Archive for the ‘1982’ tag
Robot Rock du Jour: The Neon Judgement – The Fashion Party (1983)
If Robert De Niro were a robot and went on a rampage, this is the song that would be playing in the background. Hyperactive, aggro-nerd breakdance music at its finest. The Fashion Party is some hard-rocking Electronic Body Music from Belgium off the Cockerill-Sombre 12″. Love that post-punk guitar around 2:50!
SCHEMATICS: Videos for TV Treated and Tomorrow in the Papers… Read the rest of this entry »
Robot Rock du Jour: Thomas Dolby – She Blinded Me With Science (1982)
This video was an integral part of my nerdlinghood. Visually rich to the nth degree: Besides the sweet sidecar motorcycle and lunatic scientists, you have the superhot lab assistant, Ms. Sakamoto, who doubles as a cello. Classic nerd track. BTW, Dolby has been the Musical Director of the TED conferences since 2001.
SCHEMATICS: Album artwork and other gems from Dolby… Read the rest of this entry »
Snort: Phoebe Cates – Paradise (1982)
Despite becoming the center of millions of pubescent fantasies that very same year, Phoebe’s Paradise didn’t quite launch her musical career into orbit. Strip the crappy music, run the vocals through a vocoder, add some beats, change that dress to skin-tight silver lamé and…VOILA!!…instant classic.
Party Time: Saturday Robot Party @ The Idle Hour (Baltimore, MD)
VIGR is in the house. 4+ hour rare vinyl set. Need I say more? Hope to see you there! I’ll try to keep track of the setlist…
Keyser Söze Alert: Trophy – Slow Flight (1982)
This unstoppable Italo electro-disco jam from 1982 spawned the fabled Fuzz Dance label. Italo master Maurizio Dami (aka Alexander Robotnick) was heavily involved with this label as both a producer and remixer. Does anyone out there know if he produced this track, too?
Here’s the spacey instrumental version ripped from my vinyl copy.
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SCHEMATIC: Record scans and Alexander Robotnick dropping some disco knowledge… Read the rest of this entry »
Keyser Söze Alert: Gay Cat Park – I’m a Vocoder (1982)
Wait…Who? Don’t let the peculiar name distract you from the raw genius of this track. This masterpiece marked the genesis of Italo thoroughbred label Il Discotto Productions in 1982. By the way, you can learn a ton about vintage vocoders by watching our vocoder youtube playlist or checking out our friends over at Matrixsynth.
SCHEMATIC: More vocoder intel…
Keyser Söze Alert: Los Autómatas – Viaje Espacial (1982?)
100% addicted to this song. Which is a serious problem, because other than this single, solitary video, I can find no trace of the band’s existence. Anywhere. Are vinyl pressings gathering dust somewhere in Argentina? A handsome reward for any information leading to my successful capture of this track on wax.
SCHEMATIC: The real story…
Robot Rock du Jour: Aviador Dro (1980 + 1982)
I don’t know why I’m on this jamón synth kick lately, but after you peep these vids, I doubt you’ll blame me!
Madrid-based Aviador Dro recorded some of the most leftfield minimal wave synth punk ever made. The following videos are from their obscure period in the early 1980s. Check those pre-acid synth lines! To top it all off, their penchant for industrially-themed costumes gave the music a whack post-apocalyptic feel. Substantially all their music in the 1980s was published on their own label, DRO. Enjoy!
El Nascimiento de la Industria (1982) off the DRO compilation “Navidades Radiactivas”
SCHEMATIC: Four more videos to up your nerd experience points…
Keyser Söze Alert: Iko – Iko ‘83 LP (1982)
Virtually Nothing is known about this Montréal group, but I’ve deduced what is going on here:
Iko was an android trio from the future that traveled back in time to 1982 in order to learn what it meant to be human in the decades just preceding the merger of man and machine. Archetypal and powerful nerd music.
Only 500 copies of this LP sold. So if you account for DJ/radio promos, maybe 1,000 were even pressed, making this gem truly obscure. The $100+ price tag for this album is one of the deals of the century.
‘83 is presented here in its entirety, ripped from my mint copy at 24bit/96kHz and converted to MP3 at 196 kbps for optimal sound quality. I also found and posted two unreleased tracks (9 & 10) for posterity.
SCHEMATIC: MP3s, album review and cover artwork…
Keyser Söze Alert: Fric – Erreur Erotique (1982)
A synthy, robo-erotic slow jam created by two guys that look (and sound) like perverted middle school math teachers. Sung in Québecois French and vocoded to perfection. Need I say more? Pretty robo-heady lyrics, so check out the SCHEMATIC section for the original French and English translations.
Here is their (not so) live performance on Musi-Video from the early 1980s.
SCHEMATIC: Hot cover art, original record scans, Montréal distributor’s sticker and LYRICS… Read the rest of this entry »