I've been a fan of John's music since the early 80s and have bought pretty much everything he has released. Luckily I've enjoyed most of his varied output. However I've been losing interest with his recent collaborations with The Maths. I thought Interplay was an excellent album which contained some of his best tracks in a long time. However, for me, The Shape Of Things contained too many farty synth noodlings and not enough decent tracks. Evidence,for me, was a real hotchpotch of new material,remixes etc and not a coherent album. The news that John is working on new material with The Maths hardly fills me with excitement.

Therefore I wondered what I'd like to see John doing instead. Certainly I'd like him to record an album of new songs but in his own name rather than in collaboration. The last time he did that was with In Mysterious Ways in 1985. Yes,that's 28 years ago!! A synth and drum machines album would be fine but I'd like to see John record an album with a full band again in the style of Systems/Garden/Golden Section. I'm not holding my breath though.

So what does everybody else think? Do they like John's work with The Maths? What would you like to see John do next?

In a perfect world:

Something like an alternative Ultravox -- perhaps the extended Maths lineup with Hannah Peel and Serafina Steer, plus Robin Simon. A full band sound again, and more of a focus on songs than on analogue purism.

A full length Belbury Circle album would be welcome. I've been playing the hell out of Empty Avenues, and I've gotten more into the Ghost Box sound, especially the Advisory Circle.

European Splendour was pretty damn good, too, so maybe a full-on collaborative album with Jori Hulkkonen.

Another ambient album or two.

Wasn't there talk about an album with several female vocalists? Some of my favourite Maths songs feature guest vocalists. I'm intrigued by the possibilities.

And then for 2015...

Thanks for your thoughts on the subject Steve. I must admit that I also considered the possibility of an expanded line up of The Maths. With Hannah,Serafina and Robin on board there would be four synth players,a violinist,a bass player,a guitarist and a(Symmonds)drummer in the lineup. There would be the option to switch between the more electronic and rockier tracks.
I agree that John's other collaborations this year have been excellent.

I think Summerland is the best song John has done for years and years ... possibly since his re-emergence in 1995. It has the lyrical imagery and 'feel' of one of his earlier tracks from the '80s, so this is one that I could imagine translating its arrangements into conventional instrumentation quite well.

While the trademark sequences of the Moog continue to make their contributions to the history of electronic music, it does start to wear a bit thin track-after-track, album-after-album.

I also like some of the more recent multi-vocal layering of John's voice ... it really had me wondering if these were recent recordings or older ones, since his voice sounds so much more youthful, especially with whatever other treatments are being used.

Hi Rodney. With regard to the multi-vocal layering of John's voice. The track Only Lovers Left Alive on Evidence springs to mind. For me that is the stand out track on the album. Quite lovely.

This is a really interesting question that's fun to both fantasize and hypothesize over.
We will forever disagree over it.

I really like the work that he is doing with Benge and consider Evidence to be among his best albums. The three albums show significant progression.
I'd like to see one more album at least to see if they can grow further, or whether or not it might sound as if they are running out of steam? Either way, I'm all for another album.

I'd really like to see John do more of the kind of stuff that's on D.N.A. and in particular the track 'Violet Bloom' with Steve D'Agostino. It's one of my favourite lesser known pieces.

Having been priviliged enough to see both the 'Ballardian' (raw electronica) and the 'untitled' piano/film for 'On vanishing Land' I also think the latter quietly treated piano work and spoken-voice with found sounds is a must.

All three of these indicate my preference to see more work as a solo artist collaborating with film-makers on audio-visual pieces.

In a more fantasy-led direction, I'd love to see some of the linking short pieces on The Shape Of Things and Evidence (those 'farty synth noodlings') extended to longer works ;D
John's always been a 'short-film' kind of person, and I'd be first in the queue to see him produce / perform / write a longform piece.

On the down side - I'd like to see LESS tours and live work with The Maths, and less of these remixxes.

I look forward to hearing other ponderings on this topic. Good pub talk. Thanks

I could not be happier/more impressed with what John has done for the last 3-4 years. I feel the work with The Maths started out on a rarefied plain and wasted no time in moving far ahead into new and unexplored territory. I felt that "Interplay" was his best album since "The Garden" and one of his seminal recordings, but with "The Shape of Things" and "Evidence" he has moved further ahead into areas which I would not have predicted but remain nonetheless an awed by. The title cut to "Evidence" is now my favorite John Foxx song, displacing "Underpass;" the favorite for my first 32 years of fandom. I think Benge is his best collaborator ever! I want to hear them continue and grow, though I can't imagine that the rate of growth can be maintained at its current velocity forever. I would like to see more Maths work though until John says "enough!" I'm greedy! As as far as live concerts, there's never enough, but then, I live in North America and have never seen him! His last concert appearance here was in 1979, a year before I heard of him and thousands of miles away from where I lived at the time in any case.

That John is keeping up with alternate threads by continuing his collaborations with others, which I've all enjoyed immensely, is very healthy. The Ghostbox EP was a great application of the Quiet Man POV poured through a 60s pop filter. As long as he can keep up this rate of work, I'm happy to try to keep up. I will admit that after the Visage album, I can hardly wait for the proposed Robin Simon album to get released. He is one of the great guitarists who has fewer recordings than I'd prefer.

The remixes are like gifts to me, because really, when I heard that OMD had picked JF+TM for the opening act on their English Electric tour, I had hoped that they would ask JF+TM to produce their next album. With "Dresden" I didn't even have to wait that long! And it was EXACTLY where I felt that OMD should have been in the first place. Their disdain for "analog purism" creatively hobbles their modern work, because it was that factor in the beginning, that made them one of my favorite groups. The writing was good on EE but apart from "Our System" and "Final Song," the rest had a bland, identikit feel due to their reliance on soft synths. Blah. Their laziness limits their current potential. I can't say there's anything lazy about John or Benge!

I'm sure that I'd love the Simple Minds "Blood Diamonds" remix as well - if I could buy it. Simple Minds [in spite of 1985-1991] are favorites of mine. Their first seven albums are always in rotation with me; now more than ever. Their recent work is tantalizingly good. Anything that takes them out of their comfort zone and in a direction 180 degrees from the stadium I highly approve of.

After a sufficient pause I think another Maths album would be in order.
Staying tuned..

Based on previous years, I expect we will hear more in the days to come of what might be on the imminent horizon. Lots that has been mentioned in various interviews sounds enticing, particularly looking forward to "Electricity and Ghosts" for example should that surface next year.

While I have enjoyed albums 2 and 3 from The Maths, it feels to me like we are still waiting for the official 2nd album so another with The Maths would be most welcome.

Rather bizarrely I haven't yet found the mood for either Empty Avenues or European Splendour so cannot comment on whether more of the same would be up my street/avenue or not.

And then there is "Urban Motets" which remains intriguing although maybe it works better as a lost album? Inaudible Music.

But I guess if I had a vote/influence, I would probably opt for more Quiet Man readings/films/texts, along with more Tiny Colour Movies.

It's all good though.

I'm still holding my breath for the Robin Simon collaborative album. There's simply not enough of him on disc. His playing/writing on the new Visage album was a highlight of 2013.

I say he plays Moogfest in April with the Maths. Look at this lineup!

http://www.moogfest.com/

Benge would be in heaven. And my planning to blow an entire year's budget on going has absolutely nothing to do with the idea, no, not at all.

I suppose the glib answer to the Op’s question “What next for John?” is “whatever he likes”. Although he’s never quite received the commercial rewards he’s deserved, even if John never played another note he’d leave behind a wonderful body of work and at his age, he has nothing more to prove.

That said, if it was up to me, I reckon The Maths project has run its course and that each of the 3 albums has been that little bit more self indulgent and less inspired than the previous. Like many others I’d love John to do a proper solo album of proper songs, which are more about the words, melodies and arrangements than the rather tired sounding analogue synth doodling. Not only would I get Robin Simon back on board, perhaps Duncan Bridgeman and Joe Dworniak from the old Garden days could be persuaded to contribute? They’re both still making music 30 years on.

http://www.joedworniak.com/joedworniak.com/Home.html

http://ditlo.com/2013/08/30/duncan-bridgeman/

I reckon there’s also plenty more mileage in the Belbury Circle collaboration and will be intrigued to see what John gets up to with Jori Hulkkonen next, after the magnificent European Splendour project.

From a purely selfish point of view, I’d like to see some of the more obscure unreleased material see the light of say (the “Identification Of A Woman” soundtrack, the short-lived Blitz project, more Cathedral Oceans), though I do accept Rob’s pint that just because recordings exist it doesn’t mean we have a right to hear them if John doesn’t think them up to standard.

And finally an ambient collaboration with Eno and a greatest hits tour featuring a full band!

>>I suppose the glib answer to the Op’s question “What next for John?” is “whatever he likes”.

I found that rather relevant and not glib. Nothing worse than an artist producing stuff for an audience as opposed to creating what they are living and feeling.

I'm happy to sit and wait and listen to a huge chunk of the back catalogue on a regular basis and still enjoy it. New stuff? Bring it on. Loved Evangeline this year, the Jori link works as well as the Benge one.

I wonder if there are any more visual/audio projects coming through? And TCM never made it to Japan in live form.

Martin, I love the live bits I can get to see. So much so it can dictate the timing or number of trips back to the UK. I also enjoy meeting up with Forum members on these occasions too. Apart from the music, he (well, actually Rob) has built a community of quite disparate peoples.

Let the show go on, and on.......

Of course, as soon as the promoters for MF2014 became known, I sent them an email extolling the virtues of JF+TM playing there in April. I got a boilerplate response saying that they had already picked the lineup for 2014 and thank you for your comment. Even so, they only listed the minimum of headliners on Dec. 19, leaving 70% of the lineup TBA. I bought a ticket on the hope that Foxx and Benge would be there and at the very least Kraftwerk would headline. History's proven me right on the latter hunch, so I'm hoping that I was correct on the former as well. And you're right! Benge would be in his element at the festival. In fact, he would be a great presenter for the daytime lineup now that I think of it. And he would get a charge out of visiting the Moog Store.

Thanks for this info - something else I missed!

Personally I wish John and the Maths would find the way to Hamburg for a full show. He stood at some different lands in Europe the last years but no gig in Germany. The last and only gig since 1983 he performed with Louis in Bielefeld 2002.
Last year Ultravox and OMD were in Hamburg. This year I'm looking forward to concerts with Simple Minds , Gary Numan (both in February) and Stranglers in April.
Come on John, it's time for a Maths show here...It's not a long way to Hamburg.

See you at the next gig in London or Hamburg (Hopefully).

Shadow man,I hope your wish is granted and John makes it over to Hamburg. Deutschland at least!!

It would be great John and the Maths performing a radio session, like John did with Ultravox, solo with band 3 times and with Louis 3 times.

Here in Hamburg, the Simple Minds did a live radio studio session for a couple of weeks which was great.

A BBC interview & session with John and the Maths would be very welcome.