SILLY NOT TO TERPSICHORE
EMI 1981
1981 - Synthpop was at its height being carried by New Romanticism, anyone having a music taste that expanded beyond the Top 40 and the often paedophile presented Top of The Pops, would have noted that some record labels were cashing in on foreign music genres.
Be that Japanese Techno Pop, being led by Yellow Magic Orchestra and anything Japanese orientated getting cool status orientation from UK band Japan and their link with Ryuichi Sakamoto initially on their 4th album Gentlemen Take Polaroids or wishing a certain Mr Lawrence Happy Christmas whilst Forbidding certain colours.....
Or a bit closer to home with Neue Deutsche Well and anything German, thanks to Kraftwerk, Can, DAF and a novelty New Wave band called Trio which introduced a whole plethora of NDW compilations (see Die Neue Deustche Welle ist Da Da Da).
Post Punk and X-Ray Spex had split and members had formed Classix Nouveaux, dressing up as New Romantics and producing a falsetto vox’d semi punk/synth hybrid that was never really going to shave anything off Duran Duran's hi octane pop stardom. But along with Adam & The Ants, X-ray Spex /Classic Nouveaux had been pushed to stardom by entrepeneur the late Falcon Stuart.
Why Terpsichore is a compelling , refreshing album, is that Falcon Stuart and Ashley Goodall were the force who compiled it, it’s a brilliant collection of New Wave, Synth Pop, NDW and JapaneseTechnoPop. Probably the first and maybe the only at the time, to introduce and mix these genres…after all 81 was the year that both NDW and JTP was unleased on the general public in the UK.
Whilst everyone else was raving about the Some Bizarre album (and why shouldn't they?), Silly Not To Terpsichore went largely un-noticed. Which is a great shame as it really did sum up what a Rusty Egan Blitz set was all about.
If you ever see this album...get it. If you really want a hi res copy transferred from vinyl...hit me up....you'd be silly not to........
Sandii - Hey Rock-a la la
M.A.O. - Friend For A Day
Shock - R.E.R.B.
Airport & Dean - Blonde Darlings
Fehlfarben - Militurk
Sapho - Respect
Logic System - Talk Back
Katmandu - I Can Make The Future
Thomas Dolby - Urges
Naked Lunch - Horror Shock Horror
Gina X Performance - No G.D.M.
Classix Nouveaux - Robot’s Dance