Synth

[Fonz]

John Fox - Metamatic, get this. As a kid, this and Metal Box were the 2 left-field albums that held my attention. Its been remastered recently with a shed load of extras. Its a bleak sounding record and reflects the times, I mentally tie it to CND marches and inner city riots. If you want a reference, its a darker version of Tubeway Army.

I’ve stuck the 3cd reissue in my basket. I’ll pull the trigger on payday.

Cheers

[Deebank]

Thanks for that.

Re: the accordion patch. You’d have thought Lloyd could have found a suitable beret-wearing sophisticate to do it for real.

I think that’s hit the nail on the head.

His keyboard dude could have played it on a real accordion but the DX7 approximation was more current.

Whereas Joy Div’s Solina String Synth has its own unique character - I’d argue anyway.

[Fonz]

My synth odyssey continues. Thanks for all the suggestions.
There’s a real mixed bag isn’t there?
Stuff where the synth is like an afterthought to a traditional pop/rock song, where a real instrument would have suited better (like the Lloyd Cole above).
Then there’s the stuff where it’s absolutely integral- ‘Are Friends Electric’ is a good example.
There’s a lot where you can tell the musicians are really trying to do something different, but the tech is either do basic, or the utilisation so inept, that by today’s standards it just fails.
Today’s ‘bedroom musician’ has so much more available, and listening to soundcloud etc they are using it well; the diy punk ethic lives on, but sounds very different in 2018 than in 1978.
I’m going to start a thread on production techniques if anyone is interested.
Please keep adding to this one though, if you’ve got any synth suggestions.

[Kinkhurt]

My synth odyssey continues. Thanks for all the suggestions.
Please keep adding to this one though, if you’ve got any synth suggestions.

Japan after they got over the early glam stuff