Archive for the 1983 tag

Naked Eyes: Voices In My Head

Though better known for the singles "Always Something There To Remind Me" and "Promises, Promises", Naked Eyes have plenty of equally good output that tends to go unnoticed. "Voices In My Head" is the opening track on the same 1983 release as those hits, Burning Bridges. In this digital music era where people rarely listen to full albums anymore, it's been largely forgotten.

The English duo were originally in the band Neon. In the early '80s, Neon split; Pete Byrne and Rob Fischer then formed Naked Eyes while members Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal became Tears For Fears. Still making music and touring, Naked Eyes will release their latest album, Piccadilly, this summer.

official site
available on their Best Of complation

Patrick Wolf: Hard Times + Damaris

Patrick Wolf was born in 1983 to famous musicians Siouxsie Sioux and Adam Ant. Shortly after his birth, he was possessed by the ghost of Klaus Nomi. He currently resides in some sort of weird time warp where he's stuck in mid-'80s England.

Ok, so I don't know that any of that is true. BUT IT'S POSSIBLE. Siouxsie and Adam are old enough and Nomi died the same year he was born. Also, his biography is SO vague: "Patrick Wolf was born in St Thomas' Hospital, South London, into a creative family."
"Creative family"? Mmmhmmm. And what kind of kid is making theremins at 11?! Maybe they just hid him from the press. There's really no other reasonable explanation for this guy's existence.

I present to you two examples that I believe back up my claims:

Both tracks are from his 1985 2009 release The Bachelor.
Buy The Bachelor on Amazon.com
official website

Cybotron: Cosmic Cars + Model 500: Night Drive / Movement Detroit May 29-31

Movement 2009 photo by donte

If you go back far enough in electronic music, it all sort of starts to sound like one genre--and in the very early '80s, it sort of was. Before Justice and The Presets, THIS was the original electro. Cybotron was the first moniker of Richard Davis and none other than Juan Atkins, a name I can only hope you recognize as, you know, one of those Detroit guys who created a type of Kraftwerk-sampling futuristic electronic robot music that he called "techno". After founding the label Metroplex in 1985, he started using the name Model 500. In these tracks, you can hear both a European new wave influence and the infancy of the titan that came to be known as Detroit techno.

Movement, more commonly known as the Detroit Electronic Music Festival [or DEMF], comprises of five stages with almost 100 performers as an annual celebration of both the city's influence on and the future of electronic music. Acts range from legendary producers such as Atkins to up and coming musicians and DJs, turning downtown Detroit into a massive party as 80,000 people from all walks of life listen to music and dance for three days. It's an amazing experience I'd recommend to anyone who isn't put off by the sound of a drum machine.

Juan Atkins will be performing live as Model 500 at Movement on May 31. See the Paxahau website more information.

Buy Juan Atkins' music on Amazon.com
Juan Atkins on MySpace

Note: Whether you've never been to Detroit or a seasoned DEMF-goer, if you're planning on attending, I highly recommend reading this article from our friends at JustQualityMusic: JQM Guide To Getting Down At Movement 2010, with festival tips and a list of must-see Movement sets, outside events, and Detroit attractions.

Fun Boy Three: Our Lips Are Sealed

Consisting of members of a then defunct Specials, Terry Hall, Neville Staple and Lynval Golding formed Fun Boy Three in 1981. A mixture of sounds and textures, the Fun Boys spent their time recording with Fun Girls Bananarama and writing with Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's.

Though perhaps made more famous by the Go-Go's a year earlier, Fun Boy Three released their own version of the hit "Our Lips are Sealed" in 1983. On a personal level, it remains the essential version of the song with carefree vocals and laid-back instrumentation - the perfect touch for the lyrical content that the Go-Go's version lacked.

"Our Lips are Sealed" is available on both the FB3 album Waiting and various Best Of compilations.

The Three Wise Men (XTC): Thanks for Christmas

What says Happy Holidays better than a New Wave Christmas?! Classic New Wave at its very finest, XTC released this 1983 one-off pseudonymous single billed as the Three Wise Men and called the little ditty "Thanks for Christmas."

With all the trumpets, bells & whistles you would come to expect from your typical Christmas tune, the boys bring their unique flavor to make "Thanks for Christmas" their own and recognizable as XTC. You can't fool us, Three Wise Men! And WOW! A Christmas song that doesn't make you want to light the mistletoe on fire! JOY!

This song and other rarities by XTC are available on their collection Rag 'n' Bone Buffet.

Amazon's XTC Store
official website

Deux: Game And Performance

A lot of people get really upset when I say this, but I swear it's true; most of what we play at Atomic isn't technically new wave. Depeche Mode? Synthpop. Duran Duran? New Romantic. Joy Division? Post Punk. I could go on and on, but we're not that picky, and most people would probably be bored to tears with a pure new wave night anyway. When I think of real new wave, I think of the simple electronic pop that could be defined in no other way. I think of M, or even Devo, but personally I lean towards the darker stuff. And no one, I mean no one, did this better than the French in the early '80s.

Deux is a great example of this.  The duo formed when Gérard Pelletier moved to Lyon and met art school student Cati Tete [her artwork is described as violent and grotesque, but sadly I couldn't dig any of it up online].  Their music is clearly heavily inspired by Kraftwerk and in current contexts is easily confused with Ladytron.  Though they seem to have done rather well in France and at one point had their own imprint, the label went under after only a few years. After an attempt at more mainstream singles in the early '90s, Deux ceased to release anything.  Too bad; I'd love to hear what they'd make now if they returned to the studio.

"Game and Performance" was their 1983 debut single, a pop song left naked, stripped of all but minimalist lyrics and melodies. Find it on their career-spanning 2006 compilation Agglomerat.

Available through the Deux official website.

The Assembly: Never Never

If you are into New Wave in any way, shape or form, chances are the name Vince Clarke is very familiar to you. You knew him on Depeche Mode's Speak & Spell. You knew him from two Yaz (or Yazoo) records. You certainly knew him as a partner in crime for Andy Bell in Erasure. But did you know him in the Assembly?

The Assembly were a short-lived project started by Clarke with producer Eric Radcliffe, following closely after the split of Yaz in 1983. Their original idea was to have a new singer on every track but only ended up releasing one single entitled "Never Never." The singer chosen for the track was Feargal Sharkey of the Undertones - quite a departure from the sound of that band and an unlikely match for Clarke, but somehow it worked. The result was a little piece of magic which still remains a perfect (synth)pop song, similar to that of Yaz's "Only You."

"It never happens to me, maybe that's the way my life was meant to be..." Now, what new waver can't relate to that?!