Early 80s Dark electronic "pop"

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i'm looking for stuff that's slow and brooding. snakey keyboard parts. drum machines. a bit of funk, but not really danceable. real open. vocals, but not leading the thing. nothing really rocky or dancey. kinda like if someone put vocals on the Eno/cluster albums.

some songs i like right now:
John Foxx "Metal Beat"
the first track on Throbbing Gristle's "20 Jazz Funk Greats"
Siouxsie & the Banshees "Red Light" & "Lunar Camel" from Kaleidoscope
most of the So Young But So Cold: Underground French Music 1977 - 1983

it's been a while since i listened to some of these cds, but i pulled out Suicide's second (especially the second), TG's "Heathen Earth", i'm sure there's something on the first Human League

what else.

― [tb] j (jaxon), Friday, 22 April 2005 21:38 (twenty years ago)

I'd almost say I. M.'s 1981 box set to thread...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 22 April 2005 21:40 (twenty years ago)

Those "Night" mixes of the Duran Duran 12".

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 22 April 2005 21:41 (twenty years ago)

Ultravox - Vienna ?

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Friday, 22 April 2005 21:44 (twenty years ago)

ned, you're talking about this? Your opinion, please: 366-band, 411 track 1981 box set

a lot of that stuff seems like a lot poppier than what i'm thinking

― [tb] j (jaxon), Friday, 22 April 2005 21:55 (twenty years ago)

Suicide's second (especially the second)

i meant to say (especially the second disc)

― [tb] j (jaxon), Friday, 22 April 2005 21:56 (twenty years ago)

John Foxx owns.

Gary Numan? Visage? Robert Rental?

― phil jones (interstar), Friday, 22 April 2005 21:58 (twenty years ago)

a lot of that stuff seems like a lot poppier than what i'm thinking

A lot but by no means all. There are a couple of discs on there which are right up your alley.

Numan's Dance album -- definitely, though not entirely. Similarly Visage, but much of it is fairly glossy in comparison. (No bad thing, just not what I think is being searched for.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:00 (twenty years ago)

get one gary numan's dance!

XPOST DARN YOU NED OMGWTF

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:01 (twenty years ago)

And this is why you love me so.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:12 (twenty years ago)

see: the flexi-pop compilations. amazing.

http://members.shaw.ca/ecorpse/Tribute%20to%20&%20Return%20of%20Flexipop.htm

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:14 (twenty years ago)

can't believe there isn't a thread on these comps either. i love them.

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:16 (twenty years ago)

cutty, how do you get ahold of those things?

― [that bastard] jaxon (jaxon), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:23 (twenty years ago)

i send you them. or 50ul533k.

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:26 (twenty years ago)

i have nine of the comps, and usually i just put them all on shuffle and let the darkwave roll.

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:27 (twenty years ago)

I'm interested.. could you email me your SLSK name?

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:28 (twenty years ago)

Human League - "The Black Hit of Space"

― Seb (Seb), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:43 (twenty years ago)

Synth Noir

Hi, please suggest sinister atmospheric synthpop things

These both have some good stuff on.

― Fergal (Ferg), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:49 (twenty years ago)

Midnight Express soundtrack by Moroder

Goblin

Zombie/Cannibal Holocaust soundtracks by Fabio Frizzi

There's an obscure London (?) called Naffi with one LP on the Ark label: Yum Yum Yum Yum Ya. Dub elements, but super-subterranean.

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:52 (twenty years ago)

goblin is prog rock... dark maybe--but prog!

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:55 (twenty years ago)

xpost - good threads, thanks

just remembered a perfect canidate The Normal "Warm Leatherette"

― [that bastard] jaxon (jaxon), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:55 (twenty years ago)

RATIONAL YOUTH - I WANT YOU TO SEE THE LIGHT

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:56 (twenty years ago)

(actually minus the "YOU")

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:57 (twenty years ago)

Colin Newman - Alone
Tuxedomoon - Desire
Fad Gadget - Back To Nature

― Fergal (Ferg), Friday, 22 April 2005 23:06 (twenty years ago)

"Fade to Grey'" by Visage

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 22 April 2005 23:07 (twenty years ago)

goblin is prog rock... dark maybe--but prog!

And in 30 years, they managed to plunk down a few minutes of dark synth pop.

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Friday, 22 April 2005 23:15 (twenty years ago)

Early solo John Foxx (first 2 records) is a sure bet. There's also, believe it or not, a heavenly Synergy album (Larry Fast -- Peter Gabriel's synth guy on almost all PG's early solo stuff) that's just Roland drumbox and dark, gnarled analog synths. I'll look up the title and post soon.

Cutty - e-mail me re: the comps. Me want! You got! We talk!!

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Friday, 22 April 2005 23:16 (twenty years ago)

D.A.F. obviously. And Magazine if they were electronic enough.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 23 April 2005 00:34 (twenty years ago)

Early Cabaret Voltaire, perhaps?

― D. Bachyrycz, Saturday, 23 April 2005 00:41 (twenty years ago)

"love is a stranger" - eurhythmics

― ambrose (ambrose), Saturday, 23 April 2005 01:30 (twenty years ago)

That reminds me: Robert Gorl, Night Full of Tension
(Annie Lennox guests on at least one track.)

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Saturday, 23 April 2005 01:34 (twenty years ago)

Magazine if they were electronic enough

The awesome live version of 'Parade' from Play, definitely.

― Fergal (Ferg), Saturday, 23 April 2005 01:56 (twenty years ago)

Peter Godwin- images of heaven

Cutty could you please email me about your flexipop comps? I would love to trade you for those. lake_patrick(at)hotmail.com .

― -rainbow bum- (-rainbow bum-), Saturday, 23 April 2005 03:16 (twenty years ago)

dude... Japan: Gentlemen Take Polaroids!

― Brandon Mitchell (A.H.), Saturday, 23 April 2005 03:58 (twenty years ago)

also, maybe Grauzone... Fourth Drawer Down by the Associates... or is the singing too over the top and showy maybe?

also, I might recommend the *second* Human Leauge in addition to the first for "Black Hit of Space"... the epitome of dark electronic pop.

Empires and Dance has some stuff, like the track "Thirty Frames a Second."

There's also the British Electric Fountation, but they, er, don't have vocals (Heaven 17 do, but aren't quite dark).

― Brandon Mitchell (A.H.), Saturday, 23 April 2005 04:09 (twenty years ago)

um... Grauzone is one band, and then Fourth Drawer Down is an album by the Associates... my wording was awkward.

― Brandon Mitchell (A.H.), Saturday, 23 April 2005 04:09 (twenty years ago)

Easy Going - "Fear"
Marianne Faithfull - "Broken English"
Gina X Performance - "Nice Mover" or "No GDM"
Dominatrix - "Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight"
Liaisons Dangereuses - "Los Ninos Del Parque"
Q - "The Voice of Q"
Vanity 6 - "Make Up"

― Mike O. (Mike Ouderkirk), Saturday, 23 April 2005 05:23 (twenty years ago)

sounds like New Orders "Movement" to me

― Tim Dixon, Saturday, 23 April 2005 16:59 (twenty years ago)

Rational Youth - Cold War Night Life
Minny Pops - Sparks in a Dark Room
Simple Minds - Empires and Dance seconded and throw in Real to Real Cacophony as well
Associates - Fourth Drawer Down seconded...I think Rankine's instrumentation leads the way more than Billy's vocals do...Sulk was the inverse.
Marianne Faithfull - about half of Broken English, indeed
early Cabaret Voltaire seconded

― Ian Riese-Moraine. To Hell with you and your gradual evolution! (Eastern Mantra), Saturday, 23 April 2005 17:33 (twenty years ago)

This probably isn't exactly the aesethetic you're after, but I've had in mind the made-up genre "electroscuzz" to describe a lot of darker-but-slightly-lo-fi new wavish stuff from the period.

Here's a mix I made after the idea, mixing in with scuzzy rockish stuff. If you'd like a copy, let me know:

01 Virgin Prunes - Twenty Tens
02 Carboards - Electrical Generator
03 Einsturzende Neubauten - Jet'm
04 Antena - Spiral Staircase
05 Beezlebub Youth - Push Push Push
06 Our Daughter's Wedding - Airlines
07 Lemon Kittens - Nudies
08 Liaisons Dangereuses - Etre Assis Ou Danser
09 Suicide - Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne
10 Big Black - Steelworker
11 Family Fodder - Savoir Faire
12 Killing Joke - Turn to Red
13 Negativland - Dear Mary
14 Dow Jones & The Industrials - Ladies with Appliances
15 Front 242 - Art & Strategy
16 49 Americans - Glimpse Go By
17 The Nor mal - Warm Leatherette
18 You've Got Foetus On Your Breath - I Am Surrounded by Incompetence
19 This Heat - 24 Track Loop
20 Crash Course in Science - Factory Forehead
21 Voice Farm - Double Garage
22 Metal Urbain - Futurama
23 No More - Suicide Commando
24 Zoomers - Give Your Heart
25 Nervous Gender - Monsters
26 Via Veneto - Empty
27 Neon Judgement - Concrete (NY Stoney Wall Doll)

― I.M. (I.M.), Saturday, 23 April 2005 18:18 (twenty years ago)

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