’s second-last single (before their 2021 surprise return) The Day Before You Came – though, it didn’t crack the Top 20 and soon after Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe amicably parted ways.

The duo returned after a quarter of a century in 2011, though Luscombe’s health problems saw him hand the Blancmange name and style over to Arthur soon after the reunion album and tour. The last decade has been a fertile period with some ten albums released by Arthur with various session musicians as well regular collaborator Benge (aka Ben Edwards) handling co-production and electronic music influences.

There is a definite “Blancmange” sound to Private View as a whole, even though each track subtly differs from the one before. When Arthur’s vocals first hit the scene in the early '80s, he used a fulsome almost baritone timbre, now he is switching it up, at times fragile almost experimental in a demo track sort of way. This works on tracks like Who Am I which unpacks the confusion of a day to day life without any anchoring possible over a scratchy lead guitar repeating a riff that keeps the nervous tension running throughout. The previous track Chairs is another inside the head-space journey, discussing the medication needed to keep sane, but the musical soundscape is at variance with that – and then there is the repeated, oh-so-English words of comfort spoken by Arthur “Cup of tea?”

At times, Arthur pulls alongside David Bowie’s stripped back style from his Brian Eno influenced Berlin period, most noticeably on Reduced Voltage and it comes off well and not at all like an unsuccessful attempt at being a cheap copy. There are some beautifully emotional moments which might sound like an oxymoron when you are talking about an album’s foundation on Benge’s electronica palette. The tender and steady Here We Go Go is a reflective piece of storytelling and well worth hearing again and again. The final trick, Take Me is almost too simple – a shimmering white noise fading in, out and around over a sensitive piano line then a subtle piece of electric guitar strumming and a quiet beat introduced as Arthur surrenders himself to another. There’s a feel of another great '80's crafter of songs, Matt Johnson aka The The and it brings the listener to another point of reflection and deep pondering.

Given that Blancmange began forty years ago throwing out songs that got people dancing, there is still plenty of that here. First up is the incessant What’s Your Name with a crunchy melange of guitar, drums and Arthur’s voice pitched up the register in a plaintive cry repeating the title over and over. Sliding into the first single released from the album, Some Times Like These which almost sounds like a demo track but does what a successful pop song should do, it hooks into you like a seductive earworm. Another of the tracks ripe for a dance remix is Everything Is Connected ready with an alluring running bass and electronic hand claps and just a whiff of that exotic locale Living on a Ceiling offered.

Released almost forty years to the day that Blancmange’s first album Happy Families was, Private View gives nostalgia a good shake and the freedom with which Arthur pursues experimentation and styles probably means he’ll drop another decent tenner of albums by 2032 and Blancmange’s 50th anniversary.

- Blair Martin.