Issue 113 PDF

This month's Electronic Sound cover stars are the one and only Pet Shop Boys. 

It's 40 years since PSB released the original version of 'West End Girls', but there's no sign of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe slowing down – as their new album 'Nonetheless' proves. Our interview with the pair is hugely entertaining and highly illuminating, not least because they still get on so well, bickering like a long-married couple, exuding an almost telepathic understanding, and demonstrating amazing comic timing. They talk about 'Nonetheless', of course, but they also discuss their early days, David Bowie, punk rock and ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev, among many other subjects. As our writer Ian Gittins says in the feature, “You just wind them up and watch them go”. 

We have a brilliant supporting cast to PSB too, including Jane Weaver, Barry Adamson, Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan, Eddy Grant, Ride, Richard Norris, Jonny Trunk and Fran & Flora. We also speak to acclaimed journalist and author Simon Reynolds about his latest book, ‘Futuromania: Electronic Dreams, Desiring Machines And Tomorrow’s Music Today’, which explores how electronic music can “stir anticipation for a thrillingly transformed world just around the corner”. And as mission statements go, that’s definitely one we can get on board with.