SYNTHSTRUMENTALS

A virtual mixtape of new wave instrumentals from the post punk/new romantic era.

Sometimes amazingly great synth pop bands like Japan and even Duran Duran would put out some quite interesting instrumental (or nearly instrumental) tracks as b-sides or album fillers – here are some of them alongside some lesser known vocal free wonders. No doubt there are loads of notably absent tracks that I’ve either forgotten or am yet to discover … so please post anything I’ve overlooked!

Cabaret Voltaire: Theme From Earthshaker
Album: Micro-phonies (1984)
Your starter for 10.

Duran Duran: Tel Aviv
Album: Duran Duran (1981)
An atmospheric track that closed their debut LP that I guess would be unlikely to crop up on your ‘Best Of’ compilation.

Throbbing Gristle: Walkabout
Album: 20 Jazz Funk Greats (1979)
Not necessarily what you’d expect from TG, although I guess you can only expect the unexpected from them… they’re so naughty.

John Ellis: Photostadt

Single: Babies in Jars/Photostadt (1980)

Some weird track I have on a 7” at home that is actually excellent if you like that kind of thing. I think you can get it on the bootleg series ‘New Wave Complex’.

Fad Gadget: Arch of the Aorta
Album: Fireside Favourites (1980)
Wow – doesn’t sound like anything else of its time. A kind of weird synthy dark industrial proto-post-rock affair that brought Fad’s debut album Fireside Favourites to a close. If you like this see also his early (non-instrumental) single Ricky’s Hand - one of the first few releases on the Mute label. Fad Gadget’s real name was Frank Tovey. He’s dead now.

David Bowie: Crystal Japan

Single: Japanese issue single Crystal Japan/Alabama Song (1980)

On Low and Heroes bowie notched up quite a few instrumentals which were without doubt a big influence on many of the tracks listed here … but that was in the seventies… This is one of the few instrumental from the post-Berlin Scary Monsters era before he went rubbish forever more Amen… (sigh).

Gary Numan: Airlane

Album: The Pleasure Principle (1979)

Kind of appropriate, given that he can fly an aeroplane and everything. Looking back, it sounds quite prog. Also check out ‘Asylum’, the B-side to Cars.

Japan: The Experience of Swimming
Single: Gentlemen Take Polaroids double 7” (1980)
Oh Japan, time has vindicated them to the lofty heights they deserve and now it’s plain for all to see that they really were head and shoulders above most of their synth-drenched contemporaries – and here’s one reason why. If you think you could get into Japan’s instrumentals see also The Tenant, A Foreign Place, Life Without Buildings, The Width of a Room, Oil on Canvas, Voices Raised in Welcome, Hands Held in Prayer and Temple of Dawn.

Colourbox: Just Give ‘em Whiskey
Album: Colourbox (1984)
Odd collaborative album from 4AD with a big pop sensibility and production values second to none (and one of my favourite album covers ever after Kimono My House)

John Foxx: Glimmer
Single: No-One Driving/Glimmer
Beautifully minimal sequenced synth piece, rivalling a Japan instrumental in its evocation of a kind of misconstrued continental glamour… a bonus track on reissues of Metamatic nowadays.
Also check out ‘Film One’.

Soft Cell: ….So

Single: What! / …So (1982)

All the fun of Soft Cell only without you know who…

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: Architecture & Morality
Album: Architecture & Morality (1981)
The title track from the album of the same name. I’m sure I once read a mean critic’s disparaging remark that OMD based their entire career on the Bowie track A New Career in a New Town… OMD spent a lot of time getting dissed in the 80s backlash but those bad old days are over now and the 80s are great again!

Mick Karn: Weather the Windmill

Album: Titles (1982)

Showcasing the innovative and original approach to the bass guitar by the extraordinarily talented Mick Karn on his first post-Japan solo LP Titles. There’s a couple of instrumentals on there but this is my favourite.

Simple Minds: Soundtrack For Every Heaven
Single: Someone Somewhere (In Summertime) 12” (1982)
Of course before simple minds became a byword for bland stadium rock and sub-U2 pomposity and when ‘The Breakfast Club’ wasn’t even a gleam in their eye they began life as Johnny and the Self Abusers, graduating to deliberately inaccessible post-punk/industrial experimentalists. However the eventual transition phase to the mainstream produced arguaby their best album Sons and Fascination and, in the instrumental stakes, this track.

Blitz: Teletron
Single: Telecommunications/Teletron (1983)
The b-side to Telecommunications. Some indecipherable vocals here so possibly a disqualification… nice industrial post-punk track with synth stylings though. When I originally posted this article I warned readers not to confuse this Blitz with the Oi! band of the name, but as was kindly pointed out they are - amazingly - one and the same band (thanks mogadonia!).

China Crisis: Jean Walks In Fresh Fields
Album: Difficult Shapes and Passive Rythms, Some People Think It’s Fun To Entertain (1982)
Spine tingling instrumental sketch. China Crisis became a laughing stock of 80s badness for a long time but they were occasionally stunning.

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