Erasure Thing: Heartfelt Electro-Techno After All These Years

It would’ve been easy for the Vince Clarke/Andy Bell duo known as Erasure to create a soulless sound, where keyboard-activated blips and beats took predominance over lyrical content and vocal contribution. Thankfully, the group saw equal importance in synth and substance. In 1992, on The Tank, the Swan and the Balloon tour, staging was an additional facet to which importance was paid.

In the show, the producer/programmer Clarke was often in a militaristic “tank” that served as his control booth to initiate the tracks. Bell—always the showman—arrived on stage in a cart designed like a swan, a contrast of peace versus war. The tour also featured the twin sisters/backing vocalists, Annick and Veronique Clarisse. Bell’s voice was nothing short of amazing, easily hitting the highs and dropping the lows, yet it’s the Clarisse sisters’ blended harmony that still remains some of the best and cleanest vocals heard in a live capacity. It’s not hard to imagine the angels on high sounding like these sisters.

In the clip below, “Chorus,” a commentary on environmental collapse, showed the Clarisse sisters in flowing white dresses, portraying a pair of peaceful doves, at times an oracle on the mount, while Bell bopped in his sparkly pants that evoked fish scales in sunlight. Fitting as the chorus of “Chorus” references birds: “And they covered up the sun/Until the birds had flown away,” as well as fish: “And the fishes in the sea/Had gone to sleep.” The bridge showcases the sisters’ heavenly talent: “The sunlight rising over the horizon…”

Another track off Chorus, “Turns the Love to Anger” displays Erasure’s knack for using synth-pop, computerized and seemingly removed, as framework for something more. At the bridge: “Love is where the dream should lie/It’s not for us to reason why/Or to ponder over strategy…” And again, the Clarisse sisters shine… and it’s not their whimsical headdresses that provide the brilliance. Bell takes to his balloon to “… take a ride/Somewhere in the big blue sky…” All these years later, Erasure’s reflections on the environment and “obsession” can still be seen and heard as heartfelt electro-techno.