by Jason Ankeny
A synth-pop duo famed for its uniquely sleazy electronic sound, art students Marc Almond and Dave Ball formed Soft Cell in Leeds, England in 1980. Originally, vocalist Almond and synth player Ball teamed to compose music for theatrical productions, and as Soft Cell, their live performances continued to draw heavily on the pairs background in drama and the visual arts. A self-financed EP titled Mutant Moments brought the duo to the attention of Some Bizzare label head Stevo, who enlisted Daniel Miller to produce their underground hit single Memorabilia the following year.
It was the next Soft Cell effort, 1981s Tainted Love, that brought the duo to international prominence; written by the Four Preps Ed Cobb and already a cult favorite thanks to Gloria Jones soulful reading, the song was reinvented as a hypnotic electronic dirge which became the years best-selling British single, as well as a major hit abroad. The groups debut LP, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, was also enormously successful, and was followed by the 1982 remix collection Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing.
While 1983s The Art of Falling Apart proved as popular as its predecessors, the LPs title broadly hinted at the internal problems plaguing the duo; prior to the release of 1984s This Last Night in Sodom, Soft Cell had already broken up. Almond immediately formed the electro-soul unit Marc and the Mambas; another group, Marc Almond and the Willing Sinners, followed before the singer finally embarked on a solo career in the late 80s. After a number of years of relative inactivity, Ball later resurfaced in the techno outfit the Grid.