Category: Music

It’s been a very long time since I’ve done a themed entry, but watching the BBC4 documentary Synth Britannia (which I posted about yesterday) really influenced my listening habits during the week. So, this week’s Friday Music is comprised entirely of music featured on the show — groundbreaking electronic music from the late 70s/early 80s:

Depeche Mode’s first hit single, from 1981 — not a lot of folks in the US heard this one, as they didn’t really break over here until mid-85 with “People Are People”. Depeche Mode – “New Life.”

Vince Clark is a brilliant bastard. One of the founders (and chief songwriter) for Depeche Mode, he left the band (before they hit in the US) once he realized he could do all of the synth programming and playing himself. He hired singer Allison Moyet for vocals on his demos, and suddenly found himself in another seminal synth act, Yazoo (renamed Yaz in the US, due to some rock band nobody has heard of, before or since). They were only around for 18 months, and then he went out and found a gay man who sounded like Moyet (Andy Bell) and founded *yet another* major synth group, Erasure. This is my favorite track from Yazoo: Yazoo – “Don’t Go.”

From 1979, one of the first big synth hits, originally recorded by Tubeway Army before their lead singer, Gary Numan, went solo and skyrocketed on the basis of this song and “Cars.” Gary Numan & Tubeway Army – “Are ‘Friends’ Electric.”

The first single from the new-lineup (now with extra GIRLS!) Human League, much less known over here since it hit before “Don’t You Want Me” and “(Keep Feeling)Fascination.” Not bad for a group named after a faction in a TSR-published SPI wargame. The Human League – “The Sound of the Crowd.”

The rest of Human League’s original line-up went on to form Heaven 17, and in fact were recording their debut album, Penthouse and Pavement at the same studio during opposite shifts to the “new” Human League’s Dare. Heaven 17 – “Let Me Go.”

Major early hit from Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, best known over here for providing sappy love songs to John Hughes films. Here, a lovely ode to the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – “Enola Gay.”

Almost entirely unknown in the US, members of Visage went on to form the far-better known bands Ultravox and Siouxsie & The Banshees. This was the big single from Visage in 1980: Visage – “Fade to Grey.”

…and of course, the granddaddy of them all. A track crafted by the former members of Joy Division as an ironic response to what they saw as the cliché of the rock-concert encore. They hit upon the idea of setting up sequencers and synths and then when the de rigeur encore was called for, they would simply hit a “start” button and leave the stage, leaving the sequencers to play out the composed track. It went on to become the biggest selling 12-inch single in history. New Order – “Blue Monday.”

There you go, folks. Enjoy!

Another weekly entry in your Mixtape of Teh InterWebs:

First off, a request by Laura, who asked me what the music was in the TV ads for Where the Wild Things Are, which she said really “gets her.” Turns out it’s a track from the soundtrack, which is comprised entirely of original songs done by Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O. The track in question: Karen O and the Kids – “All Is Love.”

Second — an absolutely kicking mash-up, from the new collection of Iron Maiden mashes, Number of the Boots, this one mixes Maiden (various songs, mostly “Flight of Icarus”) with Indian artist Sinidhi Chauhan (the song “Crazy Kita Re (Dhoom 2)”). Thanks to Sean Jaffe for pointing me towards this one. Wax Audio – “Maiden Goes To Bollywood.”

My mind has been lingering of late on the topic of Steampunk — and this is one of the songs that forms the soundtrack for the genre in my head (largely a result of reading Jeter, Blaylock and Powers in freshman year of college, listening to The Golden Age of Wireless as I did): Thomas Dolby – “Windpower.”

Another track by The Swimmers — the neo-80s alternapop group that I posted about last week. The more I hear, the more I like: The Swimmers – “A Hundred Hearts.”

One of the best tracks from Duran Duran’s latter period, pre-reunion-of-the-original-lineup, when they were largely ignored by mainstream music press and broadcasters: Duran Duran – “Electric Barbarella.”

I really didn’t expect to like this, much less post it. It’s the new posthumous single from Michael Jackson. To coincide with the release of the movie comprised of rehearsal footage of his planned farewell concerts, they went back and found a demo from 1983: A song he wrote with Paul Anka, which never left the demo stage. They took the piano-and-vocal demo, added lush instrumentation, the surviving Jacksons on backing vocals, and released the single. It’s a brilliant move — it’s pure height-of-his-powers MJ, before he started gasping and hiccuping and shammon-ing his way through lyrics. A reminder of when he was the best. Michael Jackson – “This is It.”

There you go kids. As always, if a link gives you trouble, try copy-and-paste.

See you next week with more.

Shorter list this week — and you’ll want to copy-and-paste these, rather than direct-clicking, because several are grabbed from the guts of Flash players, and hence are hotlink-disabled.

A track from Rob Zombie’s forthcoming album, Hellbilly Deluxe 2: Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls and the Systematic Dehumanization of Cool, which is coming in November. The first single, “What?” is already getting some radio play — this song is a track that he previewed via Twitter earlier this week: Rob Zombie – “Sick Bubble-gum.”

The XX are a London-based indie band. I heard this single during the week, and it grabbed me. I expect that it will appear soon on television, most likely in the background of some hour-long drama, during a montage of character-driven angst… The XX – “Crystalised.”

Another new London-based act, with one of the best band names I’ve heard in a long while. A lo-fi wall of noise, layer after layer of guitar loops, distorted bass, ethereal vocals — I’m hooked. Trailer Trash Tracys – “Strangling Good Guys.”

This band has a great retro John-Hughes-film-soundtrack sound to them. I definitely want to hear more: The Swimmers – “Shelter.”

Lastly, a mash-up: instrumentation from Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” with the vocals from Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” – DJ Lobsterdust – “NirGaga.”

There you go. Enjoy.