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HOW TO BUY...SYNTH POP!
9:00 AM GMT 23/08/2010
Was it Kraftwerk and the greater availability of electronic recording equipment that led to the Synth Pop boom in the early 1980s? It's arguable. But what is certain is that around the 1981 mark there was a torrent of the stuff from the future-looking likes of The Human League, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode and the rest. But what are the vital albums of the genre? Dare by The Human League? What Depeche Mode long-player do you need? What about Gary Numan? Or OMD? Anyone going to give it up for modern practitioners like La Roux?
You tell us, please. As ever, the best comments and recommendations will appear in the magazine. Cheers!
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 9:00 AM GMT 23/08/2010
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RE: Anonymous
Well, I think you made that very clear the first time... so long
Posted by PeterVanRock at 10:30 PM GMT 23/08/2010 Report Abuse
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you, your open minded nature and will constructed arguments will be sorely missed Anonymous,
so long
Posted by chris-ni at 2:26 AM GMT 24/08/2010 Report Abuse
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RE: Anonymous
No soup for you. Actually, where I do agree about "turning into crap" is when Bruce made it on to the cover. I dig the synth pop idea, so you can't always get what you want, bubba.
Posted by D. Sanchez at 6:13 AM GMT 24/08/2010 Report Abuse
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RE: D. Sanchez
is there an echo in here?
Posted by Anonymous at 6:14 AM GMT 24/08/2010 Report Abuse
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SYNTH POP
No collection should be without Metamatic by John Foxx.
Any album with Underpass will be a classic for another 30 years or more.
This album still send shivers down my spine now, and then as a 15 year old, discovering the delights of John Foxx, Gary Numan and Kraftwerk.
Notable mentions to Pleasure Principle and Computer World.
Posted by Mark Gardiner at 12:59 PM GMT 24/08/2010 Report Abuse
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Freddie Mercury's Mr Bad Guy is a bit of a forgotten classic of this (if I'm honest, rightly maligned) genre. Wonderful songs, performed and arranged with boundless energy. And that incredible voice. So very dated, and all the better for it.
To avoid - Neil Young's Landing on Water. What on earth was he thinking???
Posted by Mike Mueller at 2:32 PM GMT 24/08/2010 Report Abuse
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McCartney was in the Beatles? Who knew?!
Posted by Baby Jebus at 3:14 PM GMT 24/08/2010 Report Abuse
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Synth Pop
Kraftwerk is the grandaddy of synth-pop. Autobahn would be the album that got the whole genre started and rolling. It wasn't recognized as synth-pop at the time tho'. That distinction would fall upon groups like Human League, Animotion, Ultravox, Gary Numan/Tubeway Army, Depeche Mode, Berlin, Bowie/Eno.
Posted by Anonymous at 5:36 PM GMT 25/08/2010 Report Abuse
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When I was a teen in the mid 90s and an Oasis completist I mocked my older brother's love of all things 80s. Whilst I was right to a point (Level 42) I was wrong in so many other ways. Now I see the error of my ways and I am plundering popular internet auction sites for the back catalogue gems of Blancmange, Haircut 100... hell, I even bought the best of Imagination last week. but there is a special place in my heart for The Associate's Sulk. Indecipherable lyrics? Check. Toe-in-the-water electronic experimentation? Check. Difficult, tragic frontman? Check. You can almost smell the hairspray wafting off the cover. If you haven't done already, you really need to hear the edgy Club Country, the cheekily funky It's Better This Way, the oddly effective cover of Diana Ross' Love Hangover but more than any of that you need to sing along to the joyously ambiguous romantic epic of Party Fears Two complete with Billy's clarion call to "AWAKE ME!" Surely the best song of the whole darn decade. All together now "I'll have a shower, and then phone my brother up, within the hour, I'll smash another cup".
Posted by William Arnold at 2:04 PM GMT 26/08/2010 Report Abuse
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The League Unlimited Orchestra's 'Love and Dancing' is, for me, one of the only 'synth pop' LPs which I come back to time and time again.
The removal of the majority of vocals and (what I assume must be tape spliced) re-worked synth lines from Dare sound like the blueprint for jamaican dub applied to electro pop.
The rework of Hard Times, with it's speaker to speaker fading and monster bassline deserves another (loud) play - go one, dig it out!
I did have a similar set of dub remixes which Martin Rushent did for Pete Shelley on the B-side of a tape which used a lot of the same sounds but not sure if these ever got a proper CD release. I'm sure there were enough tracks to put together a decent 'Love and Dancing' for Shelley!
Posted by rich at 10:18 PM GMT 27/08/2010 Report Abuse
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The voters on this blog and in the forum seem to be pushing for obscurities and cult acts. But synthpop was 'Pop' with a capital 'P'. You don't need to go trawling through second-hand vinyl bins for great long-players.
Here is my Top 5:
1) Depeche Mode- 'Violator'
It took DP a full decade after synthpop arrived to craft their first mature full-length album. A masterpiece of songcraft and feeling, with no weak tracks.
2) Tubeway Army- 'Replicas'
While others might have done it better, glam rock wouldn't have existed without David Bowie. Likewise, synthpop would not be what it is without Bowie's greatest disciple, Gary Numan. The chilly dystopian atmosphere and robotic vocals can't freeze out the whistleable tunes. A few too many guitars though, which is why it's not #1
3) The Human League- 'Dare'
A no-brainer really. It's hard to think of another album that encaptulates the synthpop sound so concisely AND includes the big, big hits. Even the minimalist cover art fits the feel.
4) Pet Shop Boys- 'Behaviour'
Though they were more of a dance act by this point, this is PSB's definitive album, a mature reflection on the past decade of clubbing under the shadow of Thatcherism.
5) OMD- 'Dazzle Ships'
Their dark horse album. Very much of it's time, from the instruments to the art to the Cold War themes, but that just makes this album all the more special: it's like a window into another world.
I'm assuming compilations are disallowed (as they should be), otherwise New Order's 'Substance' would be a shoe-in for #1
Also worthy candidates:
Art Of Noise- 'Who's Afraid Of The Art Of Noise'
Talk Talk- 'It's My Life'
ABC- 'The Lexicon Of Love' (though it's more like New Romantic)
Posted by Cowtools at 9:23 AM GMT 28/08/2010 Report Abuse
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Yellow Magic Orchestra, second only to Kraftwerk, have several classic synth-records: "Technodelic", "BGM" to name a couple. There are several solo records by the trio worth checking out as well - you never now when Roxy Music members might show up...
Posted by bob isaaks at 9:35 PM GMT 31/08/2010 Report Abuse
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Kraftwerk - ManMachine
Now,That's what I call best synth tunes....ever!
Posted by gautxos at 2:53 PM GMT 01/09/2010 Report Abuse
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Kraftwerk - ManMachine
Now,That's what I call best synth tunes....ever!
Posted by gautxos at 2:54 PM GMT 01/09/2010 Report Abuse
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Howard Jones' Human's Lib LP somehow manages to touch your heart with all those cold-blooded synths. The song Hide and Seek in particular just blows me away.
Posted by Dean A. at 8:53 PM GMT 10/09/2010 Report Abuse
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Howard Jones' Human's Lib LP somehow manages to touch your heart with all those cold-blooded synths. The song Hide and Seek in particular just blows me away.
Posted by Dean A. at 8:53 PM GMT 10/09/2010 Report Abuse
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COVER STORY
*******************
Cast your mind back to those days when we drank diamond white and listened to the bleeps of the new sound , post punk , new wave , Synth Pop the truth is we never had a name for it but we certainly had a dance to match the bleak soundscape the music created . Human league, Soft Cell to name two of many gave us the sound track of our generation and interestingly are still here.
Of crucial importance is how to prepare to shop for Synth Pop, one can’t just purchase, you need to spray your fringe, smudge your eyes and point your shoes in the direction of the sound. A simple rule i had when buying records back in the early 80's was, if the cover looks good then you can bet the music will be to. It never failed me and even though i guess this concept would not work as well with today's bands it's a method worth checking. Just goes to show you really can judge a band from their cover
Posted by LOZ LOVES YOU at 9:27 PM GMT 14/09/2010 Report Abuse
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COVER STORY
*******************
Cast your mind back to those days when we drank diamond white and listened to the bleeps of the new sound , post punk , new wave , Synth Pop the truth is we never had a name for it but we certainly had a dance to match the bleak soundscape the music created . Human league, Soft Cell to name two of many gave us the sound track of our generation and interestingly are still here.
Of crucial importance is how to prepare to shop for Synth Pop, one can’t just purchase, you need to spray your fringe, smudge your eyes and point your shoes in the direction of the sound. A simple rule i had when buying records back in the early 80's was, if the cover looks good then you can bet the music will be to. It never failed me and even though i guess this concept would not work as well with today's bands it's a method worth checking. Just goes to show you really can judge a band from their cover
Posted by LOZ LOVES YOU at 9:28 PM GMT 14/09/2010 Report Abuse
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Depeche Mode-Black Celebration.
This is the forgotten DM classic. 1986 and all was shite in the charts except for this mammoth slab of dark,brooding,Spectorish,industrial melancholy. Stripped,A Question Of Time and the title track are still some of the best Mode songs to date. Buy it or look a fool.
Posted by Anonymous at 4:40 PM GMT 16/09/2010 Report Abuse
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Depeche Mode-Black Celebration.
This is the forgotten DM classic. 1986 and all was shite in the charts except for this mammoth slab of dark,brooding,Spectorish,industrial melancholy. Stripped,A Question Of Time and the title track are still some of the best Mode songs to date. Buy it or look a fool.
Posted by
Posted by Paul Emery at 4:43 PM GMT 16/09/2010 Report Abuse
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It must be the No1 from Gary Numan - The Pleasue Principle.
All that Synth should be.
Posted by Ryker at 4:49 PM GMT 25/10/2010 Report Abuse
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Chrisma - Thank you
This song and their album "Chinese Restaurant", that come out in 1977, are synth-pop (as Kraftewerk) before it was invented. Chrisma are italian with roots in pop (New Dada was the pop (beatles infected group) of Maurizio Arceri) and an obsession for electronic / Kraut music.
Posted by Luca at 10:47 AM GMT 07/11/2010 Report Abuse
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Chrisma - Thank you
This song and their album "Chinese Restaurant", that come out in 1977, are synth-pop (as Kraftewerk) before it was invented. Chrisma are italian with roots in pop (New Dada was the pop beatles infected group of Maurizio Arceri) and an obsession for electronic / Kraut music.
Posted by Luca at 10:47 AM GMT 07/11/2010 Report Abuse
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