In praise of synth pop and early electro dance music

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StuAff

Silencing his legs regularly
Location
Portsmouth
I've been an ardent Kraftwerk and JMJ fan since the 80s a few years after that NIN started me off on industrial. Eight years back I got a huge (300 or so discs, IIRC) number of EMI & associated electronic albums as a competition prize, star lot being a limited black box version of the Kraftwerk catalogue set (which I already had in the original white, natch). Flogged all the duplicates/stuff I didn't want, but kept some quality additions to the collection: a load of Devo, a load of Tangerine Dream, all the Eno ambient, plus Fad Gadget, Laibach, Client…just the other day I was listening to Edgar Froese's 'Aqua' and the masterpiece that is 'Alles is Gut'. Saw what proved to be the very last DAF show in London (RIP Gabi).
 

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
I’ve been listening to a lot of Yellow Magic Orchestra and Propaganda lately. It even inspired me to finally buy myself a synthesiser for a bit of lockdown noodling.
My fave album
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MontyVeda

a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
Ensure your son starts with the very first Synth hits.
1968 - Switched on Bach
1972 - Popcorn by Hot Butter

The reason all the notes are single tones is at the time the synth could only play a single note at a time.




Switched on Bach is an absolute gem... but going back a little further



And lets not forget the work of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which wasn't all about Delia Derbyshire

 

VelvetUnderpants

Über Member
Talk Talk produced some of the best albums of the synth pop era and certainly may favourite band of that genre.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI_c7hflLhY
 

Pale Rider

Legendary Member
The reason all the notes are single tones is at the time the synth could only play a single note at a time.

I expect Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer would disagree.

He was producing synthesised symphonic prog rock - or pretentious drivel, depending on your view - three years before Popcorn.

Having said that, he used dozens of pieces of equipment, so maybe each gadget box could only play one note.
 

Brains

Legendary Member
Location
Greenwich
Switched on Bach is an absolute gem... but going back a little further



And lets not forget the work of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which wasn't all about Delia Derbyshire



There is a reason why they were not hits ......:rolleyes:
 
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Brains

Legendary Member
Location
Greenwich
I expect Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer would disagree.

He was producing synthesised symphonic prog rock - or pretentious drivel, depending on your view - three years before Popcorn.

Having said that, he used dozens of pieces of equipment, so maybe each gadget box could only play one note.

The Polymoog was released in 1975, the first commercial synthesiser able to play more than one note.
(Although I'm sure someone will come along and say someone in a shed had one earlier)

A lot of Keith Emersons early stuff was played on a conventional church organ fed through various effects.
 
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