RE: [microsound] back in the day

[Sarah Thompson <sarah@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Most influential recordings of 'those days' for me:

Propaganda/A Secret Wish - Sounded amazing at the time, and it still does.
Claudia Brucken's voice, PPG Wave with attitude, really good songs. Is that
so bad? ;)

Yello/One Second - IMNSHO this is Yello's greatest work.

Grace Jones/Nightclubbing/Living my life - Sly & Robbie on drums & bass,
Wally Badarou (I think) on keyboards. Serious musicianship, well recorded.

Grace Jones/Slave to the Rhythm - Production by Trevor Horn, engineered by
Steve Lipson. IMO one of the best pieces of recording of all time. I still
test amps and speakers with this CD. I wanted a Synclavier so badly after
hearing this...

Abba/Super Trooper - Really! Love 'em or hate 'em, this was one of the first
ever mainstream recordings to use digital... (a 3M 32 track, 12 bit, 32KHz
open reel machine as I remember) And who honestly can claim they have never
danced to Abba?

Colourbox/Colourbox EP [MAD 315 CD] - Not so well known this one, but if you
like dub, you might like this. They did the 'remix' thing very well, and
before many others.

Siouxie and the Banshees/Peepshow - No technical reasons for recommending
this. I just love it!

Art of Noise/(Who's Afraid Of) The Art of Noise - 8 bit sampling, courtesy
the original Fairlight. Awesome. Their later albums are mostly pretty good
too - In no sense nonesense and In Visible Silence particularly so. Didn't
like Below the Waste too much though. The recent Debussy tribute album is a
weird departure, but I kind-of like it (I love Debussy anyway, so that's
maybe no surprise)

Fierce Ruling Diva/A Great Man Once Said - Again, just 'cos I like it. I
can't remember when this dates to - I think it is late 80s, but could have
just sneaked into the early 90s, but it is great anyway so I make no
apology.

Andy Summers/The Golden Wire - Kind-of ambient, not well known, by the
guitarist from the Police. Very nice - beautiful. I can listen to it over
and over.

Bomb the Bass/Unknown Territory - Love it or hate it, play it loud.

Japan/Gentlemen take Polaroids/Tin Drum - Pretentious? Oh yes!

The KLF/The White Room - Tammy Wynette at her best. ;)

Frank Zappa/Does Humour Belong in Music? - After listening to this, yes,
clearly it does. Whatever the PMRC might have said at the time...

That's it...
Sarah