What was the last album you listened to?

Artist: Art of Noise
Album: Daft
Genre: Synthpop, Experimental and New Wave
Year: 1986
Standout tracks: Love, A Time for Fear (Who's Afraid), Beatbox (Diversion One), Moments in Love, Close (To The Edit) and (Three Fingers) of Love

According to the inner booklet, Daft consists of 16 cuts which were made at the ZTT studios in 1983, and contains their entire debut album Who's Afraid of the Art Of Noise? (1984) along with several added numbers from their 1983 EP Into Battle with the Art of Noise, along with material from the infamous Moments in Love 12" single version. 

I guess it is more of a compilation album and one that was released in 1986 after the nasty break up of the original line up, where the remaining part ended up taking a far more "commercial" approach and the days as an faceless anti-group were now more or less gone.

01. Love - aka Moments In Love (Beaten) aka Quiet Storm Version and so on, this stunning piece of beauty is something that I "stumbled" upon when first getting into the band and where it just said "Quiet Storm Version" and underneath it said in the video info that it was a remix or a cover made in the late 90s by some unknown act. I had no idea it was actually made in 1983 by Art of Noise, and seems to have brought forward a lot of confusion during the years, specially thanks to Napster and Youtube where all these "different" names have been included.

So, thankfully I found out it was all along an original piece done by the same group who did Moments in Love, and the biggest surprise was how incredible it sounded, specially knowing now it closing in on 35 years old. It reminded me of those chill-out/ambient instrumentals which was to be a very popular thing to do back in the late 90s and early 00s, and the mother of a good friend of mine used to have all these compilation albums including songs and insrumental sounding very much alike what these guys did back in the early 80s, and it is no wonder why I thought Love was made in the 90s and not the 80s.
Anyway, it opens up with a very peaceful but melodic piano intro, then soon fades into a more heavy upbeat melody, backed up by a soothing and very dreamlike synth sound. What follows next is pretty much one of the most relaxing and finest instrumentals I have ever heard and one I hopefully never will get tired of hearing. 

02. A Time for Fear (Who's Afraid) - Opens up in a very chilling manner along with what I think is the voice of Fidel Castro, and before you known it is all suddenly ripped open by a very heavy and tight "war machine" sound, constantly backed with loud samples and industrial noise. Not a lot of time or space for anything resembling a "melody" but it sure is one that sounds fantastic for a piece which was done over 35 years ago.
There is however a little "time out" in there as well, but then all hell is set loose upon the listener by throwing everything at you and again it never once get "tiredsome" or boring, instead it keeps on dishing out little surprises and details throughout the run.
An incredible album cut and while maybe not something that I would call "easy" listening, it sure is of a very high standard.

03. Beat Box (Diversion One) - "Bum, bu-bum" Damn, this is solid gold. I know of course of this classic but it have been a long while since the last time I heard it, or this version (not the shorter one). So tight and catchy and it is not hard to hear how this stunning piece would go onto have a strong influence on the rising Hip-hop and rap music genres, as well as with many pop and music acts in the 1980s.
While almost 9 minutes might be a little "long", however this extremely fun filled and catchy monster tune never lets me down and keeps my interest up all the way through. Again, I am very impressed at how good this sounds compared to a lot of (not only Art of Noise later material) but many of the similar synthpop and music acts of the 1980s. The icing on the cake is the beautiful and soulful piano outro that begins at around 07:14 and which I would have gladly wanted to last for another 8-9 minutes.

04. The Army Now - Is a 2 minute "piece" with lots of random noises, beats and sampling stuff going crazy. I guess this must have sounded great back then but almost two minutes of time is, well for me it was more than enough after only 2 seconds. Not a great number, more annoying as hell but I guess that was probably a part of the bands comedy intention all along.

05. Donna - According to Wikipedia it contains a short sample of Donna Summer's State of Independence, but I would never have known if not for looking that up. Anyway, a far more melodic and very atmospheric instrumental which somehow brings Jan Hammer's Miami Vice sound to my mind. Not a great number, but somehow it do have that certain dynamic and catchy or quirky style to it.

06. Memento - Is another short piece that I guess is meant to work out like a mini picture/movie for the ears and mind, but for me this sounds very much like those hearing test where you are supposed to pick out certain sounds and noises and write it down afterwards.
For me, this one is just "background" noise, it give me nothing and yeah "great church bells" and all but this is one that I rarely bother with and I think even some of the member of the band later on spoke out that these more experimental cuts was very much a big hit and miss, but different strokes for different folks and all that.

07. How To Kill - Continues in a way with lots of samples and weird noises but is somehow more "melodic" than Memento.
There is more of a melody to be found here and it do have potential of something bigger but instead only ends up having me thinking that it kind of sounds a little like Boards of Canada at times or well the other way around I guess.

08. Realisation - Is yet another cut short instrumental piece lasting less than 1 minute and 40 seconds an while it is surely a little more upbeat than the one above, it is still not much less than another forgettable yet somehow atmospheric moment which sadly ends up closing this album off with.

09. Who's Afraid (of the Art of Noise?) - The title cut is not that far off the opening act in sound and while maybe not the most melodic piece, it sure do makes it up by delivering lots of hard hitting beats and industrial noises along with some spectacular use of samples.

10. Moments in Love - Then next up we have one of the finest and surely most romantic synthpop pieces ever made. It first appeared on their 1983 EP Into Battle with the Art of Noise and have been sampled and "borrowed" tons of times during the last three decades or more.
The lush and haunting sounds is extremely calming and I have no trouble understanding this is one those all time classic late night jams that is perfect for that special hour between two lovers and feels at times like the perfect soundtrack for dreaming. Beautiful but still do contains some more "quirky" moments in there as well.
Anyway, I have already mentioned it twice (I think) but it is very heard to believe that this was made around 1982-83.

11. Bright Noise - I am not even sure it is worthy to mention, I mean it lasts for less than five seconds! and before you know it

12. Flesh in Armour - One are suddenly into the heavy hitting industrial sounding monster that is Flesh in Armour. Again, as with Donna this is actually not all bad, but it suffers from not getting to stretchen out a little more, add a another minute or more and it could have more of a potential.

13. Comes and Goes - Continues the short sampling and feels like it could have been it into a horror film. Again, not very good but probably more fitting for those who wants "everything" these guys ever made in the studio.

14. Snapshot - Is a short instrumental piece but one which actually last a little longer on this record than on their debut album. Contains many rich "classic" 80s sounds along the way, but actually it do not improve upon the original all that much either. Okay, but not much else than that.

15. Close (To the Edit) - Yes, I do remember the video and I think I ended up there in the first place because I had just read that The Prodigy or Liam Howlett mentioned that he had sampled a part of the song and was a big fan of it. Anyway, I loved that music video, very funny and original and in a way it was my introduction to Art of Noise as I soon "stumbled" upon more of their work, and it is one of my few but very positive impulse "accidents".
Anyway, "HEY!" Close (To the Edit) is one hell of a funky number, and the bassline by Trevor Horn is something special and I was very surprised at how well he played this piece live, as it was as tight and powerful as the studio version.
Again, another very catchy and fun instrumental piece, filled up with one neat surprise after another.

16. (Three Fingers) of Love - aka Love (Beat) aka Moments in Love the slow version as with the album opener the closing number is also one which have brought forward lots of different names and mystery with it for decades, and again "thanks" to Napster and other downloading sites, it did not make it any easier learning who were really the original creators of it. But, at the end of the day it was again Art of Noise and what sounds like a heavenly piece of musical art that could have been made in the 90s or early 00s had already been done to perfection back in 1983.
This is the third version of Moments in Love which I think made it onto the 12" single release and contains an incredible calming and moving piano melody and yes a very slowed down one too, but it does not hurt it in any way at all, instead it finishes the album in an extremely elegant fashion and I actually find myself having a hard time deciding which of the Moments in Love versions I like the most, but I am grateful that it was finally given a worthy release that included them all.

Daft do come with some, well not exactly "great" shorter and at times annoying little "instrumental" pieces, but they are (thankfully) few and do not get in the way of what really matters, and that is that this compilation features some stunning and incredible pieces of beauty which was not given a CD release until around the early 00s and sadly that one has from what I understand gone out of production, but could be found for a reasonable price at several online record stores.
I think this is an solid upgrade on their debut album and it is probably the best, "Best of" CD they ever made.

8,5/10

Some I have been listening to recently.

The Gondoliers (Gilbert & Sullivan)--The Pro Arte Orchestra and the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus, conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent (1957)

Not bad at all, even if it's not quite up to D'Oyly Carte quality.

Rammstein with Sehnsucht

Artist: Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Album: Welcome to the Pleasuredome
Genre: Synthpop and New Wave
Year: 1984
Standout tracks: Welcome to the Pleasuredome, Relax, Two Tribes, Born To Run, Black Night White Light and The Power Of Love

It's been a little while since I last heard an album, as I kind of lost a little motivation/interest during the run but decided to pick up on again where I left with some more 1980s synthpop and new wave releases, and I am continuing the run with the first and second of what I believe is the only records Frankie Goes to Hollywood ever made.mI am and have never really been much of a fan of their music, as it often seemed to be too much focus on style and attitude and less on what's most important, the music. However, I have never heard either of their albums all the way through, which is kind of strange, as I have owned both of them since 2005 in my music collection and somehow never got around to do something about, well until now that is.

Considering how huge some of the hits of their first release were, I do not think I have ever heard them being played on the radio.
However my first "taste" of Frankie's sound came through playing one of my all time favorite video games in spring 2003 with the PS2 release of GTA: Vice City (both the game itself and the fantastic 7 or 8 disc CD collection score) which included most of the music and songs used so fittingly well into the game.
Here, I got hooked onto the irresisitble catchy number Two Tribes and which was one of the best cuts that made it onto the soundtrack, or so I thought.

Now I am curious to see if any of their albums have produced songs which can match the quality of that killer tune, which is going to be a hard one to beat.

01. The World Is My Oyster - This short opening number starts off in a rather bombastic manner. Very "operatic" and huge with some early hints of Relax being put into the cut as well. About halfway through it slows things down a bit, and again it points to Relax before it finishes into the second number which is.....

02. Welcome to the Pleasuredome - the title track which is anything but short, as it spreads out lasting almost 14 minutes of time. Here we are greeted by the sounds of what I guess is supposed to be "Eden" or paradise, or something close to it. Lots of animal noises along with a very soothing flute instrument.
Then after about 1 minute and 20 seconds things finally get off in a very promising way. The production by Trevor Horn is surely something else. Very powerful and big but it also makes lots of room for the finer details and improvisation. 
As we moves into 2 minutes and 30 seconds of time, things just keep on building upwards and I really like what I hear. 
Holly Johnson comes onto the scene and the song seems to have found its "home".

While not the most melodic number from this album, this is surely a very positive surprise for someone who more or less only knew them for their big hits and not much else. Sure, the song may last a bit far too long here and there, but it never once gets tiredsome or repetitive, instead it makes sure to always keep a few surprises showing up here and there and the standard have surely been raised far and high by this majestic piece of synthpop or synthprog music.

03. Relax - Is of course one I have heard a few times from before, but no matter how many of those it may have been, it is still a great 1980s classic which I am not sure how many times over have been remixed or covered either by the band itself or other artists. 
I find it hard to believe it took such a long while until the song became a hit but reading upon that Trevor Horn ended up remixing it several times before finally settling with the album version, I think he had a very big impact and why it may have needed a few "updates" before it got on with the public.

I remember hearing that one of the earlier versions lasted for almost 20 minutes of time, and did not exactly go down too well with the listeners but what a fantastic end result the band got when teaming up with such a talented and productive producer as Trevor.
Sadly this musical relationship did not end too well later on, but for the short amount of time during 1983-84 they created some truly stunning pop moments of their creative peak days.

04. War - Is the first of several famous songs that the band did their cover version take on, and while I can not say I have never been much of a fan of the original one, this updated release by Frankie is not all that bad. It is funky and again the production and music here is stellar, no question about that but the melody never really gets me going in the same way such as the two tracks above. 

05. Two Tribes - I actually kind of "lied" when I said earlier than I had not heard any of their music until 2003 and Vice City, but I do remember catching a hold of the classic music video of this fantastic number as a kid back in the early 90s when MTV were, well still very much alive and kicking. 
The hilarious video of Ronald Reagan and Konstantin Chernenko going at each other like it was a cagematch on Wrestlemania was very cool to watch and the music fitted so well into the scenery as well. Not much to say of this absolute 80s classic beside that it is one I never grow tired of and always makes me think of GTA Vice City and how awesome it was to play the game for the first few weeks, and now 15 years later on I am still a regular "tourist" who tries to stop on by several times a year.

06. (Tag) - Is a very short number which features what sounds like Sir David Attenborough talking about orgasm with some heavy musical outdrop in the background.

07. Fury - Another cover version, short and moody but nothing special really.

08. Born To Run - Probably one which do not need much an explanation, cover yes but a really good one. After some short and not exactly memorable numbers, this is what the album needed now. Energy and lots of life!

09. San José - Again, a cover version and one which takes things very slowly and brings the listener onto a quiet and nice little vacation. While not up there with the cover version above, this was quite a nice surprise.

10. Wish the Lads Were Here - A very "hyperactive" track. Maybe a little too much for my part and surely the weakest cut on the record, or at least compared to the ones above, and that is even including the short numbers.

11. The Ballad of 32 - This one caught me a little off-guard the first time I heard it, but it is a strangely sounding and guitar driven number which actually makes me think of Pink Floyd, especially around the time of the Wish You Were Here era.  

12. Krisco Kisses - Speeds things up again with a very energy filled cut but for all it has got going it is a little too uneven to really go anywhere, or so I think.

13. Black Night White Light - A very good number, and again a nice little surprise and one which sounds like it could have been taken right out of David Bowies Let's Dance record. Funky, moody and comes with an sensual and very lively sound that feels still very fresh and like it could fit perfectly into the whole "sophisti-pop" scene/movement of the 80s. Surely one of this albums better surprise songs.

14. The Only Star in Heaven - Is another one of these sometimes annoyingly and very hyperactive pop numbers which feels a little out of place, specially when coming up after such a good song as the one above. 
It is not bad, just not all that good and feels more like a filler and not a killer.

15. The Power of Love - Here we get the very best of Trevor Horn who seems to save the best for last and end up bringing out all his trickery and magic to close the album off with what has to be one of the most stunning pieces of pop music ever made during the 80s.

16. Bang - Oh, well it wasn't over yet, as the record end up having one very short final act which seals it all off but in a rather annoyingly way as well and again all these short cuts do absolutely nothing for me, and they should have just left it off with the majestic ballad instead of this less than 1 minute and 10 seconds of "nothing".

Looking up on the names and very, very talented group of people involved in the making of this record, I think it is no wonder how great the music and production sounds, still very fresh and full of energy and ideas all coming together to create some of the finest pop songs of the british synthpop and new wave scene.
However, not even the brilliant production of Trevor Horn could save the lesser moments, which there sadly is a few of on the album, as there are just a bit too much fillers which take up far too much space, which is kind of annoying, specially considering that the album has a lenght of almost 64 minutes of time and it could so easily have dropped a few of the forgettable ones and the album as a whole would surely have improved much more as an result.

I really wanted to rate it higher, but I cannot ignore all of the unnecassery stuff which takes place on it and as an album I am not sure if I will re-visit it anytime soon, however the standout songs are of such high quality that I know I will be keeping the record in my collection for years to come, and enjoy listening to them over and over. 
All in all, far away of being this "masterpiece" of pop music which some seems to label it as, but it do come with several numbers which could easily be described as pop masterpieces for sure, but as an album clocking in on over an hour, it is just too uneven to hold my interest all the way through and no matter how great Trevor Horn's producer skills are, it is still not enough to get more than a good (rating) but could have been so much better: 

6,5/10

Artist:  Soft Cell
Album: Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
Genre: Synthpop and New Wave
Year: 1981
Standout tracks: Sex Dwarf and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

Another impulse buy I made around 2005-06 and one which I never got around to hear all the way through eiter.
Of course I knew very well some of its bigger hits, but the rest have been long forgotten.
I know not much of this synt duo, beside that it was to be their debut album and it seems to be hailed as a classic, and where even some describe it as one of the best albums of the early 80s. 

Marc Almond I think went solo a few years after but anyway since I only own this record I will go in and hope for the best as I usually try to do as best as I can.

01. Frustration - A rather "chaotic" album opener which is introduced by an angsty scream by Almond followed by a somewhat fast-slow paced "disco" melody. 
The sound feels at times like a sleazy mix up between Suicide and early Depeche Mode. 
However the song or lack of a great melody soon gets a little on my nerves, as well as the slightly too vocal singing by Marc, which could have taken a little break every now and then. Not a great song by any means.

02. Tainted Love - Then follows up next one of the biggest early 80s synthpop hits (for my part one which is a little bit too overplayed) and it still is getting lots of airplay and being used in everything from TV commercials, movies, shows and I think even some video games as well. Yup, a classic, no question about it but still one of those big hits that I have never really been all too fond of. Not bad, just one of those that never really done anything for me musically.

03. Seedy Films - Is up next and is a more slowed down piece, however again the vocal part by Almond soon gets a little tiredsome and when the melody is not all that great it soon ends up as a rather forgettable number which brings with it little to boost my interest if any.

04. Youth - Finally we get something promising, this is a very atmospheric and nicely played out song, but once more I am not at all impressed by the vocal and singing by Marc which interferes too much with the music and I just have to try and find a way of putting up with it for now.

05. Sex Dwarf - This one is another classic early 80s synth song which I actually first heard through the german dance act Scooter when they covered it on their 2000 album release Sheffield, which was not exactly a great album but they have a nice way of including 1980s tributes which are often not all that bad.
The original is of course on a whole other level and the word sleazy is perfectly fitting to this one.
One of the longest cuts off the album but never gets boring. Wihtout a doubt the best cut up till now, not that that competition was much to brag about, but this really is a great song, no question about it.