[Dusty Chalk]

Klaus Schulze, Mirage -- I'm not sure what to call the genre, but it's my go-to album for old school electronic synthesizer music that's laid back and kind of ambient.

 

[bong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkweg /img/forum/go_quote.gif The album Travelogue is much better than Dare even if it was less commercially successful. I consider Simple Minds the first superstars of synthpop. Their albums Sons and Fascination and New Gold Dream are better than anything The Human League ever did. But then maybe Ultravox are. Both Ultravox and Simple Minds were doing synthpop before Human League and both were quite successful in the UK before they were recognized in the U.S.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dusty Chalk /img/forum/go_quote.gif No, I'd have to agree with Bong that Dare absolutely defines the genre. (I was going more for a "first" than a "defines the genre" choice with my post.) Violator would be another good choice. Simple Minds and Ultravox weren't pure synthpop, IMHO, so if you're talking genre-defining, aren't such good choices. But as for pleasant listening, they are both excellent choices. (I love all three bands.)

Oh yeah, I would agree Travelogue is better than Dare!, but in a very artistic and experimental way. My fave Human League albums are Reproduction, Travelogue, then Dare!, in that order. However, there's no denying that Dare! is genre defining, and is easily THE Synth-Pop album to have. And I stand by my quote is saying Dare! is the first ultra-successful fully electronic pop record. I agree with Dusty Chalk in that Simple Minds and Ultravox weren't pure Synth-Pop as they still used traditional instrumentation in their music. I guess the same rule can apply to Bowie's Low, even Iggy Pop's The Idiot.

If we're throwing Simple Minds and Ultravox into the mix, I would put Tubeway Army's Replicas and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's Architecture and Morality before Vienna and New Gold Dream. Hehe... I'm gonna go out on a limb in saying Empires and Dance is better than New Gold Dream and Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call.

Also, Dare! was also the first internationally successful electronic pop album, Ultravox and Simple Minds didn't even make a dent in the US at the time. Don't get me wrong, New Gold Dream and Vienna were great albums in their own right, but Dare! defines the genre and that era. It was the album that even caused backlash with electronic music from traditional musicians, worried that their skill will be replaced by a bank of keyboard synths and drum machines!

I'll also agree with Dusty Chalk that Violator did for the early 90's as Dare! did for the early 80's. In the grander scheme of things with the "Alternative" genre of the time, I put Violator with the same importance as Nevermind.

 

[bong]

I just thought of another milestone in electronic music:
"I Feel Love" by Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder. This song needs no explanation.

 

[virometal]

One short lived mid-90's label that I never read mentioned much anymore, unlike Warp, FFRR and all the others, was Sm: )e Communications. Air Liquid and Steve Stoll both became big there, plus their Fluid Techno series introduced then little know DJ's like Ellen Allien (who's current label Bpitch Control is a fave of mine), and remix kings Rabbit in the Moon. In the glory days of Ambient House, Sm: )e was big.

 

[superpiper]

I love this ****,
My must have albums:

Autecre: incullabulla-trirepete+
Aphex twin: Selected ambient works
Jarre: Oxygene
TD: Cyclone

 

[MoodySteve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by virometal /img/forum/go_quote.gif One short lived mid-90's label that I never read mentioned much anymore, unlike Warp, FFRR and all the others, was Sm: )e Communications. Air Liquid and Steve Stoll both became big there, plus their Fluid Techno series introduced then little know DJ's like Ellen Allien (who's current label Bpitch Control is a fave of mine), and remix kings Rabbit in the Moon. In the glory days of Ambient House, Sm: )e was big.

If I'm not mistaken, Sm: )e also put out soulful jungle records that would sound right at home in an LTJ Bukem set. I'm pretty sure I have a 10" or two in my crates. Really classic stuff.

 

[kwitel]

Mark-no Astralwerks?

The must haves for me are:

Prodigy-Are You Experienced (this is where it all started for me)
Chemical Bros-Exit Planet Dust (imo a perfect album)
Aphex Twin-I Care Because You Do

And absolutely anything and everything that Richie Hawtin is a part of.

 

[tru blu]

Amon Tobin - Permutation
It's electronic, but the drum sound is more human, or organic sounding, like someone playing a trap set.

Talvin Singh - Anokha: Soundz of the Asian Underground

 

[milkweg]

Oh well, I thought Dare was crap. New Gold Dream on the other hand I still listen to today and is considered by many critics to be one of the best albums ever made. You will find it on critics top lists quite often. Dare? Never. The only reason Human League were pure synth is because they couldn't play any other instruments.

Dare may have been popular with the masses but then by the time the masses start listening to hip sounds it is already passe' with the "in-crowd".

 

[bong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkweg /img/forum/go_quote.gif Oh well, I thought Dare was crap. New Gold Dream on the other hand I still listen to today and is considered by many critics to be one of the best albums ever made. You will find it on critics top lists quite often. Dare? Never. The only reason Human League were pure synth is because they couldn't play any other instruments. Dare may have been popular with the masses but then by the time the masses start listening to hip sounds it is already passe' with the "in-crowd".

NME 100 Greatest British Albums Ever!
The Human League - Dare (60)
Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (not on list)
~~~ NME's 100 Best Albums ~~~

Observer Greatest British Albums
The Human League – Dare (96)
Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (not on list)
http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/steveparker/observer.htm

Q Magazine Best of the 80's
The Human League - Dare (19)
Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (not on list)
Q lists - page3

Q Magazine 50 Years of Great British Music
1980's
The Human League - Dare (2)
Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (not on list)
Q lists - page3

The Music That Changed The World
Part Three - 1980 – 2004
The Human League - Dare (18)
Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (not on list)
Q lists - page3

Q Mag – 50 Best British Albums Ever!
The Human League – Dare (36)
Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (not on list)
http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/qlist...0Albums%20Ever!

I gotta vouch for what I feel is one of the greatest albums of all time, not just because it's a great album but also it's a cultural icon.

All these lists have been very recent, from professional critics like mentioned (not from readers). And one can't argue that it's because Simple Minds are Scottish, because Primal Scream made most of those lists as well.

Also, the original Human League lineup (Marsh/Oakey/Ware) made a very conscious decision not to use traditional instrumentation, not because they couldn't play it. That decision carried on when Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware left the band for BEF/Heaven 17.

Don't get me wrong, both are awesome albums, but I feel Dare! should get credit where credit is due... The Human League was not a throwaway pop band at the time (although I admit it did come to that when Crash came out, they were desperate!) and didn't expect "Sound of the Crowd" and "Love Action" to be as big as it did when it came out, it just happened that way... and the success carried on when Dare! came out, and then with the classic subsequent single "Don't You Want Me."

Simple Minds were and still are highly talented, I felt Kerr/Burchill did a great album through Black and White 050505. Phil Oakey may not admit he's talented, but at the time they were highly innovative, with music, presentation, artwork, and video.

 

[milkweg]

OK, you have proven me wrong but Dare does not make my list which is the most important list of all.

"Don't You Want Me Baby" sucks donkey balls and "Someone, Somewhere in Summertime" is great. It's also an audiophile quality recording too.

p.s. I was in a pawn shop one day and they had a copy of Heaven17 - Penthouse and Pavement on cassette so I told the proprietor I wanted to buy it. He said that is our "cheese section". I said it is not cheese and wanted it anyway. BTW, Ian Marsh posted on this forum one day quite some time back.

 

[bong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkweg /img/forum/go_quote.gif OK, you have proven me wrong but Dare does not make my list which is the most important list of all. "Don't You Want Me Baby" sucks donkey balls and "Someone, Somewhere in Summertime" is great. It's also an audiophile quality recording too. p.s. I was in a pawn shop one day and they had a copy of Heaven17 - Penthouse and Pavement on cassette so I told the proprietor I wanted to buy it. He said that is our "cheese section". I said it is not cheese and wanted it anyway. BTW, Ian Marsh posted on this forum one day quite some time back.

Heh... we'll agree to disagree then.

I will agree that New Gold Dream was recorded and mixed meticulously though.

This type of music isn't cheese, a lot of it was dead serious, like Heaven 17 with it's political awareness. Maybe some bands like A Flock of Seagulls may be cheese but damn, was "Space Age Love Song" and "Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)" was catchy.

 

[Zaroff]

Closer to us (though they started in '86 I believe) Camouflage is a really great act. Their last two albums are top-notch in terms of songwriting, production and they DO sound good even if they're rather loud.

In the modern synthpop trend, you also have Mesh who, despite occasional use of guitars, still sounds very electronic most of the time.

 

[Redcarmoose]

Hynmen..........Karlheinz Stockhausen





This is regarded as the first piece of pop electronic music.
This was the spark that had an influence in Krautrock thus Tangerine Dream and their first drummer Klaus Schulze, the whole 7-up Timothy Leary Cosmic Psi German Underground was already playing Stockhausen and dropping L just like Jesse Franco's Succubus movie soundtrack. What was to follow has fallen so far threw the cracks that it would take alot to dig it up. As Pink Floyd was just starting in England, Germany had a response like Can, Faust, Brain Ticket, Kraftwork, Cluster. The best place to start for most would be Julian's The Krautrock Sampler, or A Crack In The Cosmic Egg by Utima Thule Record Store folks in England. This stuff was the party music made to prolong the party experience just like erectile disfuntion aids do. The problem is, yes it was dance music, can you dance to it? Most people today apart from a mild uprising in
1999, just don't get get it. When Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells hit in the mid-seventies, there was a mainstream start-up. The real problem is this music does not sound that great unless your under an influence, or have a wide enough imagination to "get it". Even The Beatles made there secret homage to Hynmen on The Beatles (White Album} in the song Number 9. The Beatles even placed Stockhausen on the cover of St. Peppers as a clue as to how really compressed and "electronic"and Psi that album is. The really crazy thing is how much this music is the quiet-stepsister to New-Age Steven Halpern modular moog madness. To do this list right you need to start with a web pulled list of lables like Brain. Yes I spun Human League's Dare when it came out in 81. I spun Ultravox. Do you know who produced the early Ultravox? Conny Plank! Yes it really does all come full circle. Go get the Harmonia releases and the Neu releases from the mid seventies. That's what created New Wave, and in turn got Johnny Rotten to make punk rock. In the eighties I always thought New Wave was a watered down type of punk. Now I see how it was the other way around, Thanks Karlheinz!

 

[adrift]

Here I thought Johnny Rotten was influenced more by the Ramones, The NY Dolls, and The Stooges.

Anyways, other bands I think were pretty influential in shaping electronic music would include bands like Suicide, Throbbing Gristle (and its associated splinter bands), and Cabaret Voltaire.

For something off the beaten path folks may like Japanese synth based stuff from The Plastics and from the later band Soft Ballet.

By the way, I think hands down the best Simple Minds album is Real to Real Cacophony, but that's my just 2 cents.