John Foxx

Since the 1970s the British electronic musician and graphic designer John Foxx has exerted considerable sway over numerous practitioners of art pop, new wave, minimal synth, and techno. His cold synthesizer textures, intricate compositional frameworks, oneiric lyrics, and remote, abrupt delivery have left a mark on both widely known and cult figures alike, ranging from synth pop luminary Gary Numan to the electro-techno outfit ADULT. Originally recognized as the first frontman for new wave trailblazers Ultravox, he exited the group in 1979 and issued his wholly electronic solo debut Metamatic early the following year. The pioneering record climbed into the top 20 of the U.K. album chart and yielded a pair of top 40 singles, “Underpass” and “No-One Driving.”

Later releases grew more expansive, blending varied electronic and acoustic elements, yet achieved smaller commercial results; after 1985’s In Mysterious Ways Foxx withdrew from recording. He reemerged in 1997 via the long-gestating ambient project Cathedral Oceans and the synth pop album Shifting City, created with Louis Gordon. Over the subsequent decade and beyond he continued to issue vocal-oriented work with Gordon while pursuing ambient and experimental directions both solo and alongside Harold Budd and Robin Guthrie. In 2009 he assembled John Foxx and the Maths together with synth specialist Ben Edwards (Benge). The band’s albums, beginning with 2011’s Interplay and extending through 2020’s Howl, deliver propulsive electro-rock material that extends the aesthetic of his Ultravox era and initial solo recordings.

Dennis Leigh entered the world in Chorley, Lancashire, England, in 1948. While studying at college in the late 1960s he assembled his earliest group, Woolly Fish, whose sole documented output remains the 1970 instrumental psych/prog single “The Way You Like It”/“The Sound of Thick.” After relocating to Manchester he performed on twelve-string guitar, occasionally supporting blues rockers Stack Waddy. In 1973 he moved to London, secured a scholarship at the Royal College of Art, and began exploring synthesizers alongside tape machines. There he founded the arty glam rock band Tiger Lily with bassist Chris Allen (then performing as Chris St John) and guitarist Stevie Shears. Canadian drummer Warren Cann joined early in 1974, and violinist Billy Currie became a member later that year. The group issued a cover of Fats Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’” as a single in 1975 and played pub venues across London.

The ensemble underwent several name changes before adopting Ultravox! in July 1976. Simultaneously Leigh assumed the John Foxx identity, steering the music toward an ambitious synthesis of glam, punk, and reggae influences shaped by Roxy Music, David Bowie, and Kraftwerk. Signed to Island, they released their self-titled debut, co-produced by Steve Lillywhite with Brian Eno’s assistance, in early 1977. Ha! Ha! Ha! followed promptly, then 1978’s Systems of Romance—co-produced by Conny Plank and the first album without the exclamation mark—featured guitarist Robin Simon in place of Shears. Though inventive, none sold strongly, prompting Island to drop the band at the close of 1978. After an independent U.S. tour in early 1979, Foxx left to pursue solo work. Midge Ure later assumed frontman duties, guiding Ultravox to major synth pop success in the early 1980s with hits such as “Vienna” and “All Stood Still.”

Foxx joined Virgin Records and unveiled Metamatic in January 1980. Crafted largely by Foxx on synthesizers and rhythm machines and released via his own Metal Beat imprint, the album reached number 18 on the U.K. chart and became a foundational influence on emerging synth pop. “Underpass,” “No-One Driving,” and the later single “Burning Car” all entered the top 40, while the transitional “Miles Away,” which incorporated acoustic drums, charted just outside the top 50. His second solo effort, The Garden, arrived in 1981 and emphasized electric and acoustic guitars, drums, and additional non-electronic instrumentation; it also contained “Systems of Romance,” a composition originally intended for the third Ultravox album but never recorded by the band. Foxx opened a studio called the Garden in Shoreditch, East London, where Depeche Mode, B.E.F., Bronski Beat, and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds later worked. Teaming with German producer Zeus B. Held, he delivered the psychedelic-tinged The Golden Section in 1983, which, like its predecessor, reached the U.K. top 30. The more polished 1985 release In Mysterious Ways fared less well, after which Foxx stepped back from music to focus on graphic design under his birth name and eventually sold the Garden to Matt Johnson of The The.

With the rise of acid house and techno, Foxx explored dance music through the project Nation 12. The 1990 collaboration “Remember” with Tim Simenon of Bomb the Bass was followed in 1991 by “Electrofear,” recorded with Kurt Rogers, Shem McCauley, and Simon Rogers. The group supplied music for the computer games Speedball 2 and Gods but never completed a full album before disbanding; an archival set titled Electrofear surfaced in 2005. Beyond Nation 12, Foxx directed the video for LFO’s bleep-techno classic “LFO” and taught a Graphic Arts & Design course at Leeds Metropolitan University.

Foxx staged a comprehensive return in 1997. Launching his Metamatic Records label, he issued Cathedral Oceans—an ambient collection of textures and chanted vocals begun in 1983—alongside Shifting City, a reunion with Louis Gordon that revisited his early synth pop aesthetic. Gordon persuaded him to tour for the first time since 1983; the duo released the limited “live in studio” EP Exotour 1997 and the 1998 full-length Subterranean Omnidelic Exotour as concert exclusives. Their second album, The Pleasures of Electricity, appeared in 2001, and they toured in support of 2003’s Crash and Burn. That same year Foxx collaborated with ambient composer Harold Budd on the double CD Translucence + Drift Music, reissued Cathedral Oceans II, and saw the third installment appear in 2005. He also guested on Finnish techno producer Jori Hulkkonen’s track “Dislocated” and worked with IDM artist Metamatics on the EP Free Robot.

In 2006 Foxx released Tiny Colour Movies, an instrumental set inspired by short films from a friend’s private collection, and the interview anthology The Hidden Man. With Gordon he issued From Trash, the companion recordings Sideways, and Live from a Room (As Big as a City) from their 2003 tour. Metal Beat, a double CD of interviews and demos, and the live disc Retro Future appeared in 2007. A double-CD reissue of Metamatic followed, prompting Foxx to revisit the album on a U.K. tour and release the live set A New Kind of Man in 2008. Foxx and Gordon also put out studio album Impossible and live recording Neuro Video that year, while a second single with Hulkkonen, “Never Been Here Before,” was issued.

The year 2009 proved particularly active. After the solo album My Lost City, Foxx released ambient collaborations with Steve D’Agostino and Steve Jansen (A Secret Life) and Cocteau Twins guitarist Robin Guthrie (Mirrorball), plus an album of readings from his developing novel The Quiet Man and the double CD of 1983 live material In The Glow. He also began working with Expanding Records founder Ben Edwards (Benge); the pair founded John Foxx and the Maths and issued the single “Destination” late in the year. DNA, a CD/DVD set of collaborations with selected filmmakers, followed in 2010.

John Foxx and the Maths’ debut album Interplay, featuring guest Mira Aroyo of Ladytron, appeared in March 2011. Torn Sunset, an ambient collaboration with flutist Theo Travis (Gong, Soft Machine), arrived the next June. The earlier Budd partnership was reissued with an additional album featuring Ruben Garcia, later issued separately as Nighthawks. Now augmented by musicians Serafina Steer and Hannah Peel, the Maths toured in October and released their second album, The Shape of Things, soon followed by 2012’s Evidence, which included contributions from Matthew Dear, Xeno & Oaklander, Gazelle Twin, and the Soft Moon. The band also issued the CD/DVD Analogue Circuit: Live at the Roundhouse. Rhapsody, captured live at Benge’s MemeTune Studios, surfaced in 2013 during a tour supporting Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Empty Avenues, an EP with the Belbury Circle, came out on Ghost Box the same year, while Sugarcane Recordings released European Splendour (with Hulkkonen), including a remix by David Lynch. Foxx issued the JG Ballard-inspired B-Movie (Ballardian Video Neuronica) in 2014 along with another D’Agostino collaboration, Evidence of Time Travel. In 2015 he released the ambient album London Overgrown and, with Benge and violinist Diana Yukawa as Ghost Harmonic, the album Codex. Further career-spanning sets followed the 2014 box The Virgin Years 1980-1985: the single-disc 20th Century: The Noise in 2015 and the 2016 CD/DVD 21st Century: A Man, A Woman and a City, a compilation of collaborative work including a track with Gary Numan and remixes by OMD and ADULT.

John Foxx and the Maths composed the soundtrack for the York Theatre Royal’s production of E.M. Forster’s short story The Machine Stops. A digital-only EP drawn from a live performance of the material, The Bunker Tapes, appeared in 2016, and the full album The Machine followed in 2017. Foxx contributed to two songs on the Belbury Circle’s 2017 album Outward Journeys. In 2019 the Maths returned to the studio, this time with former Ultravox guitarist Robin Simon, resulting in the full-length Howl in 2020.