The Endless House Foundation ‘Endless House’ (Dramatic, 2011)
You might have wished you were at Glasto 94. Or The Screen On The Green in 77. Or Hyde Park in 69 for that matter.
Tik and Tok ‘Intolerance’ (Survival, 1984)
In the early 1980s, robots were everywhere.
Cut And Paste ‘Come Unstuck’ (Freskanova, 1999)
While tidying out a dark corner of the home office recently, some boxes of old CDs revealed themselves, among them a hillock of promos from the late 90s.
The Magnficents ‘The Magnificents’ (KFM, 2004)
The first time I saw the Magnificents live, in the small, sweaty Wee Red Bar at Edinburgh College of Art almost two decades ago, it was an initiation in both electronic music, and the power of discovering a group that felt like they were truly your own – or at least, shared only with the 50 or so fiercely devoted fellow travellers in the room.
Geinoh Yamashirogumi ‘Ecophony Rinne’ (Invitation, 1986)
Parliament-Funkadelic. Underground Resistance. Wu-Tang. When you’re thinking about the great musical collectives of the past 50 years, your mind may not jump to the Japanese outfit Geinoh Yamashirogumi.
Pete Shelley ‘XL1’ (Genetic, 1983)
When Pete Shelley died in December 2018, a universal acknowledgement of just how much we’d lost soon followed.
Robert Marlow ‘The Peter Pan Effect’ (Energy, 1983)
The Gods of Pop work in decidedly mysterious ways.
Bill Nelson ‘The Love That Whirls (Diary Of A Thinking Heart)’ (Mercury, 1982)
The love affair started with ‘Flaming Desire’. The single got played on the radio at least once, possibly more, and had me swooning with its propulsive rhythms, swirling synths and croonerish vocal – a weirder version of Blancmange, Yazoo on speed.
Robert Palmer ‘Pride’ (Island, 1983)
Robert Palmer passed away in 2003 at the shockingly young age of 54. A massively underrated artist who wrote and produced so many great songs, the fact that he died without much comment or celebration of his life was a crying shame.
Edgar Froese ‘Kamikaze 1989’ (Virgin Schallplatten, 1982)
Tangerine Dream have released a lot of albums. The German electronic pioneers were so prolific that nobody quite knows how many LPs there are, though it’s thought to be around 160, all told.