John Foxx

I first heard of John Foxx when I heard the hypnotic but alienating 'Underpass' in a compilation about ten years ago. Subsequently, I discovered a few more John Foxx CDs including the bleak 'Shifting City' at Borders.

After hearing John Foxx's 'Crash and Burn' and 'Assembly', I told myself that I would eventually get more of Foxx's work.

He is an underrated genius. I have been meaning to get more of his albums for years. Seven or eight years later, I decided to buy the rest of Foxx's work on a trip to the UK.

After a few searches in HMV and Virgin Megastores with His Royal Holiness, the Emperor, I found the following:

John Foxx - Cathedral Oceans II
John Foxx - Cathedral Oceans III
John Fox - The Garden
John Foxx - The Golden Section
John Foxx - The Golden Section Tour and the Omnidelic Exotour with Louis Gordon
John Foxx - In Mysterious ways
John Foxx - Metamatic
John Foxx - Modern Art: The best of John Foxx
John Foxx - Tiny Colour Movies
John Foxx & Harold Budd - Translucence + Drift Music
John Foxx & Louis Gordon - The Pleasures of electricity
Ultravox! - Ultravox!
Ultravox! - Ha! Ha! Ha!
Ultravox - Systems of romance

Foxx's work can be divided into the following:

Ultravox!
Synthpop
Ambient soundscapes

The first Ultravox! albums are rock with quite a bit of experimentation and some form of early electronics. However, they are mostly art rock albums in essence. Impenetrable lyrics and themes abound. Foxx left Ultravox. (The first two albums were released under Ultravox! in honour of NEU! The subsequent ones dropped the exclamation mark.) Ure joined Ultravox and the rest is ....

Foxx then released the prototypical synthpop album in the early eighties which can be compared favourably to Kraftwerk and Gary Numan. These early works, consisting of four albums, had diverse influences from the Beatles to Italian landscapes to urban decay. Foxx then became a designer and disappeared from the music scene for a decade. He re-surfaced later with 'Shifting City', 'The Pleasures of Electricity' and more with a collaborator, Louis Gordon. The later synthpop work have themes of urban decay, alienation, technology and these compare very favourably with the early four albums. The concert album has great interpretations with new arrangements. Foxx's work are overlooked synthpop masterpieces.

Lastly, Foxx has quite a few ambient works with a filmic feel including 'Tiny Colour Movies', 'Cathedral Oceans' and more. These have Foxx painting broad but light aural strokes on a canvas.

For those who want to get everything from John Foxx, I would recommend that they purchase the CDs from the internet. Try Amazon UK. http://www.amazon.co.uk

It is a lot less expensive than buying them in the stores (HMV, Virgin Music) in London or Amazon USA (unless you have free shipping....)


This entry is written for His Imperial Majesty Emperor Loh (Who laughed at me for missing the John Foxx concert), Eugene, Kelvin, V, Steve, Winnie, Ken, Wei Yi, Anne, Amelia, Corrinne, June, and a few other friends...