And The Electric Eighties Just Keep On Comin'

When I posted the alt Trans last sunday, I didn't think I'd follow it up with another Neil Young post, nor that it would align completely with this, our next installment of the granddaddy of 'em all (series here on One Buck Records, that is), All Pearls, No Swine. This volume is not only set in the 80s, but like the slow riders before them, it is a special themed edition of All Pearls, No Swine. In this case: synths, baby, synths! Condisering that the musical directions on my 80s-set APNS volumes seemed to go further into all kinds of directions, I thought I'd group the electro- and synth stuff together in one handy volume. And so this is it. 

A lot of these are again from obscure releases - yet the album also contains a hit, though I didn't realize how big of a hit that was when I compiled this. That track, Freur's "Doot Doot" is also proof that the details of when you consciously hear a song for the first time matter: I was visiting family, in a rented appartment, with nothing on TV worth watching, so I put on satellite radio and said there in the half-dark living room, when suddenly this little synth intro and those little 'doot' 'doot' came swirling around me. I was mesmerized by that song's opening. I realized only later that I already had the song on one of those 80s hits compilations you had to pick up in the old days before finding everything (or almost) on the internet, and for years, but it never registered. It was this very specific listening situation that made me fall in love with Freur's "Doot Doot" and that's why it's here. 

Oh, okay, you guys...I see you got that 80s thing down pat...

There are some other somewhat known names here: The Psychedelic Furs sneak in with the US Remix of "Love My Way" and if you know the origins of your beloved mid-80s AOR bands you might remember that Mr. Mister's Richard Page and Steve George started as a synth-pop outfit called Pages who are represented with "Automatic". You might also remember 'The White Zulu' Johnny Clegg from South Africa, who had a couple of international hits, the biggest of which is probably "Scatterlings Of Africa", also featured on the soundtrack for Rain Man. Here he's climbing "Kilimanjaro" with his first group Juluka, notably the first interracial group out of South Africa. And finally, Johnny Stew strikes again. I already highlighted John Stewart's new wave adventures, but he really throws on the sequencer and dips fully into synth rock with his "Home From The Stars" whose opening sounds like a lost Vangelis track. 

But the rest of the album is, as it should be, filled with virtual unknowns, one-off adventures, private press adventurers or never-was's (as opposed to has been's). Some of this is what some would call outsider art, like Bryce Wemple's DIY synth rock on "Scene 58", Apeiron's "Dancing Spirits" (which was only ever issued on casette tape) or Michael Iceberg with his, uh, idiosyncratic cover of "Here Comes The Sun". There is also a distinct World music aspect here: Canadian synth poppers Strange Advance are back with "She Controls Me", and, from the ranks of the amaeurish and completely unknown, we also have German electropop outfit Caraganda with the weirdly cheery "Living In A Sect". There's French coldwave band Coldreams with the icy "Eyes" and Kiwi band Dragon who were big in Australia with mainstream-friendly pop rock in the late 1970s, but dip more than a toe into synth/new wave rock on 1983's "Rain", also your kick-ass opener du jour, and, as something of a series tradition, we end things with a longer track, the DIY synth ambient piece "Dancing Spirits" by Apoeira. 

We're coldwave, man, so b/w pics and no one looks at the camera, alright...stare dreamily into the distance, guys...

So, there's tons of things to discover here, if you are somewhat willing to let the synth sounds of the 8às in your heart. And why wont you? If Uncle Neil could do it, if ol' Johnny Stew could do it, so can you...