{"product_id":"various-all-the-young-droids-junkshop-synth-pop-1978-1985-repress","title":"VARIOUS - All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985 (Repress)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ff0000;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLP - Limited Edition Transparent Green Vinyl. 2025 Repress of the highly acclaimed compilation compiled by Philip King charting the underbelly of the epoch-defining sound of the synthesizer in 80s popular music. EXCLUSIVE GREEN SLEEVE repress for end of year \/ season for this Compilation. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“And then came the rise of synth pop : blokes with dodgy haircuts hunched over keyboard-operated machines stuffed with wires and do-it-yourself tone oscillators making sounds like a brood of geese passing gas in a wind tunnel. Whoopee! This is the way the ‘70s ended : not with a blood-curdling bang bang but with a cheap, synthesized, emasculating whimper.” - \u003cstrong\u003eNICK KENT\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNME\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAll The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985\u003c\/em\u003e is a new compilation that charts the underbelly of the epoch-defining sound of the synthesiser in 80s popular music. Compiled by \u003cstrong\u003ePhilip King\u003c\/strong\u003e (previously seen compiling \u003cem\u003eAll The Young Droogs\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eGlitterbest and Boobs\u003c\/em\u003e - \u003cem\u003eThe Junkshop Glam Discotheque\u003c\/em\u003e), the music here connects the dots between DIY synth enthusiasts grappling with new, cheap synthesisers at the tail-end of punk and wannabe, jobbing songwriters enthral to the new music pioneered by Gary Numan, Depeche Mode and Daniel Miller’s Mute Records. Featuring rare tracks of auto-didactic progressive pop music, proto-techno punk, shoot-for-the-stars-land-in-the-gutter chart flops and heralded, underground synth classics, School Daze paints a picture of beautiful failure.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eComplete with extensive sleeve notes written by King and never before seen imagery, all 24 tracks were remastered by RPM in-house engineer \u003cstrong\u003eSimon Murphy\u003c\/strong\u003e, many from vinyl copies due to lost master tapes. The story told on \u003cem\u003eAll The Young Droids\u003c\/em\u003e is one of the dawning opportunity presented by both the emergence to the market of cheaper analog synthesisers and the distribution networks plus indie labels that exploded with the advent of punk music in 1976. While the music that sprouted out all over the globe in the wake of these factors was decried as fake, plastic, a refutation of punk’s guitar-led revolution, it’s telling that much of the music on \u003cem\u003eAll The Young Droids\u003c\/em\u003e.. was created in bedrooms, ramshackle studios and home-made set ups with often borrowed equipment. In the era of record labels jumping to capitalise on the success of The Sex Pistols, The Clash (both on major labels, of course) these artists struggled to stand out from a new gold-rush with next to no budget or PR team. With radio and labels desperate for the new Yazoo, what resulted was a testament to necessity being the mother of invention.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the time, the synthesiser was the music of the future, a shiny new machine that could paint like an orchestra with a single finger and a 4-track. In the hands of Manchester avant-pranksters \u003cstrong\u003eGerry \u0026amp; The Holograms\u003c\/strong\u003e it’s a pulsing, sardonic weapon.. the only instrument on the \u003cstrong\u003eMessthetics\u003c\/strong\u003e classic lampooning of New Wave fashion. In Hamburg, a 16 year old \u003cstrong\u003eAndreas Dorau\u003c\/strong\u003e used it to write and record (with his female classmates on vocals) a global smash in Fred Vom Jupiter (later licensed to Mute Records). The hard-to-find English version (Fred From Jupiter, natch) is included here. Many artists with already-storied careers caught the bug and recorded synthesiser-fuelled peons to space, computers, the future and, of course, love-interests. \u003cstrong\u003eHarry Kakoulli\u003c\/strong\u003e, late of \u003cstrong\u003eSqueeze\u003c\/strong\u003e, recorded a solo album in 1979 that included the incredible power-synth-pop smash-that-never-smashed \u003cem\u003eI’m On A Rocket\u003c\/em\u003e. Similarly, Ian North of Neo and American Power Pop stalwarts \u003cstrong\u003eMilk ’n’ Cookies\u003c\/strong\u003e bought a Korg MS20 and used a tape machine to record \u003cem\u003eWe’re Not Lonely\u003c\/em\u003e, an absolute lost-classic of minimal synth pop. \u003cem\u003eWe’re Not Lonely\u003c\/em\u003e also features on the \u003cem\u003eJunkshop Synth Pop\u003c\/em\u003e sampler 7” twinned with \u003cstrong\u003eJohn Howard\u003c\/strong\u003e unreleased track \u003cem\u003eYou Will See\u003c\/em\u003e, released April 12th 2025.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere are plenty of compilation debuts in evidence. \u003cstrong\u003eSole Sister\u003c\/strong\u003e were a mysterious trio who were featured on the \u003cem\u003eScaling Triangles\u003c\/em\u003e compilation of female-fronted, queer-adjacent post-punk \/ underground music that also featured \u003cstrong\u003eThe Petticoats\u003c\/strong\u003e. Selwin Image were from San Francisco and featured members of the recently defunct power pop\/punk group \u003cstrong\u003eThe Pushups\u003c\/strong\u003e. Their stupidly catchy \u003cem\u003eThe Unknown\u003c\/em\u003e fizzes with New Wave energy - think XTC to Sparks but remains unreleased until now. \u003cstrong\u003eDream Unit\u003c\/strong\u003e’s \u003cem\u003eA Drop In The Ocean\u003c\/em\u003e is an early synth wave cut, positively teaming with Joy Division instrumentation, previously only released on a long-forgotten and super rare, self-released EP. \u003cstrong\u003eIncandescent Luminaire\u003c\/strong\u003e’s \u003cem\u003eFamous Names\u003c\/em\u003e belies an archetypal struggle of a small-town trying to make it in a cruel industry but is a thrilling New Romantic-Synth Wave cross over with a OMD gloominess that’s a joy to hear. Feminist Minimal Wave track \u003cem\u003eI Am A Time Bomb\u003c\/em\u003e by performance artist \u003cstrong\u003ePeta Lilly\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eMichael Chance\u003c\/strong\u003e is a revelation destined for new found cult status. It was released on 7” and lost until now.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe flipside to the subterranean, never-made-it synth pop mentioned above are the ambitious, even fruity attempts at success that have a perennial elegance to their confidence. New Jersey-ite \u003cstrong\u003eBilly London\u003c\/strong\u003e (real name \u003cstrong\u003eEd Barth\u003c\/strong\u003e) tried to cash in on the synth boom with \u003cem\u003eWoman\u003c\/em\u003e, released by a major label, a lurching new wave track built on the Louie Louie rhythm and a wonderfully camp Lou Reed-style sleazy vocal before exploding in the synthesised chorus. The song bombed but with a chorus like this, you have to wonder why? Ex-\u003cstrong\u003eGlitter Band\u003c\/strong\u003e member \u003cstrong\u003eJohn Springate\u003c\/strong\u003e’s \u003cem\u003eMy Life\u003c\/em\u003e is truly epic, with doomed chord progressions and massive sounding drums turning into at least 3 different songs in the course of the track. Before you wonder what’s going on the song resolves with a glorious return to the main refrain.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe dry-ice-dressed dance floor is well catered for too. \u003cstrong\u003eDesign\u003c\/strong\u003e’s \u003cem\u003ePremonition\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eVision\u003c\/strong\u003e’s \u003cem\u003eLucifer’s Friend\u003c\/em\u003e are stone-cold minimal synth bangers, well loved but given a new lease of life here. \u003cstrong\u003eThe Warlord\u003c\/strong\u003e’s \u003cem\u003eThe Ultimate Warlord\u003c\/em\u003e was released in 1978, a homespun proto Hi NRG banger that was later re-recorded by \u003cstrong\u003eThe Immortals\u003c\/strong\u003e in Canada who had a club hit with it. One-man- band \u003cstrong\u003eDisco Volante\u003c\/strong\u003e’s \u003cem\u003eNo Motion\u003c\/em\u003e was re-issued by Synth wave label \u003cstrong\u003eMedical\u003c\/strong\u003e in 2012 but makes its first vinyl compilation appearance here. Close your eyes and you can imagine what \u003cstrong\u003eLawrence\u003c\/strong\u003e of \u003cstrong\u003eFelt\u003c\/strong\u003e would have sounded like with some cheap Korgs a little earlier in his career. Gibraltar-based trio \u003cstrong\u003eThe Microbes\u003c\/strong\u003e imagined a computer programming people to dance - how prescient - and ended up with a propulsive, robo-funk track with splendid rubbery bass playing over a tectonic drum machine. Previously picked up by Belgian label \u003cstrong\u003eStroom TV\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eDee Jay Bert\u003c\/strong\u003e \u0026amp; \u003cstrong\u003eEagle\u003c\/strong\u003e’s heavily Euro-accented \u003cem\u003eI Am Your Master\u003c\/em\u003e demands the listener to “come to paradise!” In a frankly terrifying manner. \u003cem\u003eAll The Young Droids\u003c\/em\u003e is the first compilation to peel away from the narrative that dour, Minimal Synth and Cold Wave were the only musical children of the first rush of synth pop. \u003cstrong\u003ePhilip King\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eSchool Daze Records\u003c\/strong\u003e describe a much more complicated world: along with the austere, Brutalist children of \u003cstrong\u003eDaniel Miller\u003c\/strong\u003e (who produced \u003cstrong\u003eAlan Burnham\u003c\/strong\u003e’s Bowie-Low-influenced \u003cem\u003eScience Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e here) was a plethora of desperate cash-ins, accidental mainstream hits, ambitious pop dramas and major label punts that went nowhere. Crucially, the compilation blurs the line between junk and treasure. What if the two things are interchangeable. What if it’s all science fiction?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e**600 (250 FOR UK) GREEN VINYL \/ EXCLUSIVE GREEN SLEEVE repress for end of year \/ season for this Compilation**\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Night School \/ School Daze","offers":[{"title":"1985 (Repress) - LP - Transparent Green Vinyl","offer_id":56421497995609,"sku":"SDZ-40402","price":35.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0588\/3455\/0945\/files\/All_The_Young_Droids__Junkshop_Synth_Pop_1978-1985_-_Various__-_2LP_Transparent_Green_Colour_Vinyl_-_2025_Repress.jpg?v=1760959277","url":"https:\/\/spindizzyrecords.com\/products\/various-all-the-young-droids-junkshop-synth-pop-1978-1985-repress","provider":"Spindizzy Dublin","version":"1.0","type":"link"}