This quote, from Winston Hazel, may be about bleep techno (see Sweet Exorcist and LFO for examples) but it ties in perfectly with the musical heritage that marked Sheffield out as a place for pioneering music in the late 70’s.
In his book Join the Future, Matt Anniss writes that:
A decade earlier, Sheffield had been one of the few British outposts of experimental electronic music with a small scene of dedicated pioneers who obsessed over synthesizers rather than guitars. Some of these had gone on to great commercial success with a more pop-leaning sound – think Human League, Heaven 17 and ABC – while others had stuck to their guns and produced futuristic, industrial-strength experiments inspired by the growing bleakness of their poverty-strewn, concrete-clad city. In truth, it was a small collection of like-minded “futurists” who turned Sheffield on to electronic music, with Cabaret Voltaire, who began experimenting with tapes and synthesizers way back in 1973, being the first and arguably greatest of the lot.
And now Jamie Taylor has stepped up with a book focusing on that period of time and examining how Sheffield produced such diverse acts. Undergirding the tale is Ken Patten, an electronics enthusiast who made private recordings and opened up part of his house to become Studio Electrophonique. While still relatively obscure, musicians like Martin Ware (The Human League, Heaven 17), Rick Allen (Def Leppard) and Jarvis Cocker (Pulp) recorded there at various times.
While there’s no denying that both stories (Ken and Sheffield scene) are fascinating, the fact that there are large swathes of the book where Ken isn’t mentioned at all highlights how little information remains about Ken Patten (he would have been deemed an enthusiastic amateur as opposed to a proper ‘producer’). Of course, it shouldn’t be a surprise that most cities had such characters who participated in helping out but never sought fame and fortune (hence his obscurity). But one wonders what exactly the point is of naming a book after his studio when he’s merely a side character to the overall narrative?
To be fair to Taylor, he understands this dilemma. Hence why the preface begins with a long tale about the attempt to adopt Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff for cinema and how screenwriter William Goldman landed on the central character being America as opposed to Chuck Yager. At the same time, the point stands. Maybe Ken Patten’s history could have been consigned to a chapter as opposed to unnecessarily stretched out?
Regardless, the stories of Cabaret Voltaire and Clock DVA bridging the gap between post-punk and industrial, The Human League rewiring pop for the 80’s and ABC channelling James Chance and Motown for northern England are still worth examining
Listen to the voice of Buddha.
Jamie Taylor, 2025, Studio
Electrophonique: The Sheffield Space Age, from the Human League to Pulp.
Manchester University Press, ISBN-13: 978-1526183231
⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist and is the author of A Vortex of Securocrats and “dethrone god”.
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