Le Cliché - 7' single on clear vinyl on Polytechnic Youth Records, London.250 copies.Second of this June’s PY releases as another absolute gem; a killer double A side 45 on clear wax, again released as an edition of 250. This time from the mighty LE Cliché. “Production Line” with its (aptly timed) homage to Kraftwerk, and it’s flip, “Vicarious Life”, a tribute to the best of early 80’s minimal synth DIY cassette culture, (so revered and key to PY’s existence in the first place). Le Cliché is Barcelona-based, Limerick-born, Gerard Ryan; who studies consumers by day as professor of marketing at the Rovira & Virgili University, and writes music about consumer behaviour by night. Ryan released his first LP on Seattle’s finest independent label, Medical Records, in 2014. He followed that with a collaborations album on Barcelona's Cold Beats Records, which saw him work with some of his cult synth heroes such as Gay Cat Park, Mick Milk, Moss Garten, Mark Lane and Effetto Joule. After two further albums of songs about observations on consumers and academic life (“The Product is You” and “Look at my Powerpoint”), a support slot for Wolfgang Flür, a conference on the future of electric music- and a warm up for Andy McCluskey (omd), the Le Cliché sound evolved from clear crisp synth pop to more obscure, lo-fi, minimal synth. In 2018 he released “Nothing is Original” on Berlin’s Detriti Records, followed by 2019’s Post Plagiarism on Belfast’s Tonn Records. Ryan is also notable for his artwork, in particular the lavish limited editions he prepares of his music releases. In 2019 some of his work appeared in a V&A Museum exhibition at the National Museum in Belfast on 'The art of selling songs'. This new single on Polytechnic Youth places both sides of Le Cliché back to back, with the clean electronic, Kraftwerkian melodies of “Production Line” on one side and the colder, experimental, minimal synth of “Vicarious Life” on the flip.
