Issue 95

We've borrowed the dramatic image on the cover of this month's Electronic Sound from the new Simple Minds album and we're issuing a terrific magenta vinyl seven-inch by the acclaimed Scottish group – with their 1980 classic 'I Travel' on the A-side – to accompany the magazine. 

The recently released ‘Direction Of The Heart’ sees Simple Minds returning to their art rock and electropop roots. We think it's probably their best album since the 1980s, so we're delighted to talk to founding members Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill for our cover story. The pair describe ‘Direction Of The Heart’ as a “feel-good record” and it’s certainly high on energy, packed with rolling waves of synths and sharp guitar lines. As well as giving us the lowdown on this latest release, they also talk about 40 years of 'New Gold Dream' and reflect on how they have stayed friends for more than half a century. "We have a colossal fight every year or so, with screaming and borderline violence," chuckles Kerr.  

Our other main articles this issue include the madcap tale of Joe Meek’s “tea chest tapes” – around 2,000 individual 10-inch reels – a small number of which have finally come to light after being hidden away for many decades. Elsewhere in the magazine, we also have interviews with Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan, Lucrecia Dalt, Halina Rice and The Umlauts, while the one and only Carl Cox reveals all in our regular Under The Influence feature. Carl's list includes crate digging and drag racing – we're talking the Santa Pod kind, not the RuPaul kind – and if that's not a great day out, then we don't know what is. 

We have a fabulous magenta vinyl Simple Minds seven-inch to accompany the magazine this month as well. The A-side is 'I Travel', the thrilling electronic track that opened the band's 1980 breakthrough album 'Empires And Dance' and remains a firm favourite of their live shows to this day. Flip the disc over for 'Planet Zero', which is one of the many highlights of 'Direction Of The Heart'. “I think there's a definite echo between ‘I Travel’ and ‘Planet Zero’," explains Charlie Burchill. "They both have sequencers and quite heavy guitars. They could be bookends from one period of time to another.”

As with all of our music releases, this record is strictly limited and only available to readers of Electronic Sound, so be sure you get your copy right away.