80's synthpop classic Wall of Voodoo

[spirals]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0OEKhwdxNU

you know there was this side of synthpop too. DEVO, WOV and some others being the weirder, darker, more cerebral and sarcastic side of the 'new wave' music.

[Roddimus]

i heard somewhere this was the first real hit to use a drum machine. i love that track, it was the only really good one i ever heard from wov tho. devo has a new album out btw. it's really, really good.

[Headphones Dude]

Sorry Rod, but Sly & The Family stone had WOV beat by at least 6-8 years with "If you want me to stay"......

[Headphones Dude]

If you're after a little "darkness" in your new wave 80's synth pop, try

Depeche Mode "A Broken Frame" -Vince Clarke quits to form Yaz/Yazoo, but DM soldier on as a 3 piece, but Martin L Gore has to write the songs from now on. It's not the happy album like their first, but it does sort of set the tone for their trademark sound

Soft Cell "The Secret Art of falling apart" -SC delve deeper into drug induced 80's synth paranoia, but it's not quite the classic "Non-stop Erotic Cabaret" was. But it does get dark in a almost goth way with this one...

David Bowie "Scary Monsters"-For a famous rock star to turn his back on punk claiming "rock is dead", and going off with Brian Eno for his german synth trilogy, and returning to catch up to the sound that was once idolizing him and now copying him, Bowie sort of had to compromise on his stance that rock was dead. But he made a album that incorporated the eno trilogy into punk/new romantic new wave (Visage/Duran Duran) that would go on to infulence Trent Reznor years later with this album.

John Foxx "Metamatic" -Former Ultravox lead singer quits to go solo (while his former bandmates soldier on to be more successful with Midge Ure taking over vocal duties), John Foxx makes a simple synth album with just a few synths, a roland cr-78 drum machine, a bass guitar and some effects, but creates lush pads set to cryptic robotic lyrics/melodies about burning cars, architecture, and other odd subjects, but probably sets the tone to show how you almost don't need a band if you have the ideas and the technology to get it recorded. I don't think it really had any hits (even in the UK), but it's a great album nonetheless.

Propaganda "A secret wish" Whoever describes these 4 germans as "Abba from hell" probably had it right. They were a hybrid new wave/industrial band that were signed to former Buggles Trevor Horn's ZTT label. I'm pretty sure they used some fairlight sampling synth in this album for many of the industrial noises, time stretched samples, and probably got the ball rolling for Art Of Noise to almost copy what Propaganda accomplishes in this album. But most of the other 3 germans in the band quit after it, leaving only one member left.

[spirals]

those are some good picks there headphones dude, and a post much more informative and useful than normal for this message board.
the first xtc album 'black sea' good too.
@ roddimus- i would disagree, wall of voodoo's 1st 3 releases (when stan ridgway was the frontman) were all fantastic. really original and mostly dark, weird and humorously malevolent.
the new devo album doesn't cut it for me.
are we not men, duty now for the future, freedom of choice, the new traditionalists rocked and then they were creatively done and never got it back. of course i understand this is just my opinion but those 1st 4 albums were SO good.

[Roddimus]

are we not men, duty now for the future, freedom of choice, the new traditionalists rocked and then they were creatively done and never got it back. of course i understand this is just my opinion but those 1st 4 albums were SO good.
i'm not too into much of what they put out after freedom of choice, but imo something for everybody is the closest they've come to touching what they accomplished during their heyday. "don't shoot," "mind games" and "what we do" rekindle much of the sarcasm and pessimism that seemed lacking from most of their sillyness in the mid to late 80s. the fact that our downfall is more apparent now than it was during their formative years seems to have given them a renewed sense of purpose.
anyone see devo on futurama recently? so many friggin' subgenius references in that one!

[Nukegrrrl]

If you're after a little "darkness" in your new wave 80's synth pop, try

Depeche Mode "A Broken Frame" -Vince Clarke quits to form Yaz/Yazoo, but DM soldier on as a 3 piece, but Martin L Gore has to write the songs from now on. It's not the happy album like their first, but it does sort of set the tone for their trademark sound

Soft Cell "The Secret Art of falling apart" -SC delve deeper into drug induced 80's synth paranoia, but it's not quite the classic "Non-stop Erotic Cabaret" was. But it does get dark in a almost goth way with this one...

David Bowie "Scary Monsters"-For a famous rock star to turn his back on punk claiming "rock is dead", and going off with Brian Eno for his german synth trilogy, and returning to catch up to the sound that was once idolizing him and now copying him, Bowie sort of had to compromise on his stance that rock was dead. But he made a album that incorporated the eno trilogy into punk/new romantic new wave (Visage/Duran Duran) that would go on to infulence Trent Reznor years later with this album.

John Foxx "Metamatic" -Former Ultravox lead singer quits to go solo (while his former bandmates soldier on to be more successful with Midge Ure taking over vocal duties), John Foxx makes a simple synth album with just a few synths, a roland cr-78 drum machine, a bass guitar and some effects, but creates lush pads set to cryptic robotic lyrics/melodies about burning cars, architecture, and other odd subjects, but probably sets the tone to show how you almost don't need a band if you have the ideas and the technology to get it recorded. I don't think it really had any hits (even in the UK), but it's a great album nonetheless.

Propaganda "A secret wish" Whoever describes these 4 germans as "Abba from hell" probably had it right. They were a hybrid new wave/industrial band that were signed to former Buggles Trevor Horn's ZTT label. I'm pretty sure they used some fairlight sampling synth in this album for many of the industrial noises, time stretched samples, and probably got the ball rolling for Art Of Noise to almost copy what Propaganda accomplishes in this album. But most of the other 3 germans in the band quit after it, leaving only one member left.May I add Duran Duran's "The Chauffeur" to the list?

[Headphones Dude]

Sure, but I was mainly going after albums of material. But I do agree, DD's "The Chafuer" is a great dark new wave single. But I don't think Duran Duran ever decided "Let's make a dark album". I don't think that was a risk they could take when they were mega popular in the late 70's/early 80's, and I don't think they got around to it in the late 80's either, since they were kind of going after a more "soul/r & b" sound.

And spiral, yeah, since most of these albums are old classics, you have to take them at face value for their times. Mtv helped get these bands airplay/exposure/album sales, but not all new wave bands were ever going to be the same. Some were out to be weird (Devo, Art of Noise, Wall Of VooDoo, etc), some were out to get their 15 minutes while they had it (A Flock of Seagulls, Greg Kihn band, BowWowWow, etc), and some explored a darker sound and either grew massive (The Cure, Depeche Mode, early New Order (anything before Blue Monday), until 80's hair metal bands killed it all off for the rest of the bands 85/86ish in the US, and Chicago House/Detroit Techno in the UK. But without british/US new wave, I don't think there really would have been a techno/trance/house/drum n bass/dubstep sound we all know today. You just have to accept the truths that because synthesizers, MIDI, MTV, and 80's pop culture bred what we think/remember of that time. Until it got old and overexposed for some people who never enjoyed it. Alot of people weren't used to hearing synth pop tunes, and wanted to listen to Bruce Springsteen or John Mellencamp rock arenas instead. So new wave music just kind of evolved into "alternative" music by spreading it's wings into goth, 80's punk/guitar bands, shoegazing, indie, and it kind of went underground unless you were into obscure bands until they eventually went mainstream in the 90's. (R.E.M. might be a good example)

Anyway, I have to remind myself that some people on this board don't remember this time because they weren't born yet. So to recommend 30 year old albums is like trying to transport them to a time where cell phones didn't exist, computers had sucky graphics and floppy discs, and more often or not, the music at that time was breaking new ground by not copying blues/rock that was recycled from the 60's/70's, but exploring each new synthesizer or drum machine that they had in their arsenal to make their own "sound", and avoid sounding the same to other bands/acts. Today, I hear alot of great electronic music, but usually it's just trying to sound like whatever is popular because it makes money, gets to be the tunes we usually hear when we go out clubbing/raving, and it usually can be made in a bedroom on Reason. Kind of like when I listen to music my parents were into from their time, but I wasn't born yet and can't connect to it the same way as they could.

If any of that made any sense....