That's Entertainment : Neuropa
When you walk around the office, there's always someone there with the radio on. Or sat there, dreaming of being anywhere else, with their iPod on and shuffling files out of their in basket. And I for one, always found work far more tolerable with a grab-bag of my favourite tunes and a couple of pens drumming on the desk.
So have you ever wondered what it'd be like working with an accomplished vocalist, musician and rock star?
Well, in 2006 I had the opportunity to do just that.
I started a role, which for all the lovely people who were in the area, was just not me. Members of the team were spread across the country and once a month, we'd all come together in the city to meet and discuss projects and the like. For me, it gave me a perfect opportunity to head down to the majors that still existed then - JB Hi FI, Sanity and HMV and on the way home slip by places like Red Eye Records and Utopia and scour the shelves for something new. There was also lots of coffee drunk and people sitting chatting. The first such meeting, one of my colleagues asked me "if I had met Jason yet?".
A short time later, I was introduced to Jason. Just amiable chit chat. One thing lead to another, we got talking music and suddenly, BANG!!! To be honest, being the new guy, I thought he was taking the pi$$, so I could take this hazing gag and run with it. However, I soon discovered I was the only person in the area who didn't know that Jason was the vocalist and multi instrumentalist in the synth-pop band Neuropa.
At the time, Jason and his cohort Albert were putting the finishing touches to their new LP The Blitz. Jason played me some samples and I knew I had to score the album when it finally arrived. But I'm also one of those people who doesn't like freeloading, so I ordered my CD copy from their record label and waited for it to arrive. To cut a long story short, I played The Blitz…a lot. In fact, it was something I listened to a bit of when I was sketching out the original plot to my first book back in 2007. It's got plenty of little soundtrack qualities where someone like me can go off and daydream and come back with a grab bag of ideas.
I moved within the bank a couple more times and from time to time we'd email. In 2009 I'd receive little emails of pre-release songs for the next album and looked forward excitedly to the next album. The samples I'd received were fantastic and really progressed their sound. In 2010, Plastique People dropped, full of stunning synth pop delights, which sound stunning. Jason is forever detailing his extensive synth and guitar collection, and you can tell when a man is an artisan crafting wonders. Neuropa would have to be Australia's pre-eminent synth pop group, much lauded in Europe (where for some reason, Europeans are far more respectful of synth pop/rock), meshing 80's influences, with darker undercurrents. Plastique People is a complete album and a complete listening experience. I particularly adore The Futurist , a stunning soundscape that deservedly needs to be the lead in track/single of an Alistair Raven soundtrack album.
For a while, it seemed there might not be another Neuropa album. I started sifting their earlier albums for things I hadn't heard. I found After The Rain and immediately had it on high rotation. It reminds me of the bleak and grimy grit of Depeche Mode's Ultra album. It's an absolute corker and yet another track I've taken as my own to inspire mood when I'm writing. Jason's vocal on this track is fantastic too…a real stunner.
In early 2014 there in my inbox was a 'hey, how you doing?' email with news a new album called Resistor was coming. Eagerly, I downloaded it and devoured it. Again, creatively, Neuropa are at a peak, fusing a range of industrial styles to produce mood right across the album. If you want to get a boogie in your butt, take a listen to Midnight Sun. The first minute is right up there with the best industrial pop like Cabaret Voltaire. Pain is spine chilling; Divine Device makes me want to be a darkened cellar night club with strobe lighting sending me in to an epileptic fit; One Foot In The Grave has a Stephen Morris percussive thump. Resistor really upped the ante and delivered in spades…plus the album cover is divine.
In life you meet lots of people. Most people who meet me probably wish they hadn't…LOL!!! And I've been lucky to have met plenty of wonderfully warm and talented people who made my life better even if I annoyed the crap out of them. And I can't moan the job(s) I've had at various points in time were sucky because I've always met nice people. So I was lucky the crappish job I had in 2006 let me meet Jason Last. He truly is an amazing talent and someone I look up to for inspiration when I'm working because I know that despite the 1000's of CDs I own, a half dozen of them were written, performed and recorded by a totally awesome dude who rocks his ar$3 off!
So if you're trawling the net for something new…check out iTunes. Definitely stump up for the albums Plastique People and Resistor. If you like your NIN, Depeche Mode, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys and Bronski Beat and want something to tickle your timpanic membranes…you have been told.
