Rage in Eden

Rage in Eden
Ultravox studio album
Publication (s)	September 11, 1981
Label (s)	Chrysalis Records
Format (s)	CD, LP
Genre (s)	Rock , new wave , synth-pop
Title (number)	9
running time	45:30
occupation	Vocals / guitar / keyboard: Midge Ure Bass / Keyboard: Chris Cross Drums / Percussion: Warren Cann Keyboard / violin: Billy Currie
production	Ultravox and Conny Plank
Studio (s)	Conny's Studio , near Cologne
chronology Vienna (1980) Rage in Eden Quartet (1982)
Single releases August 10, 1981 The Thin Wall October 26, 1981 The Voice

Rage in Eden (Eng. Anger in Paradise ) is the fifth studio album by Ultravox . The album was released on September 11, 1981, exactly 14 months after its predecessor Vienna, on Chrysalis Records and belongs to the New Wave genre.

A double album of the same name was released on September 22, 2008 as a Remastered Definitive Edition . In addition to a remastered version of the original album on the first CD, it contains a second CD with some B-sides of the single releases, live recordings and previously unreleased songs.

History of origin

After the commercial success of the previous album Vienna , the four band members sat down largely unprepared in Conny Plank's studio on his four-cornered farm in Wolperath near Cologne in June 1981 after the end of the European tour in order to use the ideas they had gained during the tour in music and To implement texts. This approach was new for the band, because up until now the songs had always been largely polished before they were recorded in the studio and sometimes also tested live and in front of an audience in order to keep the required studio times and the associated costs low. Due to the commercial success with Vienna and the royalties for the chart hit Fade to Gray by Visage , to which Midge Ure contributed the lyrics and Billy Currie together with Chris Payne from Gary Numan , the cost of the studio rental no longer played a decisive role. For Rage in Eden , the band's studio times were less important than working on the sound and creating an equally successful successor for Vienna . To this end, Ultravox again engaged Conny Plank as a sound engineer and co-producer and his studio for the recordings and mastering . Plank had also looked after the two predecessors Systems of Romance and Vienna and helped the band again with the realization of the sound. The recordings for Rage in Eden dragged on for more than three months until shortly before the album was released in September 1981, as the songs were largely created in the studio.

instrumentation

In addition to the instruments already used for the recordings in Vienna , the album also featured a Linn LM-1 drum computer and the polyphonic Yamaha CS-80 , the also polyphonic Oberheim OB-X and a second monophonic Moog Minimoog . The CS-80 was initially not used at live concerts because it weighs around 100 kilograms and tends to get out of tune. The Linn, which cost around 5,000 US dollars, represented a significant expansion of percussion technology because, in contrast to the pure rhythm devices from Roland (TR-77 and CR-78) previously used by drummer Warren Cann, it could be programmed with digital sound samples. Cann was able to record and digitize his own drums and generate appropriate rhythm patterns such as those heard on The Thin Wall , for example . From then on, the device was also used in live shows.

In addition to the actual instruments, various sound manipulation techniques were also used to create the sound of Rage in Eden . The band often experimented with reverberation effects , using reverse 2-inch multitrack tape recordings of guitar or vocal passages. The background vocals in the title track Rage in Eden were created in this way by playing the title line from I Remember (Death in the Afternoon) backwards and re-recording it with reverb. However, this was only approximately reproducible at live concerts, so that synthesizers with wavetable synthesis should also be used on subsequent albums . With this technique, the sounds were saved so that such studio effects could also be performed live.

Track list

1. The Voice - 6:01
2. We Stand Alone - 5:39
3. Rage in Eden - 4:12
4. I Remember (Death in the Afternoon) - 4:57
5. The Thin Wall - 5:39
6. Stranger Within - 7:26
7. Accent on Youth - 4:47
8. The Ascent - 2:20
9. Your Name (Has Slipped My Mind Again) - 4:29

The Remastered Definitive Edition contains on the second CD:

1. I Never Wanted to Begin - 3:33
2. Paths and Angles - 4:23
3. I Never Wanted to Begin (Extended Version) - 6:19
4. Private Lives (Recorded Live at Crystal Palace, June 13, 1981) - 4:51
5. All Stood Still (Recorded Live at Crystal Palace, June 13, 1981) - 4:22
6. I Remember (Death in the Afternoon) (Recorded Live at Hammersmith Odeon, Oct 17, 1981) - 5:47
7. Stranger Within (Recorded Live at Hammersmith Odeon, Oct 17, 1981) - 8:02 am
8. Rage in Eden (Recorded Live at Hammersmith Odeon, Oct 17, 1981) - 4:27
9. Accent on Youth (Recorded Live at Hammersmith Odeon, Oct 17, 1981) - 4:46
10. The Ascent (Recorded Live at Hammersmith Odeon, Oct 17, 1981) - 2:28
11. Your Name (Has Slipped My Mind Again) (Recorded Live at Hammersmith Odeon, October 17, 1981) - 4:45
12. Stranger Within (Work in Progress Mix) - 7:12
13. The Thin Wall (Work in Progress Mix) - 5:17

Publications and chart successes

The album reached number four in the UK, number 48 in Germany and number 144 in the USA. The album reached the top 20 in Sweden and Norway and received gold status in Great Britain for more than 100,000 records sold.

year	title	Chart positions					annotation
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1981	Rage in Eden	48 (6) October 19, 1981	-	-	4 (23) 09/19/1981	144 (6) October 24, 1981	Gold in UK

A total of two singles were released from the album: The Thin Wall on August 10, 1981 (before the album was released) and The Voice on October 26, 1981. Both were able to place in the UK's top 40 among the top 20, which the Band earned five consecutive top 40 hits in the UK. Neither of the two singles reached a chart position in the German-speaking countries.

year	title	Chart positions					annotation
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1981	The Thin Wall / I Never Wanted to Begin	-	-	-	14 (8) August 22, 1981	-
1981	The Voice / Paths and Angles	-	-	-	16 (12) November 7, 1981	-

tour

Ultravox with Midge Ure at Chateau Neuf in Oslo, November 4, 1981

After the release, the band went on a tour known as Rage in Eden World Tour in September 1981, initially with 22 appearances in Great Britain, followed by several appearances in mainland Europe from mid-October to December 1981. In early 1982, the tour was in the USA , Canada, New Zealand and Australia continued. It ended in Japan, where on February 25, 1982 the final concert was held at Nakano Sun Plaza Hall in Tokyo. The tour was the first on which no compositions by the former front man John Foxx were played and at the same time the last tour on which the band managed without additional live musicians.

reception

The contemporary press echo was divided: while Melody Maker recognized “confirmation, consolidation and style”, Creem found the work “sterile, inhuman and fascist”. Dave Thompson from Allmusic rates the album 3.5 out of 5 and says the band climbed to new heights with Rage in Eden .

Web links

• Rage in Eden at Allmusic (English)
• Lyrics of Rage in Eden on LyricWiki
• Booklet of the Remastered Definitive Edition by Rage in Eden (PDF file; 10.5 MB)

Individual evidence

• Christian Graf and Burghard Rausch: Rock Music Lexicon . Europe / Vol. 2, Lake Zombies. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-596-12388-7 (pp. 751-1515).

1. ↑ ^{a b} Certified Awards Search. In: bpi.co.uk. Retrieved September 14, 2014 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Ultravox in the German single charts. (No longer available online.) In: Musicline.de. PhonoNet GmbH, archived from the original on November 21, 2004 ; Retrieved August 27, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ^ ^{A b} Ultravox in the Austrian hit parade. In: austriancharts.at. Hung Medien, accessed August 27, 2009 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Ultravox in the Swiss hit parade. In: hitparade.ch. Hung Medien, accessed August 27, 2009 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Ultravox in the UK charts. In: officialcharts.com. Retrieved January 22, 2016 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b} Ultravox in the Billboard 200. In: billboard.com. Retrieved October 25, 2009 . 
7. ^ Press quoted from Graf / Rausch, p. 1376