Hi, please suggest sinister atmospheric synthpop things

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I'd like to make a wrongheaded mix CD with lots of mid-paced, creepy synth based music to hurl at prospective bandmates and try and brainwash myself into being inspired. Y'know, doom-laden spoken word bits, Blade Runner synths, saxophone solos. N'that sort of thing.

I've got:

Visage - Fade To Grey
Tuxedomoon - Desire
Human League - Circus Of Death, or whatever

Do help.

― Flex Kavannah (Ferg), Friday, 12 December 2003 00:29 (twenty-one years ago)

whitehouse - "cut hands"

― sean marvin (williamtell), Friday, 12 December 2003 00:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Spray - I Kill With My Car
Spray - I Am Gothic
Spray - Leave It To The Girls, Boys
Spray - So, This Is It, Then?
Spray - Heatwavers

― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Friday, 12 December 2003 00:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Gary Numan -- "Telekon"
John Foxx -- "Metamatic"
Chris and Cosey -- "Trance"
Clock DVA -- "Thirst"

If you'll admit a few guitars, Colin Newman's "A-Z" and "Provisionally Entitled the Singing Fish"

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Friday, 12 December 2003 00:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Leonard Cohen - First We Take Manhatten

― Stupid (Stupid), Friday, 12 December 2003 00:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Guitars are fine yeah. I like the Newman stuff, I must listen to those two again.

― Flex Kavannah (Ferg), Friday, 12 December 2003 00:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Incontinent by Fad Gadget....featuring "One Mon's Meat", "Saturday Night Special" and the utterly infernal "Swallow it".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 12 December 2003 00:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Incontinent by Fad Gadget...featuring "One Mon's Meat", "Saturday Night Special" and the utterly infernal "Swallow it".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 12 December 2003 00:58 (twenty-one years ago)

whoops, sorry `bout that.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 12 December 2003 00:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Wolsheim - Find You're Gone
Depeche Mode - Home
Schneider TM - The Light 3000
Bjork - All Is Full Of Love (Plaid Mix)
Cardigans - Explode (Remix)
Dot Allison - I Think I Love You
Ultravox - The Voice
Radiohead - Myxomatosis (sp?)
Nobukazu Takemura - Let My Fish Loose
DMX Krew - The Glass Room

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 12 December 2003 01:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Gary Numan to thread

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 12 December 2003 01:11 (twenty-one years ago)

OMD - "Statues"
Aphex Twin - "Icct Hedral (Edit)"

― Schwingung (Damian), Friday, 12 December 2003 01:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Nic Endo - Cold Metal Perfection.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 12 December 2003 01:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I must insist that you check out that Fad Gadget disc I cited. It is so what you're after. Looks like this....

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000006YLL.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 12 December 2003 02:02 (twenty-one years ago)

The Spray album doesn't have a clown on it, but it is also essential here and has added bonus of being the greatest record of, hrrm, maybe the last five years or so. CHERISH IT

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00006JEKG.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Friday, 12 December 2003 02:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I am braving the Soulseek queues to try and locate them, Alexes

― Flex Kavannah (Ferg), Friday, 12 December 2003 02:11 (twenty-one years ago)

i wanna hear Spray now too. are they as good as DMX Krew?

― scott seward, Friday, 12 December 2003 02:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I only know that one DMX Krew track, aceace though it is I think Spray are clearly BETTER. But then I think Spray are better than pretty much everything else in the world at the moment, they seem to have designed the record for the express purpose of nuzzling at my pleasurezones.

― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Friday, 12 December 2003 02:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Dark Day might be good to include, but I'm not sure how easy it'll be to find anything by them.

― dlp9001, Friday, 12 December 2003 02:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Synth Noir

― Nihilist Pop Star (mjt), Friday, 12 December 2003 03:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Seek also: "Angel" by Ministry off of Twitch.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 12 December 2003 03:04 (twenty-one years ago)

parts of the first Suicide album

― the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, 12 December 2003 04:05 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Movement of Fear" by Tones on Tail would do nicely here as well. Still, Fad Gadget Fad Gadget Fad Gadget!!!!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 12 December 2003 04:16 (twenty-one years ago)

does anyone remember a band called Propaganda?

"Everything you see or have seen is a dream within a dream"

― hector (hector), Friday, 12 December 2003 05:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Propaganda were perfect, clearly. Pretty much all of A Secret Wish would snuggle neatly into this category also

― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Friday, 12 December 2003 05:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Anything from Blaine Reininger's (ex-Tuxedomoon) Broken Fingers, which sounds like a soundtrack to some cold war noir thriller. Sorry, I don't have any song names handy.

― Curt (cgould), Friday, 12 December 2003 05:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Partyline by the Stockholm Monsters, Gathering Dust by Modern English, A Day by Clan of Xymox, perhaps some old Pere Ubu and surely Joy Division wouldn't go wrong? Insight or New Dawn Fades perhaps.

Post the track listing when you get it figured out, should be an interesting listen.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Friday, 12 December 2003 06:29 (twenty-one years ago)

oh yeah, japan! something from quiet life, and the instrumentals from bowie's low.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Friday, 12 December 2003 06:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Oxygene or Zoolook - Jean-Michelle Jarre.
Damned Dont Cry - Visge (way spookier than Fade to Grey)

xpost yeah I was just thinking Japan too, hazel :)

Or maybe some early Cocteaus, like the Peppermint Pig stuff.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 12 December 2003 06:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe the new Crack: We Are Rock album?

― Matt Boch (Matt Boch), Friday, 12 December 2003 08:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Talking of the 4ad: what about early Wolfgang Press? E.g. "I Am the Crime" (featuring backing vocals by Liz Fraser)?

― OleM (OleM), Friday, 12 December 2003 09:15 (twenty-one years ago)

De/Vision "Closer"
Camouflage "The Great Commandment"
Depeche Mode "It's No Good"
Wolfsheim "Kein Zurück"

― Siegbran (eofor), Friday, 12 December 2003 10:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Nico 'My Heart is Empty'

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Friday, 12 December 2003 10:17 (twenty-one years ago)

12" full version of Dr MAbuse by Propoganda. damn that was too good.
new compilation on ZTT has all their best stuff with a dvd of videos (they are bad !). another suggestion.
Landscape - Norman Bates .. thank.you.

― mark e (mark e), Friday, 12 December 2003 10:23 (twenty-one years ago)

SCORN first two LP's

― Skinny boy, Friday, 12 December 2003 12:50 (twenty-one years ago)

urgent and key, VIVE LA FETE-NOIR DESIR.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 12 December 2003 12:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Heheh, Siegbran you like Wolfsheim too?

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 12 December 2003 13:02 (twenty-one years ago)

808 State 'Nephatiti'

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 12 December 2003 13:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Labradford - C Of People

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Friday, 12 December 2003 13:03 (twenty-one years ago)

The Notwist - Pilot (or anything off of Neon Golden - must check out that album again!)

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 12 December 2003 13:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Anything by Severed Heads, esp. "Harold and Cindy Hospital"

― Brian Miller, Friday, 12 December 2003 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Walking in the Rain: Grace Jones' cover version is very fine, but you really need to hear Flash and the Pan's original. Superbly atmospheric and sinister.

― Palomino (Palomino), Friday, 12 December 2003 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

The theme tune to Michael Aspel's old show on BBC1.

― Barima (Barima), Friday, 12 December 2003 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Richard X - 'Start' and Dr Who to thread.

― Barima (Barima), Friday, 12 December 2003 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Client, "Diary Of An 18 Year Old Boy"

― lawrence kansas (lawrence kansas), Friday, 12 December 2003 18:04 (twenty-one years ago)

The theme tune to Michael Aspel's old show on BBC1
what - 'Ask Aspel'?!?!?!?

;-)

― zebedee (zebedee), Friday, 12 December 2003 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

vicious pink

― A Nairn (moretap), Friday, 12 December 2003 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

For serious.

― Barima (Barima), Friday, 12 December 2003 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

If you're going with Japan, you'll be best served with "Sons Of Pioneers", which was their weirdest and most far-out track, IMHO. Either that or "The Experience Of Swimming", which I feel is totally atmospheric and swoonable. However, if you're really looking for full-on-out saxophonization, you would do well to check out "Halloween" (um, which is off Quiet Life, actually, but hey, I'm naming song titles here), which also happens to be on the dark side.

Visage's "Whispers" is a bit too light to be truly sinister, to be honest, but it is such an amazing and wonderful and evocative track that you have to check it out. You just have to. Um, that is of course if you haven't already, definitely. (I actually find it to be a bit darker than "The Damned Don't Cry", but not as dark as "Fade To Grey", which I do feel is one of their bleaker songs. Mmmm.)

― Tenacious Dee (Dee the Lurker), Friday, 12 December 2003 20:49 (twenty-one years ago)

"Lonely as an Eyesore" from 4ad might also be a good place to star if you have never heard it.

This Mortal Coil would of course have some good stuff to throw in.

― hector (hector), Friday, 12 December 2003 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Wire's "Marooned" off Chairs Missing.
Robert Wyatt's new Cuckooland.
The Electric Dreams soundtrack.
Duran's "The Chaffeur"? :-)

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Friday, 12 December 2003 21:09 (twenty-one years ago)

OH MY GOD, "Walking in the Rain" by Flash & the Pan is SUCH a perfect suggestion. I emphatically hug whomever had suggested it.

Still...seek out that Fad Gadget album!!!!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 12 December 2003 21:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Was Not Was "It's an Attack!"

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Friday, 12 December 2003 21:39 (twenty-one years ago)

doom-laden:

Early 80's Cabaret Voltaire, try "Why Kill Time when you can Kill Yourself" from Crackdown.

Try Assimilate, or Smothered Hope, from early Skinny Puppy- or VX Gas Attack, from ViViSect Vi (too noisy?)

"Colours" from Sisters of Mercy-Floodland.

"2nd Thought" or "VCLXI" from OMD- Organisation ( I forget which is the gloomy one.)

"Nightmares" from A Flock of Seagulls- Listen.

"Red Skies at Night" from the Fixx.

Something from The Cure? maybe Pornography?

"Michelle" by Clan of Xymox, from Medusa.

― sucka (sucka), Saturday, 13 December 2003 03:44 (twenty-one years ago)

"Domingo" from Yello- Stella

"Ghostrider" from Suicide's first album.

― sucka (sucka), Saturday, 13 December 2003 03:50 (twenty-one years ago)

New Order - Don't Do It (B-side of Fine Time) - moody instrumental with sampled voice ominously intoning "Don't put your finger on the button". Very Cold War.

― Shangri-La (Shangri-La), Saturday, 13 December 2003 12:29 (twenty-one years ago)

If you can find it, 'Our Darkness' by Anne Clark. It was an EP that came out in '84 and sounds like Giorgio Moroder and Conny Plank fucking in Hell, with a lady/vocoder vocal.

― suzy (suzy), Saturday, 13 December 2003 13:57 (twenty-one years ago)

this is a really good thread

― the surface noise (electricsound), Monday, 15 December 2003 01:22 (twenty-one years ago)

OH MAN "BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD" BY BAUHAUS

― adam michel (adam michel), Monday, 15 December 2003 02:27 (twenty-one years ago)

There's not a single synthesizer employed on "Bela Lugosi's Dead". Drums, bass, guitar, voice.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 15 December 2003 04:21 (twenty-one years ago)

See Pseudo Echo thread for more suggestions, albeit cheesier ones.

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Monday, 15 December 2003 04:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm gonna suggest several of the tunes from Wang Chung's To Live and Die In L.A. soundtrack. Maybe they're more sinister in the context of the film, but still....

I'm obsessing over this overlooked bleak masterpiece of '80s cinema! WHO NEEDS THE FRENCH CONNECTION WHEN WM FRIEDKIN'S MASTERPIECE IS THIS ONE??

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 15 December 2003 06:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Old ones:

Anne Clark - "Sleeper in Metropolis"
Danse Society - "We're so happy"
B-Movie - "Nowhere girl"
Xymox - "Evelyn"
Xymox - "Stranger"
The Arch - "Babsi ist tot"
Tones On Tail - "Performance"
Information Society - "Running"
The Neon Judgement - "TV treated"
The Neon Judgement - "Chinese black"
Trisomie 21 - "The last song"
Trisomie 21 - "Logical animals"
The Sisterhood - "Giving ground"
Bauhaus - "She's in parties"
Talk Talk - "Such a shame"
Human League - "The black hit of space"

Some new ones:

Golden Boy feat. Miss Kittin - "Rippin kittin"
Swayzak - "State of grace"
Yoko Ono - "Walking on thin ice" (Pet Shop Boys Elektromix)
Ladytron - "Evil"
FPU - "Ocean Drive" (Tiga's White Linen RMX)
Adult. - "Nitelife"
Vive La Fete - "Noir desir" (already mentionned, great suggestion), also check out "Nuit blanche"

― Seb, Monday, 15 December 2003 16:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Shit, the De/Vision track I recommended above is not called "Closer", it's "Heart Shaped Tumor".

― Siegbran (eofor), Monday, 15 December 2003 21:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Isolée : Logiciel

― Wintermuté (Wintermute), Monday, 15 December 2003 22:08 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

Nitzer Ebb - Lightning Man, or anything else off the same album!

― micah, Thursday, 17 February 2005 13:28 (twenty years ago)

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