Was the world ever ready for Thomas Leer? Listening back to Thomas’s The Scale Of Ten one can hear all the potential there. It’s this theme of tweaking a recipe. Here it was to make his once abrasive, experimental blue-eyed soul into a chromed-out beast, outfitted in Fairlight CMI clothing, permeating with giant-sized hooks. In 1985, this once industrial and noise darling, commanded the attention of Trevor Horn and tried to make the unlikely leap into Pop stardom.

On The Scale Of Ten we get the pure, unadulterated stuff: Thomas as torch singer for the hardest, darkest times where a little abrasive roughness around the edges works much better to take the scum off. Don’t you know, not everything is a laughing matter.