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Pure Synth

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I heard this on the radio yesterday and the phrase “Pure Synth” popped into my head from nowhere. It has been my earworm ever since and to these ears is a joyous 5 minutes of pop music. I think there are no other instruments used than synthesisers, I’m no expert and of course Alison Moyets voice. So can we have a chat about pure synth? Good thing? Bad thing? Best and worst examples? 80’s, non 80’s.

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Comments

  1. Yeah, weird looking dudes poking keyboards had been a thing for a while, but that early 80s period was the next level: full immersion bleepybloop. And so often bolted to irresistible chart-conquering tunes, so the acousto-Canutes were helpless before its onrushing sine waves..

  4. I haven’t much interest in synth pop. None of the above songs (or bands) appeal. The only 80s synth pop band I have much time for are Tears For Fears. I still find it amazing that a band who were perceived as light, fluffy, pretty-boy synth pop stars made their debut with such a dark album about Arthur Janov’s primal scream therapy. Can’t imagine One Direction coming up with a song like Ideas As Opiates.

  7. During the 80s I pig-headedly stuck to the Queen maxim “No synths”.
    I thought I was being really clever despite having a stack of Depeche Mode LPs.
    I have since learned my lesson and appreciate synthpop for what it is.
    Daniel Miller founded Mute Records (none more synth?) to release his synth-noodlings with The Silicon Teens.

    Ultravox created sublime synth-new romantic-krautrock-electronica
    Sleepwalk

  13. Klaus Schulze.
    He was the drummer in the very first incarnation of Tangerine Dream, then he was co-founder of Ash Ra Tempel. Then he struck out on his own. Loads and loads of albums and still going strong at the age of 70, although he stopped performing live in 2013.

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    This was possibly the first synthpop hit.

  14. Unsurprisingly, love synths. As I mentioned on the other thread last night, thanks to @minibreakfast I’m once again obsessed with a-Ha. This is a classic for a reason. Morten Harket had such an incredible, incredible voice, and this is such a surprising song when you really listen to it. Familiarity makes it seem inevitable, but from that quite dark, almost sinister opening to the sudden jauntiness of the riff to burst of glory that is THAT chorus. The sheer range of the chorus melody! Who does that? Fucking amazing.

  15. In a very healthy way, we are interpreting “synthpop” very broadly.

    I’m not sure whether Frenchman M83 qualifies. But I’m posting this anyway as I think it’s a magnificent, uplifting pop song.

  17. Gary Numan was the first to really hit the mark with synths. I was at the right age and I wasn’t fully committed to the punk stuff I was pretending to like. So if I had a pure synth classics playlist pre-synthpop explosion it would have been:

    Dr Who theme
    I Feel Love
    Popcorn
    Autobahn
    Oxygene
    Magic Fly
    Supernature

    • Yep, it was Numan that heralded the new dawn round ours. Specifically that sustained first note on Cars (after the little wobbly bit right at the beginning). Then, later something like Love Action by The Human League had those different overlapping melodies and noises over the throb of a synth bass – as the right honourable Mr Amitri says, pure synth.
      For a while there, the British Broadcasting Corporation was running ads for Roland equipment at 7.20 every Thursday night..

    • The thing about OMD is that they are really good “traditional” song writers who happen to use mainly synths. Even their most “difficult” album Dazzle Ships only breaks away into bleepy silliness for a minute or two at a time and then it’s good songwriting again.

  22. Referring to the OP, State Farm by Yazoo is another one along the same lines as Situation. Amazing stuff. Moye doesn’t depend on synths alone, obviously, but I think it’s certainly something Vince Clarke has perfected. He acknowledges that he is a control freak – which is why he didn’t like the democratic nature of being in a band – and synths allow you to put together the whole thing. Live performance is rarely the dream. I am sure there are “air synth” players but that’s incredibly sad I think.

  28. “Interestingly” (in quotes because it isn’t really), I can’t see any of the links embedded in this post. I’ve tried two different operating systems and two different browsers. Fascinating, I’m sure.

    Would someone be so kind as to post a link to ‘Seconds’ by The Human League? It’s my favourite of theirs.

  29. I was listening to an 80’s Synth Spotify playlist someone had put together today and it included “Boys” by Japan. It made me wonder who first thought of adding a bass guitar to a pure synth sound. It rally works to these ears……..

  32. I was surprised to discover yesterday, via an old Jonny Trunk “OST” podcast episode that Ron Grainer’s theme music for “Tales Of The Unexpected” features rather a lot of synth behind the saxophone melody.

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