New Musik - Warp (1982)

New Musik's near-total lack of commercial acceptance is one of the great mysteries of early-'80s pop. Their music, rooted in classic pop songwriting but with a forward-looking interest in shiny electronics, is both instantly accessible and coolly forbidding. This dichotomy is most clearly expressed in the split between group leader Tony Mansfield's melodies, which are hummable, welcoming, and often quite bouncy, and his lyrics, which even Joy Division's Ian Curtis might have sometimes found a little too alienated. New Musik formed in 1977, growing out of a casual band of south London school friends who jammed together under the name End of the World; singer and guitarist Mansfield, keyboardist Nick Straker, and bassist Tony Hibbert drafted drummer Phil Towner, who had played on the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star." If the characters in the video-game film Tron had an LP collection, New Musik's Warp would be continuously spinning on the turntable. Like Kraftwerk, New Musik were techno-pop pioneers; Warp is essentially Kraftwerk's futuristic dance music without the German accents and the icy hooks. If the tracks on Warp sound familiar, it's probably because the album's chilly keyboards and mechanical percussion helped to form the blueprint for '80s synth acts such as I Start Counting and Depeche Mode and the electronica artists that followed in the '90s like the Crystal Method and the Prodigy. That doesn't mean they're entirely original. "Here Come the People" opens up with funky riffs prevalent among club-oriented new wave bands from the early '80s; its robotic, monotonous vocals are snagged from Kraftwerk. Tony Mansfield has a thin voice that sometimes recalls Tim Finn of Split Enz. Mansfield's lyrics may be often strange or non-sense, but the music in this album pulses with energy ans imagination far beyond of what used to be called at that time "techno-pop". This is one of the defining albums of a period in music history, a hidden treasure and "I Repeat" is simply one of the best songs I've heard in my entire life; no more no less.

Tony Mansfield: lead vocals, keyboards & guitars
Clive Gates: keyboards
Cliff Venner: percussion & vocals

01. Here Come the People (3:27)
02. Going Round Again (2:55)
03. A Train on Twisted Tracks (3:26)
04. I Repeat (4:28)
05. All You Need Is Love (4:21)
06. All You Need Is Love (5:38)
07. Kingdoms for Horses (4:16)
08. Hunting (4:15)
09. The New Evolutionist (3:19)
10. Green and Red (3:05)
11. The Planet Doesn't Mind (3:38)
12. Warp (4:22)
13. The Planet Doesn't Mind (Single Version) (3:36)
14. The Planet Doesn't Mind (12 Inch Version) (4:15)
15. 24 Hours from Culture (Part 1) (3:40)
16. Twelfth House (4:37)
17. Here Come the People (Remix) (5:28)

MP3 Part1
MP3 Part2