So Fader and Blancmange have fundamentally different starting points, even though it’s the same two people. When Blanc Burn emerged to great acclaim in 2011, what – I wonder – were his ambitions for the reformed Blancmange?

Originally from the UK’s post punk DIY scene, Blancmange found success in 1982, long player Happy Families selling Gold in the UK, and its 3 singles becoming international hits. From the opening song, “What’s Your Name”, with its mellow keyboards, until the last piano note of the album, Arthur and company utilize sound uniquely. Forty years after Happy Families, Blancmange are back on London Records with a new album, Private View. One of my regular walks when I lived in South London was to get off at Charing Cross and walk across Trafalgar Square to the National Gallery.Originally a duo comprising of Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe, the pair released a further two albums ‘Mange Tout’ and ‘Believe You Me’ before going on a lengthy hiatus.

Private View is not a confessional album, but rather an album from an artist who knows how to use his art and talent to tell his stories and explore not only his own emotions, but also the impact of the world around him. THE SMILE WALL OF EYES XL RECORDINGS 2022 was a breakthrough year for The Smile, the latest project from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, and Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, where the trio released its impressive debut studio [. He’s had a shrimp burger, I’ve had something that sounded slightly posher on the menu but was essentially a cheese toastie.Despite it being 45 years since the teenage Neil Arthur left his native Darwen for the moderately bright lights of late 1970s London.

Not that Benge doesn’t get involved with that, but I usually have the song structure and lyrics in place before I send them to him.We were in the dressing room, and they all said ‘Right, we’re going on…’ so we did the secret ritual, then they left me alone to gargle because I’d been ill. And in terms of other musician friends… I knew people, but I also had the same group of mates from up north and from college down here.

So, back in the early 1980s, was it London that helped transform the experimental Blancmange into a bona fide pop machine? Some Times These’ also retains a fuzzy kerrang element although the chorus keyboard theme has an immersive Eno-esque air that echoes his work on “Heroes”. In 2021, Blancmange released the wonderful Commercial Break, and it seemed that Arthur rediscovered the guitar. Take the aforementioned ‘Everything Is Connected’: “Hang the washing out / Do the washing up / Close the door and then lock it”. How Stephen, faced with spiralling health issues, was unable to join the subsequent tour but gave his blessing for Neil to continue without him.Allusions to the group’s heyday aren’t unfounded; one track, Here We Go Go, has been in Neil’s head since 1980 and only just materialises on his latest body of work, proving that a good song never goes out of fashion. Nobody goes through a very close relationship with a partner without making some mistakes, and it’s a case of… how many times will that person put up with it? Everything Is Connected has an element of exoticism in to its exhortations on domesticity vs nature, and album closer Take Me harks back to the sweet transcendence of I’ve Seen The Word. Four decades on from Blancmange’s first release, ‘Private View’ is a cohesive body of work and, with a creative streak that shows no sign of slowing down, one that has us itching to see where Neil takes his sound next. Continuing FADER partner Benge as producer who worked on the recent BLANCMANGE albums ‘Unfurnished Rooms’, ‘Wanderlust’, ‘Mindset’ and ‘Commercial Break’, ‘Private View’ presents a striking opener in ‘What’s Your Name’; not a cover of the 1981 DEPECHE MODE tune, despite a sparse vibey start, it strums and crashes into action while Arthur uses a manipulated voice treatment to give a sense of other worldly alienation away from the indie rock track that this could easily be.