I wrote this song so many years ago! 

I remember writing it one weekend and then excitedly showing it to Rich B during the break of an orchestra rehearsal on an ancient, mouldy and very out-of-tune piano. We recorded a version just after we finished Lovessence but lost the Pro24 files. We then re-recorded it once or twice more, never being quite happy with the result. I recorded an acoustic version a few years ago but the song has finally revealed itself with this version.
It has ended up as a crisp and punchy funk track with an arrangement full of space but with a fundamentally sad lyric. Although the title comes from a piece by Handel and is based on words written by Milton, I must admit that I saw the title on a re-run of the 80s TV series 'Bergerac' and liked it! They did feature the Handel song in the show so there is, sort of, an authentic link;) Although there is some artistic licence, the words are basically autobiographical, and with some recent events are all the more meaningful to me now than when they were written. 'I am a man of sorrows, holding yesterday because I sold tomorrow'... 
The earlier versions of the song were all ballads but there was something about the juxtaposition of the mood of the words with the funky arrangement that worked for me. Rich B, as ever, indulged me with only the faintest look of disbelief when I said I wanted to include this old hidden gem in our new sessions... but as a dry funk track. 
The song is built on a crisp drum part supported by a funky bass-line and some Nile Rogers-baiting guitar. I only took one synth with me to Rich B's West Wales studio (the Roland Alpha-Juno 1) and layered four (I think!) separate synth lines over the guitar and bass. No quantizing was used for anything other than the drums so all keyboard parts are 'live'. In a new turn of events it is me (!!) and not King Bass Mr Braithwaite who is popping and slapping like a Mark King wannabe but Rich B steps up with some pin-sharp rhythm guitar.
This is one of the key tracks of our rebirth - funky, synthesized, melodic, melancholic, introspective; very much our own sound! This song has taken something like 20 years to find its feet and actually reach a 'finished' version but it is now complete and one of my favourites of our songs.
Thanks to the likes of early ABC, The Kane Gang and early Sade for making very funky English pop; I recommend songs like Spirit, Tears Are Not Enough and Smalltown Creed :)

R Cook - Bass Guitar, Synthesizer (Roland Alpha Juno 1), Drum Programming (Roland R8m and Yamaha RX17), Lead Vocal and backing vocals.
R Braithwaite - Guitar and Backing Vocals
Written and Mixed by R Cook 2023 (2000),
Produced by R Braithwaite and R Cook
Recorded at Mill Terrace and Logopolis 2023

Man Of Sorrows by Milano Rovente

Marsheaux - The Sun And The Rainfall

Smoke

Duet Emmo - Or So It Seems

Recoil - Jezebel

Recoil - Faith Healer

Nitzer Ebb - Isn't It Funny How Your Body Works

Nitzer Ebb - Hearts And Minds

Komputer - Like A Bird

A delicate, nostalgic and gentle piece of music in 7/8.
All sounds are from the Roland SH-101.
Written and recorded on 30/3/20.
Written by R Cook 2020.

SH101 EP 1

Saskatchewan (SH6) - Stars of the SIlver Age

machinesforliving is an independent outlet for my music projects. 

Songs are also available on Art City Glimmer's Bandcamp page.

I was the keyboard player and songwriter in Thieves Like Us, however, as the band became more electronic I felt that the original idea of the band playing sophisticated, funky, soul-pop in the style of Scritti Politti, Hue & Cry and Jam & Lewis had changed calling for a rebranding. I took the name of the first band I had formed in school and we became 'semantics'. In this form we completed two albums of electronica with a final album completed by me more or less on my own- 'Take Me Home', one of the few group tracks on that final album is the earliest track on this page.

Following the drifting apart of the band I started recording electronica as 'Art City Glimmer' and formed an EBM project (International Electromatics) with my friend, the writer MM Lewis. We shared a love of Old School Electronic Body Music such as Front 242, D.A.F. and Front Line Assembly. With lyrics provided by my old friend I indulged my darkest EBM dreams in the studio and between 2011 and 2021 we produced 23 singles of pure EBM. Some are featured on this page but all of them and their b-sides are available on the International Electromatics page.

Enthused by some individual collaborations with the two other members of Thieves Like Us  around 2020, we relaunched the group with a new name (Milano Rovente) and two projects. One is to re-record our debut album 'Lovessence' with the technology we now have so it can finally sound as it should have done and the other was to record a new set of songs. Some of the new songs have been written specifically for the reunion whilst others have been picked from recordings made over the last 20 years. These songs were always meant to be TLU songs but we didn't exist as a band when I wrote them.

PROJECTS
Art City Glimmer: 2010 - Present. Solo electronic pop.

Milano Rovente (formerly Thieves Like Us): reactivated 2021. Funk, soul, sophistipop collaboration with Rich Braithwaite and Jon Paul.

International Electromatics: 2011-2021. EBM project with MM Lewis. Currently on hiatus waiting for new lyrics😁!

Outlier: 2022-Present. Sample-based hauntology project. Sound sources include 1930s movies, obscure library music, 70s easy listening, 20th Century classical, cult TV, dance and electronica.

Academy of Saints: 2023- Present. Orchestral and chamber-pop project. 

Stars of the Silver Age: 2012-Present. Exclusively analogue synthesis-based occasional project. Lockdown album written, recorded and mixed across 4 days using just an SH101 and a Volca Beats. All tracks from that available on own Soundcloud page.

Red Sky: 2018-Present. An umbrella, soundtrack / ambient project for the orphan instrumental music I have produced.

Man Of Sorrows by Milano Rovente

machinesforliving

Related tracks