New Musik
Anywhere

The previous album "From A to B" had almost broken into the top 30, thanks to the traction of the single "Living By Numbers". From the second album, the group expected recognition. In reality, things did not go as planned: CBS, of which GTO, the band's record label, had meanwhile become a subsidiary, did not trust the album's commercial potential, and without adequate promotion, it did not even break into the top sixty, a performance further worsened by the subsequent and final "Warp!".

The production career of leader Tony Mansfield will be far more prestigious, responsible for some of the most intriguing high-charting pages of 1980s English music (Naked Eyes, "Wot" by Captain Sensible, Jean-Paul Gaultier's cult single: "Aow Tou Dou Zat" and the early steps of the Nordic A-HA). Today, with a full rediscovery of 1980s synthetic pop, "Anywhere" can truly be considered a cult album. It is dominated by the era's electronic keyboards: Prophet 5, Fairlight Page R, Oberheim, the bass lines of the Korg 700S, plus the fundamental contribution for vocal arrangements of the Roland Vocoder Plus VP330. All in the service of compositions that blend the ease of pop with the sublime taste of sophistication. Three elements especially characterize New Musik's arrangements: absence of solos, use of the twelve-string guitar in association with the coldness of electronics, uniqueness of the vocal parts. The effect is overall among the most delightful produced by the brief season of 1980s electro pop, comparable perhaps only to the early exploits of OMD, the electronic Godley and Crème, or the very Yellow Magic Orchestra. The setlist is amazing.

The album opens with the oscillators of "They all run after the carving knife", a long cacophonic intro, followed by a passionate anti-militarist denunciation. "Luxury" was the leading single of the album, "This world of Walter" the masterpiece, "Traps" the pinnacle of elegance, "Churches" of intelligence. And then at least "Areas", mystical and suspended, and "While you wait", a song of exquisite craftsmanship, perhaps even more effective in the extended version that appeared on the back of the English maxi single, must be mentioned. Many wonders were soon forgotten in England itself, only to reappear briefly in a European reissue about ten years later, which soon went out of print and was never distributed in Italy.

For those who today wish to sample the charm of being or moving "anywhere", there are the resources of a Japanese reissue from 2001 (which includes the tracks originally only published on cassette, the b-sides, and the 12" version of "While you wait"), or the original vinyl, which, here and there in second-hand markets, is still often available today for the price of a few coins and a bit of curiosity and patience.