itt We round up the best, most well-executed revivalist new wave and synthpop made in the 21st century.

I've kept tabs on most of it as it was happening, but I'm fishing for suggestions on things I might have missed. I'm really looking for the stuff that sounds like it was ripped from the original era production/writing-wise, not just any old pop songs that have new wave or synthpop trappings.

From the icy hollowness of Fischerspooner's "Emerge" to the lushly produced sound pillow of Lansing-Dreiden's "A Line You Can Cross," adherence to the original aesthetic is key.

So hit me with it.

i only really like lansing-dreiden and dmx krew. the rest can go hang.

whatever happened to arling & cameron? those guys were fun.

Sapporo 72
http://www.sapporo72.se/media/architecture.mp3

Hadn't heard Sapporo 72 before. Thanks for that!

Spoken about at length on the minimal wave revival thread, but I'd say Xeno & Oaklander are incredibly faithful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmUAkym3Djw

Déclassé, "Shadows" — been one of my favorites for the last few years.

http://www.declassetheband.com/01.mp3

Hadn't heard Sapporo 72 before. Thanks for that!

Sure. I really only know that one song, though I think there are clips of others on that same site.

Wow, that Xeno & Oaklander stuff is REALLY cold. Love it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ianZOJ65m9Q

From the A Different Drum label, in the geekiest corner of the synthpop world:

Cosmicity
- Escape Pod For Two
- Definitive retrospective
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkmPDmuu2pQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2e446TWMkw

B!Machine
- Infinity Plus
- The Evening Bell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWT_ceSj1Wg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBHIDkHv7PA

Ha! My evidently-questionable taste in synthpop has killed yet another thread. Will it come back to life if I promise never to mention these bands on ILM again???

Those are okay, but a little bedroom-y imo.

Keep in mind, I'm looking for stuff with guitars as well as stuff that's all synth-based. I'd even go as far as including a couple Editors and Mary Onettes songs in this category because they ape Echo & The Bunnymen with such precision.

we already went off about how great this song is on another thread, but what the hell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjoSwPRcG7E

I listened to just this song on endless replay for a week, it's a serious earworm

WARNING: kinda makes you wanna cry

YES, I'd forgotten about him already (poor brain!)

I'm not sure if this fits in with your description but it's my favourite synth pop song of recent years. It's a Go Team B-side that doesn't really sound any of their other work, it's incredible right to the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7VYFiWktW8

There are only two clips of it on Youtube, the other version seems to be a demo that's too slow and this live performance which is really amazing.

As much as I love Emerge by Fischerspooner I think this is even better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBxQ2KeQKo8

The second album was a bit of a lost classic.

I like that, but unlike "Emerge" it sounds like a contemporary pop song dressed up in a new wave guise instead of sounding like something from a long time ago. Like, I've always thought "Emerge" could've been something Mute put out in 1981 as easily as something that came out in 2001.

Ooh NICE thread idea, I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

This one always stuck out at me: Junior Boys "Count Souveneirs". SOunds so much like Depeche Mode it's scary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhs__LqE4fo

And if you want lush 80s Cure? You cant go past what Veil Veil Vanish have been doing (this is less synthpop tho and more 80s goth guitar, admittedly)'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsbH9_oQ6fA

I was never a fan of Fischerspooner's sound tbh. They werent quite hitting my 80s buttons. I wanna hear people doing stuff like Scritti Politti or "new gold dream" era Simple Minds.

Love that Junior Boys ish. Thanks for reminding me.

I've thought this Superfamily track was the perfect mash of Prefab Sprout and Hall & Oates for as long as it's been around (4 years?).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22wn1MqkST0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7Y4Abtf7_A

this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KiiTVMs40M

and smagghe's extended edit in particular capture the mood perfectly for me

Yes, love that Kindness track!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgS5kw-d5AQ

Datarock x 1000

Not discouraging participation by any means, but there's some quality about Datarock and Zoot Woman and Veil Veil Vanish that doesn't seem authentic to the original period. Just my opinion.

Anyway, I started this thread because I'm going to make a compilation of the best of this music and I was fishing for ideas, but I'd hate to not even be able to open the thread later due to youtube overkill. So...use them sparingly?

i like this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgcbcLOwVLY

Most of Datarock's music was recorded on equipment from the '79-'83 era, in fact I'm pretty sure they use the same guitars and synths that Devo used; in contrast Junior Boys is very obviously modern, so I'm not sure at all what you're looking for here

To my ears, the way the Junior Boys song is structured sounds straight off of Black Celebration. Datarock is close, and the vintage equipment is a plus, but something about it screams contemporary to me. *shrug*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBRXGFcsrMg

Well then it doesn't get more revivalist than this as references aside it does sound exactly like Talking Heads

since I have images off and am not clicking on a neverending series of Youtube videos to check: is The Knife outside the scope of this thread?

thx for the tip on nicolas makelberge, spacetune!

"True Stories" is the better of the two Datarock tracks posted so far, but they're so *wink wink* about everything that it distracts me from really digging in. I can't tell if they're revivalists or revisionists.

One of my favourite early electroclash singles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN0Tnw5zy6w

And this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlCjRuo8ayM

Hugely underrated, note-perfect homage to the Shep Pettibone era

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3mHWZe1Id0

VVV I figured you'd call me out on but I think that's less cos it's not "authentic" sounding and more cs its the wrong genre. Its closer to "disingetration", and that's not what you're after here I can see.

FUCK, I cannot type latelty (I need to get new glasses, it is driving me mad). I meant "Disintegration", obv.

OK I need to work out if 'm on the right track here.

Does this fit at all? Its really new wavey. I'm so sad these guys arent going anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyYaoW3jaG4

Wait they are still a going concern, hunh.

Annie - The Crush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4tHhRXrd_k

The Go-Gos revival started and stopped right here. I was bitterly disappointed when her next album sounded nothing like it.

sorry for mine being a textless youtube - fyi, it's "she's a study" by TV Eyes

kind of hate this band but i really like this one: Van She - Kelly

okay lol i'm just watching the vid i posted and they really do look like a bunch of twats.

Trinkwasser - Extraleben

Strictly speaking it's not "21st century", as it came out in 1999. But sonically there's nothing in it that couldn't have been made in 1984. If someone had played it to me and said it was a forgotten German synth pop tune from the 80s, I totally would've believed it.

"The Visitor" by Miracle (dudes from Zombi and Sun O)))

http://soundcloud.com/stevemoore2600/miracle-the-visitor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_WxS8CDRY0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lyzXFtFy64

Otherwise, a lot of the best stuff has actually been made by people who were around already during the original early 80s synthpop boom:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJjPdiw3ne8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdz_H7OcFig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvMnRkfrEEQ

Even this was not at all bad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFAj4iKlhc0

As for new synth acts from post-00s, Soviet are very much needed in this thread:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk2IKk4njVM

The "Natteravn" song does have a very PSB quality to it.

your high demands are strecthing my head.

but lets see if this hits the spot :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtxWOZy0BK0

synth line @ 40 seconds is very 80s.

vocals are almost hazel o connor-esque.

Agree about the one synth bit, but if you took the software out of this and replaced it with guitars/etc it would just be a Paramore song.

I'm almost starting to feel like an a-hole about this. Sorry, ILM.

dave balls latest project :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48RYVUB30BY

to be honest, i had high hopes for this when i heard about it, but given this is all i've heard so far, i'm holding back on any real judgement.

however, it is an update on the 80s/new wave sound, and given dave balls background, there is a chance its almost in the vicinity of your needs ?

That's good! Like a cross between Men Without Hats and Yello. Thanks.

no u-tube for this one. and no vocals. very 80s era cabaret voltaire-esque.

http://soundcloud.com/ireallylovemusic/puppy

Is Puppy the artist, or is that another Celine track?

nope.
its an unreleased demo by stephen hilton (free association/flykkiller/various soundtracks etc).

80s electro pop with a high degree of twee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf_ceahZHMU

i was thinking maybe Empire of the Sun, Walking on a Dream or the Delays, Nearer than Heaven - but probably those aren't literal enough.

The revivalist end of this stuff is the material that's the least exciting and interesting to me, by and large. There are great songs there obviously, but there's something about slavish recreation of a particular sound that means I can't really take the bands involved seriously.

Anika is a facsimile of the No-Wave sound but done really well.

french efforts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjNNnUj4zqg&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6xG0fspuhc

black strobe - me and madonna ? ... perhaps moving too far from the brief

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTteDuYU93o&feature=related

maybe too dancefloor for what you are after but the vocal is just right i reckon

possible ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=314Lj3z6f2k&feature=related

more of a new wave pop thing ... you did ask for guitars ... still can't quite believe these lot wasn't massive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x81eC-XIBTw

Feeling like this could've been a great deep cut on some Euro band's album that had terrible singles in 1983.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxnlKp7_A1Y

there's a new nicolas makelberge album out and it's really great if you like bright melodic synth music

how the hell has no one mentioned Kenna on this thread

a couple things:

Were there even synthpop bands with female vocals at all in the 80s?

it's been said more than once, but wtf, geir? eurythmics, yazoo, berlin, etc, etc, etc.

THE HUMAN LEAGUE

^ yeh, like geez louise

also 2nd the anika LP dog latin mentioned a while back. was seriously in love with it last december (still am, but haven't played it in a while).

stunning "masters of war" cover, album highlight imo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoa9GBHXDfo

the native cats - "1000 AD"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laPzqTmaVzk

(their "catspaw" is better, but no tubes)

the soft moon - "circles"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9t8Oex9BpQ

speaking of Kenna, here's his new single "Chains":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb3wKX1HEpA

les georges leningrad - "lollipop lady"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa6wrWM7nxQ

a provocation, think flying lizards...

zola jesus - "smirenye"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbXLC8esftI

not exactly "of the period," maybe, but clearly made of similar stuff

a frames - "black forest"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBdTtcX1sio

assuming brutalist post-punk counts?

I wonder if this one fits Johnny's criteria:
Surowa Kara Za Grzechy - "Kiedy śnię swój mały sen"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THklepDFOgY

spotify playlist featuring many of the tracks suggested here (decided to stick to the more synthy stuff tho, and whatever johnny didn't reject outright)

Weird, I didn't realize people had been posting stuff. Bookmark, you failed me!

For what its worth, last month's MNDR album Feed Me Diamonds is really solid, as in up there with the Niki & the Dove but not quite in Grimes or iamamiwhoami spheres for this kind of music in 2012.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwM0wN3dwj4

Yeah, I listened to it once on Spotify a while back after having followed all her pre-album tracks for the last year or two. I need to assess it in a vacuum, because it's just one of many things that sound exactly like it right now.

Oops, I wanted to post something a bit less tracky here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSm-HANfCHE

Another recent find: sister duo Zambri, who put me in the mind of 80s Danielle Dax:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0hPpKqAWnQ

phone tag y'all

http://vimeo.com/39380527

I'm so shocked no one's mentioned the Valerie Collective. It leans more NuRo but seems to fit with what everyone's been posting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUgvOoNqW2I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbEEpmrTyEE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bztAhtwBDeg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJTe2ReerSE

Really adoring this new Xeno & Oaklander piece, a 34 minute jam that never sags and is broader than their usual scope whilst still featuring most of their best qualities:

https://soundcloud.com/ghostly/xeno-oaklander-movements

Fake Tears - caught this excellent duo live a couple of times over the last year - two women doing soaring harmonies while poking away at matching microkorgs. Really nice. Now they have an album out on the otherwise hideous Mint Records. https://faketearsmusic.bandcamp.com/releases

How in the fuck have I never seen this thread yet?

*bookmarks*

i dig this Le Cassette album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCWjjyDd74c

https://telefuturenow.bandcamp.com/album/left-to-our-own-devices

thread needs Games/Ford & Lopatin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5scYXIvAr7w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5aWfkm-h6A

Yeah, I've definitely read a lot of praise about that Le Cassette album from various people who are heavily into the synthpop genre... I've given it a couple of listens myself and I like the production on it, but the vocalist definitely seems to have more than a smack of Rick Astley about him!

ha yeah the vocals are ridiculously mannered and they do get sort of tiresome after a while. probably would have been more digestible if they had cut 20 minutes from the album even though the whole thing's pretty consistent.

Dancing With Ruby - In The Interest Of Beasts

https://dancingwithruby.bandcamp.com/releases

Dancing With Ruby were formed from the ashes of Northern Kind, who put out three albums and sounded a bit like Yazoo (the music rather than the vocals) - the singer left, so the guy responsible for the music drafted in a different singer and formed a new act.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcoGU5i9E9s

There's also Future Perfect, from North Wales, another independent act that have a couple of albums out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAhJVGj_Fv8

https://futureperfect1.bandcamp.com/

There's also Parralox, from Australia, who are super-prolific and have about a zillion albums out and seem to have quite a large following. The guy behind it is a huge Human League fan and he's influenced by all the "classic" UK synth acts, so it's a bit of a shame that their music doesn't click with me for some reason.