Danceteria/Transparent Red Vinyl

Description

This latest album is both a love letter to New York in the early 80s and a tribute to the late Dave Ball. Electronic music legends Soft Cell, aka singer and frontman Marc Almond and multi-instrumentalist and producer Dave Ball, are set to release Danceteria, their sixth and final studio album. Danceteria is a grand, elegant and playful farewell to 47 years of musical career under the name Soft Cell, and features iconic performances from these icons of electronic pop. Evoking Sparks and the Pet Shop Boys, with lyrics worthy of Lady Gaga, the album transports you to a New York day in the early 80s, taking you seamlessly from night to the first light of dawn, for a triumphant return to the clubs. Marc gives us a first glimpse of the album: “Danceteria is a love letter to New York in the early 80s. The time spent in New York - where we recorded our first three albums - left a deep mark on us, both artistically and personally. Celebrating this period is a poignant farewell to Dave and to the final Soft Cell studio album.” This final album is one of the last works Ball co-wrote and produced before his tragic and untimely passing on October 22, 2025. Almond penned the posthumous tributes, describing Dave as a “brilliant musical genius.” Media outlets around the world followed, hailing him as a pioneer of electronic music, alongside music stars such as Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys, Cabaret Voltaire... Dave finished Danceteria two days before his death, and it is in tribute to his memory that the album is being released as planned. It is also because of his passing that Danceteria had to be the final Soft Cell album, as Marc explains: “There can be no more Soft Cell recordings without Dave, that would be impossible. The sad reality is that Dave Ball was half of Soft Cell, and apart from live shows, I can’t write Soft Cell songs without him.”