Foxx, John

Artist: John Foxx
P: 2009
This is the ultimate souvenir for anyone who was able to attend any of last years live shows based around the album. Entitled A New Kind of Man, this album features the entire live set, as performed by John Foxx, Louis Gordon and Steve D'Agostino.

Artist: John Foxx
P: 1992
This CD features 18 songs from John Foxx's first three albums after leaving Ultravox: Metamatic, The Golden Section and In Mysterious Ways. It includes classics like Europe After The Rain, Sitting At The Edge Of The World and Morning Glory. -- A great disappointment that some fantastic tracks did not make it on this CD. These songs are very rich in detail of electronic instruments and lyrics. He stands alone in this kind of music. Any material from this talented artist is worth getting. Very difficult to find I might add, especially in the U. S. I have six of his CDs and still struggling to get more. His work is worth every penny I've spent. He is a real pleasure and a great way to escape the boring pop music that surrounds us.

Artist: John Foxx
P: 1979 / 1993
Metamatic is his first solo album after his stint as founder and vocalist with Ultravox. This album was first released in January 1980, and definitely has that Numan Pleasure Principle sound. A staple of the musical "futuristic" movement, Metamatic is darker and more detached than even Numan's early works. Foxx described this album as "carcrash" music. It is definitely inspired by the cold life of the city with people being reduced to liquid form. When listening to this CD, one hears the soundtrack of the period when the 1970s turned to the 1980s. "A New Kind of Man" has the factory pulse of early Wall of Voodoo, the dark "Blurred Girl" foreshadows A Flock of Seagulls' "The Fall", "Miles Away" is like Numan's "My Conversation" in pop form, "Touch and Go" sounds so much like Ultravox's "Mr. X" it makes one wonder if the track is a leftover from the Foxx years. It is not Foxx taking from others, but Foxx creating a type of music with themes that inspired a generation of songwriters. Still, Foxx added his own imagination to the music. As Foxx states, "We were constantly making new music for the cities. But rather than looking to America, I wanted to make a kind of music which might have happened if America had never existed. A sort of minimalist European urban electronic folk music. I had a picture of a future jukebox in some lost European motorway service station. I just listened to it play what became 'Metamatic.'" What makes this CD definitely worth the price are the additions. Seven bonus tracks are included, as well as lyrics to the original album tracks, several photos of Foxx, and a three-page mini bio of Foxx and the impact of Metamatic. It is a very impressive package.

Artist: John Foxx
P: 1995
1995 collaborative effort from Ultravox's original vocalist/keyboardist and Louis Gordon, a mixture of vocal & hard edged material with influences coming from both modern techno acts & pioneers like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, plus occasional traces of '60s psychedelia. Contains 10 tracks, including 'Crash', 'The Noise' and 'Here We Go'. A Metamatic release.

Artist: John Foxx
P: 1981 / 1993
After he had gone cold and robotic on his debut solo album "Metamatic" John Foxx released this album, basically a sequel to Ultravox's 1978 album (and the last with Foxx leading the band) "Systems of Romance." In fact the second track on here is even named "Systems of Romance" and would have fit perfectly on that album. This is pop music at its best. The guitars are ringing and spacious. The melodies and epic and memorable. And what is great to hear is that even though this could be considered "Systems of Romance Part Deux" Foxx works in previous sounds and influences as well. Some of the robotic sound of "Metamatic" can be heard in "When I Was a Man and You Were a Woman" while the main melody of "Night Suit" comes right out of Ultravox's self-titled debut.