New Dark Times Unmixed

by Sunscreem

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Release Details

All titles published by Phoenix Music International, except: Chronologie IV – Francis Dreyfus Music & J.M. Jarre; Who Will Love Me Now – Fugitive Music Ltd. Chronologie IV appears with kind permission of Disques Dreyfus.

Chronologie IV – Written: Jean-Michel Jarre. Programming: Lucia Holm / Paul Carnell. Engineer: Darren Woodford.
Simple – Written: Lucia Holm. Programming: Lucia Holm. Engineer: Darren Woodford.
A Brief History Of Nonsense – Written: Lucia Holm / Paul Carnell. Programming: Dan Zamani / Rob Wash.
Damn Disco – Written: Lucia Holm / Paul Carnell. Vocals: Lucia Holm. Programming: Lucia Holm / Paul Carnell. Engineer: Gary Wilkinson.
Winchester Slate – Written: Lucia Holm / Paul Carnell. Vocals: Lucia Holm. Guitar: Wayne Simms. Programming: Rob Fricker / Wayne Simms. Engineer: Rob Fricker / Wayne Simms.
Anna Din (FU Dub) – Written: Lucia Holm / Paul Carnell / Rob Fricker / Dave Valentine. Programming: Joe Morena / Dave Valentine. Engineer: Wayne Simms.
XS – Written: Lucia Holm. Programming: Lucia Holm. Engineer: Darren Woodford.
Who Will Love Me Now – Written: Philip Ridley / Nick Bicât. Programming: Lucia Holm. Vocals: Lucia Holm. Engineer: Paul Carnell.
Twangy – Written: Lucia Holm. Programming: Lucia Holm / Gary Hughes. Engineer: Darren Woodford.
Coming Up – Written: Paul Carnell / Lucia Holm. Programming: Paul Carnell / Lucia Holm. Engineer: Wayne Simms.
Burloo – Written: Lucia Holm. Cello: Lucia Holm. Programming: Lucia Holm / Garry Hughes. Engineer: Darren Woodford.
Kali – Written: Paul Carnell / Lucia Holm. Synthesizers and vocals: Lucia Holm / Paul Carnell. Programming: Paul Carnell / Lucia Holm / Rob Wash / Dan Zamani. Engineer: Gary Wilkinson.

Release Date: 31 Jan 2025

Catalog Number: PMID1207

BANDCAMP notes (2025)

1. Chronologie IV – The band were approached by Jean Michel-Jarre to record this remix and used Lucia’s trademark choral vocals. Jean-Michel Jarre was so impressed with the result that he invited them backstage to meet him at his Wembley concert!
2. Simple – This track was created from a ‘studio jam’ based on a short interlude on the band’s previous album Change Or Die .
3. A Brief History of Nonsense –This slow-building track was inspired by the emerging ‘psy-trance’ dance scene of the early nineties. The session was recorded with local Essex artists Dan Zamani and Rob Wash. Zamani went on to form Pump Panel, best known for remixing New Order’s Confusion. The track is almost entirely performed on a Roland SH101 monophonic synthesizer and TR909 drum machine.
4. Damn Disco is Lucia’s remix of the song Looking at You which reached #2 in the US Billboard Dance chart and kick-started a second wave of success for the band. The house piano style is similar to the first mixes of Love U More , while the bass line has echoes of Perfect Motion . The song Looking at You received an ASCAP writing award at the Rhythm and Soul 10th Anniversary awards in 1996.
5. Winchester Slate is a reworking of Looking at You by band guitarists Rob Fricker and Wayne Simms. The track’s title came from the street name of their studio in Southend, Essex.
6. Anna Din (Angel) was recorded in 1994 and released covertly to avoid any preconceptions associated with the band’s commercial success. The anonymous ‘white label’ vinyl release was an instant club hit and was featured on the Renaissance classic album The Mix Collection.
  This version is one of the dub mixes featuring a tougher rhythm track, with the house piano riff holding back for a brief appearance at the end.
7. XS – An instrumental collaboration between singer Lucia and guitarist Darren Woodford.
8. Who Will Love Me Now – This collaboration with Philip Ridley and Nick Bicât was created for the release of a cult film The Passion of Darkly Noon. The New Dark Times mix is the original studio recording. The band went on to have a UK Top 40 hit with the song after rerecording it with Belgian trance producer Push.
9. Twangy – Originally recorded using entirely acoustic instruments ( ), this version used acid-style synthesizers and reflects the band’s approach of mixing the two types of instrumentation.
10. Coming Up – The track starts with a TB303 bass line (increasingly a trademark of the band in the mid-nineties), before morphing into ecstatic hi-energy riffs and vocals. The synthesiser line was taken from an early recording by Paul’s first post-punk synth band, said at the time to have influenced Gary Numan!
11. Burloo – This track features Lucia’s cello— unusual in electronic dance. Lucia started out as a session cellist before taking up singing, her credits include Dream Academy’s Life in a Norhern Town.
12. Kali – Named after the Hindu goddess of time, death, and destruction – partly a reference to the band’s predicament at the time, but also related to the Change Or Die theme of their second album. The lyric “Do I walk through the door” was probably a direct reference to their decision to leave the limelight.The track is effectively an alternative mix of the Change or Die track Syclik, featuring a straight techno beat and use of the trademark Roland TB303 and SH101 synthesizers. An unusual feature about the mix at Masterock Studios is the use of one of the original Roland Sound Space Processors to produce a 3-dimensional effect on the synthesizers and vocals. The Roland system was fabulous but horrendously expensive, so it never caught on commercially.

AMAZON artist bio (2025)

One of the first rave-pop groups with live-performance abilities as well, Sunscreem formed around Paul Carnell and Lucia Holm (both on keyboards and vocals) with a handful of contributors including guitarists Darren Woodford and Wayne Simms, bassist Rob Fricker, drummer Sean Wright and Baz the DJ. Holm was a session cellist — with credits including Dream Academy’s “Life in a Northern Town” — when she met Carnell at a warehouse rave in Essex and agreed to form a band. Early singles “Walk On” and “Pressure” became moderate British hits and dancefloor favorites, while 1993’s “Love U More” became their trademark song (and biggest hit). The debut Sunscreem album O₃ was released in 1993, earning American release through Columbia. The “Perfect Motion” single also became a hit, but the group had disappeared from the charts by the mid-’90s. Their second album Change or Die was finally released in 1996, while the retrospective Looking at You: Club Anthems appeared in 1998. ~ John Bush

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