Vocoder was formed in 1981 in Zaragoza. Antonio Laval and Ildefonso Olarte, young high school classmates, together with Antonio Tenas, from Radio Juventud, formed this group inspired by the "Movida Madrileña" and the synth-pop. With the incorporation of Pilar Pellicer they have a positive response of Neon Danza (Discos DRO) that leads to record the Maxi 'What Happens Now' in 1984, 'Mindanao' in 1985 and the LP 'Vocoder' in 1987, published in several countries of South America.
They also take part in the compilations 'Hasta Aquí Hemos Llegado' and '¿Dónde Estabas Tú en el 87?', published in 1986 and 1993 respectively together with the most important groups of the Spanish scene at the time. They also participate in the T.V.E. shows "Tocata" and "La Bola De Cristal", a reference point for the music of the time. [SOURCE: GRUPOS NACIONALES NUEVA OLA 80]
Toiling Midgets is a rock band from San Francisco, California with roots in seminal San Francisco punk acts The Sleepers and Negative Trend. They were one of the first West Coast punk bands to experiment with dub and post-punk elements, and have been active on-and-off since 1979. The current lineup does not feature a vocalist, and the Midgets' instrumental rock is almost always defined as "undefinable."
The Midgets were formed in 1979 by drummer Tim Mooney, of The Sleepers and Negative Trend, and guitarist Craig Gray also of the local San Francisco band Negative Trend, guitarist Paul Hood from Seattle's Punk bands Meyce and The Enemy, and bassist Nosmo King (aka Johnathan Henrickson). Paul Hood had previously been a bassist in Seattle but picked up the guitar in the hopes of playing in a rock band (like his hero, Mick Ronson). The band added singer Ricky Williams to its lineup in 1981. The Midgets released their first album, 'Sea of Unrest' about this time, before Williams insisted that Nosmo King leave the band, leaving the band without a bass player. At the end of 1982 bassist Aaron Gregory joined the group, and Annie Ungar (Gun Club) joined as a third guitarist. The formation of the band released 'Dead Beats' on Joe Carducci's Thermidor label, which represented a return to the all-instrumental approach with which the Toiling Midgets has initially been formed. Toward the end of 1983, the band broke up. Hood moved to Seattle, Washington and Gray moved to the United Kingdom.
In 1989, the band reunited just before the Loma-Prieta earthquake. Returning to the instrumental format with which the band had begun, the band recruited singer Mark Eitzel of the American Music Club. The new group released a CD on Matador Records in June, 1992 (recorded in 1990) called 'Son' and had embarked on a U.S. tour earlier in May. However, on the eve of the tour Eitzel quit the band.
Without a singer, the band toured instrumentally. Williams did not reunite with the band in 1989, instead he moved into a Midget side project that included violinist Mary Redfield Wade and recorded an unreleased album in 1991. Shortly after rejoining the band, on November 21, 1992, Williams died due to respiratory complications and a mixture of drug and alcohol abuse. Shortly after the tour, drummer Tim Mooney and bassist Joe Goldring left the band (Mooney went on to join the American Music Club, which Eitzel was still fronting), and were replaced by drummer and long-time producer Tom Mallon and bassist Erich Werner, who had previously been in the Seattle bands Telepaths and The Blackouts.
Mallon and Werner are still part of the lineup today, along with Gray and Hood. Along the way, they picked up keyboardist Mark Sullivan. For a brief time during this period the band was joined by Paul Hood's sister, violist Joanna Hood (who had performed with the Loma Mar Quartet and Paul McCartney). The group went on an indefinite hiatus in 1997, but reformed in May, 2007. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Sixth Comm was founded in 1986 by Patrick "O'Kill" Leagas, former drummer and vocalist in the first incarnation of Death In June. The early Sixth Comm releases present a mix of melancholic synth pop, ritual sounds and experiments, as well as several reworkings of songs which Leagas had written for Death In June. Sixth Comm's imagery is heavily influenced by Norse mythology and magic. The band had sometimes the collaboration of appreciated pagan scholar and writer Freya Aswynn. Later on Leagas met dancer / singer Amodali and they started to collaborate under the name of Mother Destruction. [SOURCE: DISCOGS]
American hardcore band from Philadelphia, PA. Their first live shows and recordings date to 1980, with founders Damon and Glenn Wallis on guitars, Steve Marasco on bass, and J.R. Arters on drums. By 1982, the lineup of Ruin was largely settled: Vosco Thomas Adams on vocals, Cordy Swope on bass, the Wallis brothers on guitars, and Richard Hutchins on drums. Paul Della Pelle became the drummer when Hutchins left the band in 1984. All six members played the so-called ReUnIoN shows in 1996, 1997, 2013, and 2016.
As teenagers inspired by the eruption of the American and British punk movement, the Wallis brothers and Adams began writing songs together around 1978. Several songs that became fixtures of Ruin's performances date to this early period, including their revved-up covers of Leonard Cohen. In what became a hallmark of Ruin, the early Wallis-Adams songs, while loyal to the hyper-rhythms and aggressive delivery of early punk and later hardcore, were just as likely to evoke the melancholia of American folk music or the frantic jam quality of psychedelic rock. Incoming bassist Cordy Swope added elements of 1960s British invasion and American underground art rock to the band's mix of styles. This eclecticism became a defining feature of the Philadelphia underground music scene of the 1980s and beyond, an environment that contributed to Ruin's success. [SOURCE: DISCOGS]
Love of Life Orchestra was created by Peter Gordon (sax, keyboards, composition) and David Van Tieghem, a talented, smart-aleck avant-garde percussionist with ties to new music composer Steve Reich. Both have gone on to greater fame as elder statesmen of the downtown music scene in New York, but these early works stand as an important developmental chapter.
Collaborators on their recording 'Extended Niceties' have included Arto Lindsay and David Byrne. Early members of the band included Laurie Anderson (electric violin), Blue Gene Tyranny (keyboards), Ken Deifik (harmonica), Scott Johnson (guitar), Rhys Chatham (flute), Peter Zummo (trombone), Arthur Russell (cello), Kathy Acker (vocals), and Jill Kroesen (vocals). [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Featuring the core members Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey, the Liverpudlian synth pop group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark formed in the late '70s. Humphreys and McCluskey began performing together in school, playing in the bands VCL XI, Hitlerz Underpantz, and The Id. After The Id split in 1978, McCluskey was with Dalek I Love You for a brief time. Once he left Dalek, he joined with Humphreys and Paul Collister to form Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The group released its first single, 'Electricity', on Factory Records; the record led to a contract with the Virgin subsidiary DinDisc. Using their record advance, McCluskey and Humphreys built a studio, which allowed them to replace their four-track, and recorded with drummer Malcolm Holmes (formerly of The Id) and Dave Hughes (formerly of Dalek I Love You).
In 1980, the group released its self-titled debut album. 'Organisation' appeared the same year, which featured the U.K. Top Ten single "Enola Gay"; Hughes was replaced by Martin Cooper after its release. The band's next few albums -'Architecture & Morality' (1981), 'Dazzle Ships' (1983), and 'Junk Culture' (1984)- found the band experimenting with its sound, resulting in several U.K. hit singles. Recorded with two new members, Graham and Neil Weir, 'Crush', their most pop-oriented album, found more success in America than in Britain as the single "So in Love" hit number 26 on the charts. "If You Leave", taken from the "Pretty in Pink" soundtrack, was their biggest American hit, climbing to number four in 1986. 'The Pacific Age' was released the same year, yet America was the only country where it was popular. Shortly after its release, the Weir brothers left the band, followed by Holmes, Cooper, and Humphreys. McCluskey continued with the band, releasing 'Sugar Tax' in 1991; in the meantime, Humphreys formed The Listening Pool. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark returned with 'Liberator' in 1993. It was followed three years later with 'Universal', which saw Humphreys return for some co-writing credits. By the late '90s, McCluskey had moved into artist management, while Humphreys revived the OMD name for occasional shows. A full-blown reunion came in 2006, including both McCluskey and Humphreys, plus Holmes and Cooper. Initially, OMD toured around a full-album performance of 'Architecture & Morality', and released one of their performances as 'Live: Architecture & Morality & More'. While it may have seemed the band wasn't interested in making another studio album, OMD's first post-re-formation record 'History of Modern' appeared on the 100% label in 2010. 'English Electric' followed in 2013, with a guest appearance from Propaganda's lead vocalist, Claudia Brücken. Recording sessions for 'English Electric' proved to be quite arduous and left the band wondering if they would continue. The tour that followed proved to rekindle their desire to make more music and as soon as they were off the road they began writing songs for another album. Taking its name, and some inspiration, from Italian divisionist / symbolist painter Giovanni Segantini's work titled "The Punishment of Luxury", the band's 13th album was made by the duo of McCluskey and Humphreys and released by White Noise Records in September of 2017. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Usher (aka Anthon Shield) and Chelsea (aka Reed 013) met in 1977. They published books, organised exhibitions and performances and started up music with the band Metal Radiant (noise punk and Stooges’ spirit), then with Coit Bergman (more electronic and influenced by Suicide).
In 1981 they formed Norma Loy (Alan Vega himself gave them the name), around which evolved different musicians.
The band was connected to the french fanzine New Wave which set up a label, and launched a first EP called 'Romance'. In 1984, the band created their own label, CPM, wich developed and centralised all of the band different activities (musical and non musical: (photo)graphics, literature, video, dance etc., and manage all artistic production (recordings, artworks, sleeves...).
In 1986, Norma Loy included Buto dance and performed with the Fovea group and Sumako Koseki. Concerts were then conceived as multi-media performances, mixing musicians and dancers, videos and pictures. 1991 / 1992 were years of several changes (musicians, record and publishing companies), and in 1993 Norma Loy decided to suspend their activities.
Usher and Chelsea colaborated again on one-off projects such as making music for films as well as with the band Peep Hole, or the project Dyna. Usher also continued music on solo with his band Die Puppe. In 2006, Norma Loy reforms for a couple of live shows, until a brand new album was released in 2009.
Current line-up includes Chelsea (vocals), Usher (keyboards, vocals), Hervé Scavonne (bass guitar), Mika Chrome (guitars), Guillaume Labaume (drums) and Helene (Buto dance). [SOURCE: DISCOGS]
What happened to the members of Metabolist? No-one really knows, except for one solitary Cold Wave tinged minimal electronic LP from 1982, featuring Malcolm Lane, main protagonist of said post-prog starlets. This venture into the murky world of guitar and drum ethnically enhanced minimal electronica is really very good indeed.
It maintains the darkness of Metabolist's studio work, but stripped down even further to the bare bones,enhancing the misery and loneliness a notch. Music for anonymous urban bedsit dwelling. [SOURCE: DIE OR D.I.Y.]
Lives of Angels was the brainchild of Gerald O’Connell from London, England. In 1974 he worked at CBS studios mastering recordings from tape to disc. During the early and mid seventies Gerald worked on the startup of the Virgin label, and also met most of the leading figures in German electronic / rock music. People like Klaus Schulze, Amon Duul II, Can, Manuel Gottsching, Edgar Froese and so on. Their music was obviously years ahead of its time and he was quite inspired by it. By the end of the 70s Gerald was playing in bands. In 1977 he joined his first band Mystery Plane, led by school mate Mark Harvey and later joined by his soon-to-be wife Catherine. Due to a lack of resources it was impossible to do the kind of music that was in his head. So he built his own studio. Gerald branched off in 1980 forming Lives of Angels as an outlet for his own compositions. He recorded, produced and played all of the instruments on 'Elevator to Eden' between 1981 and 1983, using a primitive set up of drum machines, one keyboard, guitar and a tape echo.
Influenced by the Krautrock sounds of Neu! and Amon Duul II as well as US psychedelic rock, Lives of Angles crafted their own unique post-punk sound. Gerald says he has been influenced by, in no particular order: Van Dyke Parks; Tangerine Dream ('Zeit'); passing trains; The Grateful Dead (especially "Dark Star" in all its iterations); Ash Ra Tempel; Van Morrison ('Astral Weeks'); Steve Reich; Michael Rother; Albert Ayler; Neu! ("Hallogallo"); Glenn Branca; the sound of the city; Amon Duul II; distant playgrounds; late sixties San Francisco Psychedelia; Debussy; aircraft engines; Bulgarian folk song; Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan; Philip Glass; Wagner; Vaughan Williams; the dance bands of Zaire, especially Dr. Nico and Tabu Ley; Klaus Schulze; Schubert; Ornette Coleman; Arnold Bax; waterfalls; footsteps in cathedrals
'Elevator to Eden' was originally released in 1983 on cassette by Color Tape Records, the label started by Gary Ramon of Modern Art. Then in 1986 Fire Records remixed and re-released the album on vinyl but the band was not happy with the mixes.
By 1989 Gerald was so disheartened by the process of trying to make a living out of music that he gave up on it altogether. He started drawing and painting. Art and computers came together from 1996 onwards as he became immersed in the online / digital world. He still had a lot of music in his head, but didn’t give much thought to actually doing anything about it. Early in 2000 he remarked, in an offhand way, to a friend that he wished there was an equivalent to Photoshop for the digital manipulation of sound. The SoundForge software was all that was needed in order to re-awaken his active interest in music. With just a couple of thousand pounds worth of equipment (most of it the cost of a PC) it was now possible to have a setup that might have cost a half million twenty years previously. Gerald continues to make music to this day. [SOURCE: DARK ENTRIES RECORDS]
The birth of this project was in the early '80s. Koto was an italian synth group, with tracks conducted and arranged by Anfrando Maiola and produced by Stefano Cundari and published by Memory Records, Italy. Together they have created some great tracks like: "Chinese Revenge", "Japanese War Game", "Visitors", "Jabdah", and "Dragon's Legend".
In 1989, a German record label ZYX has bought rights to all Memory Records catalogue, allegedly including the rights to Koto music and name. They asked the Dutch producer Michiel van der Kuy to re-record and remix some of old Koto tracks. In 1990 original Koto member Anfrando Maiola came back with 'Champion's Cue', but the single didn't gather much popularity. In 2003 Maiola produce the single 'Planet X'.
Lately, Anfrando Maiola has won back the rights to Koto name, but the music he produces in 2003 is far from synthdance genre, it's rather in Techno and Dance style. Currently he is working with Alex Cundari and Roberto Bisca for new synth songs. [SOURCE: DISCOGS]
