Line #51 Music/JohnFoxx


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/johnfoxx_5.jpg]]
2
3	John Foxx (born Dennis Leigh) is a musician, artist and teacher from Lancashire, England.
4
5	He was the original singer for Music/{{Ultravox}} from 1973-1979 before Music/MidgeUre's arrival in which he and the band pioneered portable synths in PunkRock and NewWaveMusic that wrote the blueprint for TheEighties (and Ultravox's later success). After he left, he began an acclaimed solo career that has encompassed harsh and minimalist SynthPop, romantic New Wave, and {{Ambient}}. He has also recorded albums with Louis Gordon, [[Music/CocteauTwins Robin Guthrie]], and formed the HouseMusic band Nation 12 in 1990, and analogue synth band John Foxx and the Maths in 2009 with electronic musician Benge.
6
7	!!Select Discography
8	!!!With Music/{{Ultravox}}
9	* ''Ultravox!'' (1977)
10	* ''Ha!-Ha!-Ha!'' (1977)
11	* ''Music/SystemsOfRomance'' (1978)
12
13	!!!Solo and Collaborations
14	* ''Music/{{Metamatic}}'' (1980)
15	* ''The Garden'' (1981)
16	* ''The Golden Section'' (1983)
17	* ''In Mysterious Ways'' (1985)
18	* ''Cathedral Oceans'' (1997)
19	* ''Shifting City'' (1997) - with Louis Gordon
20	* ''The Pleasures of Electricity'' (2001) - with Louis Gordon
21	* ''Cathedral Oceans II'' (2003)
22	* ''Crash and Burn'' (2003) - with Louis Gordon
23	* ''Translucence/Drift Music'' (2003) - with Harold Budd
24	* ''Cathedral Oceans III'' (2005)
25	* ''Electrofear'' (2005) - with Nation 12, compilation of recordings from 1990-1991
26	* ''Tiny Colour Movies'' (2006)
27	* ''From Trash'' (2006) - with Louis Gordon
28	* ''Sideways'' (2006) - with Louis Gordon
29	* ''Mirrorball'' (2009) - with Robin Guthrie
30
31	!!!John Foxx and the Maths
32	* ''Interplay'' (2011)
33	* ''The Shape of Things'' (2011)
34	* ''Evidence'' (2012)
35	* ''The Machine'' (2017)
36	* ''Howl'' (2020)
37
38	----
39
40	!!Behind The Trope Glass, No One Sees You:
41	* DesignStudentsOrgasm: Being a graphic designer himself, his album covers can sometimes be awash with color and detail, especially his ambient albums like ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_Oceans#/media/File:Cathedral_Oceans.jpg Cathedral Oceans]]''.
42	* FaceOnTheCover: ''Metamatic'' and ''The Golden Section'' feature shots of John.
43	* MinimalisticCoverArt:
44	** ''Crash and Burn'' is a grayscale shot of a single eye, taken from a close-up used in the RKO film ''Film/TheSpiralStaircase''.
45	** The Maths' art as designed by Jonathon Barnbrook is stark, usually composed of just one tri-colored emblem on a black background.
46	* NewSoundAlbum:
47	** His first solo album after leaving Ultravox, ''Metamatic'', was a gritty, stark, minimalist SynthPop album more akin to Music/GaryNuman's ''The Pleasure Principle'' than the New Wave they were known for.
48	** ''The Garden'' returned to the romantic New Wave of Ultravox's ''Music/SystemsOfRomance''.
49	** ''Cathedral Oceans'' began his long-running series of {{ambient}} albums, eschewing song structure for washes of sound and Gregorian chant.
50	* RevisitingTheRoots: His albums with Louis Gordon and The Maths return to the minimalist, analogue SynthPop of ''Metamatic''. ''Howl'' goes even further back to his noisy PostPunk days with Ultravox, reuniting with ''Music/SystemsOfRomance''/''The Garden'' guitarist Robin Simon.
51	* RobotOrSpacemanAlterEgo: He often writes from the perspective of "The Quiet Man", a detached, not-quite-human variant of this trope. The Quiet Man is visualized on the cover of the "Miles Away" single as an invisible man in a suit and tie.
52	* SillyLoveSongs: ''The Garden'' through ''In Mysterious Ways'' have many grandly romantic songs like "Europe After the Rain" and "My Wild Love". Averted by ''Metamatic'', which Foxx intentionally wrote without any love songs, inspired by Music/TheWho doing the same.
53	* StageNames: His real name is Dennis Leigh, and he originally developed "John Foxx" as a persona that was everything he wasn't as a performer and artist.
54	* TitleTrack:
55	** ''The Garden'', ''In Mysterious Ways'', ''Cathedral Oceans'', ''Shifting City'', ''Crash and Burn'', ''From Trash'', ''Interplay'', ''The Machine'' ("The Ghost in the Machine"), ''Howl''.

Context Music / JohnFoxx