Black Neon / Arts And Crafts

Memphis Industries

As one half of Fort Lauderdale, Steve Webster (along with The Squire Of Somerton) was responsible for patenting a very English brand of psychedelia. Now a solo artist, Webster (aka The Black Neon) gives full vent to his idiosyncratic take on electronic pop music.  Arts & Crafts, The Black Neon's first solo full-length effort, was recorded at the famed Audio Sonic Studiotechnik in Berlin using an impressive hodgepodge of electronics: Solina String Ensembles, MiniKorg 700s, the RSF Kobol Expander, a Gleeman Pentaphonic and a SVC-350 Vocoder. The album also features a variety of performance elements and sound manipulations courtesy of guests Falk U. Rogner (Amon Dueuel), Harald Grosskopf (Ash Ra Tempel) and Yasuhiro Otani.  Though speaking not more than seventeen words of German, The Black Neon's affinity and spiritual bond with Deutschland could not be stronger. Arts & Crafts is beneath its modernist luster a celebration of the pioneering "German sound."  The album's semi-autobiographical tales of passion -- de-conscription from the DDR army ("Ralph & Barbara") and man-machine love affairs ("TX81Z") -- blend seamlessly into sprawling, traditional Motorik instrumentals. Themes of love and loss abound, as do potent images of mastication, Mexican escape fantasies and silver sharks. 

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