Synth and synth pop...

donegaLroad wrote: »

Gary Numan had a cult following and was making enough money at that stage not to give a damn. Then he became a pilot.
*did you know that Midge Ure from Ultravox, did a stint with Thin Lizzy on lead guitar?

And someone mentioned Visage which was a band Ure co founded.

JupiterKid wrote: »

Kraftwerk started it all back in 1974 with their epoch making album Autobahn. I can't link it here on my phone but feel free to do so.

To think that when Abba were topping the charts with Waterloo , Kraftwerk were feeding their voices through synthesizers is nothing short of amazing. Yes, there had been synths used in the early 70s but these were used to embellish songs whereas Kraftwerk used the synth as their primary instrument and inspired a generation of synthpop artists to follow in their footsteps.

Jean Michele Jarre's Oxygene (1976) was also very important.

Stevie Wonder's Innervisions (1973), considered his finest work, also featured synthesizers prominently.

In the past 20 years, artists such as Air, Boards Of Canada and Goldfrapp have advanced and reinvigorated synthpop.

As you might have guessed, I adore synthpop.

i can't believe no one has mentioned Mr Vangelis from Greece.

At the same time as Jean Michel Jarre was coming out with Oxygene, Vangelis came out with Albedo 0.39 in 1976 which had Pulsar ?



He brought out Spiral in 1977.
Of course he went on to Bladerunner and Chariots of Fire soundtracks.

BTW at one stage he was tipped to replace Rick Wakeman in Yes.

He was of course to go on and work with Jon Anderson.




Also someone mentioned Together in Electric Dreams and Conor mentioned Moroder in first post.

Giorgio Moroder (a bit like Trevor Horn - Buggles/ABC/Frankie) was involved in a huge amount of work in the late 70s, early 80s as both writer and producer.
Of course Moroder is still around and worked with Daft Punk a few years ago.
He seems to be linked to loads of Olympic themes and of course did Midnight Express, Top Gun, Scarface.

This is one of Giorgio's biggest early contributions ....
Never hear it nowadays.

There is a synth revival on youtube at the moment.

I think it has been kick started in part by movies such as Bronson, Driver, The Guest and Cold in July which have used a heavily synth based soundtrack.



John Carpenter's movie themes were an obvious influence on style of The Guest.



I love some of the new retro wave albums on youtube at the moment. Soooo cool

This track from Cold In July was outstanding.

Watch top of the pops on bbc tv on thursdays 7.30 .
they are in 1985,i think
the prime of 80s synth pop .
i think the 80s were the best time for music at least on totp.
i think any sky box can get bbc 4 , as a freeview channel .