Various: Bustin' Out 1982: New Wave to New Beat Volume 2

Bustin’ Out 1982: New Wave To New Beat volume 2 is the second installment in veteran DJ Mike Maguire’s fascinating new mission aimed at charting the groundbreaking developments in electronic-based music through the 80s. The set kicks off in Germany with Dusseldorf’s proto-industrial Electronic Body Music exponents Die Krupps and the six-minute 12-inch version of ‘Goldfinger’ being their irreverent take on electronically-cultivated pop music. Klein & M.B.O.’s unadulterated dancefloor classic ‘Dirty Talk’, marked the blueprint for the oncoming House revolution. The importance of the trio of New York acts contained in this collection is inestimable. South Bronx sisters E.S.G., who opened Manchester’s Hacienda, remained above pigeonholing, influencing anything from hiphop to house. The second monolithic Big Apple outing is ‘Hip Hop Be Bop‘ by Man Parrish, whose ingenious welding of Kraftwerk robo-sonics and European synth-pop sounds were a crossover club sensation. Thirdly is ‘Planet Rock’ by Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force the first hiphop record to use a drum machine, setting the electronic rhythm beast loose in hiphop, providing the blueprint for electro and bringing a unifying house music sensibility to the party. Tubeway Army opened volume 1 and here Gary Numan is represented by ‘Music For Chameleons’ displaying a more mature, haunted city style than earlier outings. Other artists getting additional airing from volume 1are ex Throbbing Gristle duo Chris & Cosey, with their popping proto-electro of ‘Impulse’, and Belgium’s new-beat pioneers Front 242 whose second release ‘U-Men’ is possibly the rarest item on display here, currently fetching around £300. Meanwhile Mark Stewart, who by 1982 had left Bristol social agitators The Pop Group, released the Jerusalem EP which featured the bleak alien dub-funk of ‘Welcome To Liberty City’, a suitably unsettling backdrop for his wired urban reportage. This is neatly followed by Dub Syndicate’s ‘Pounding System’, the opening track on the UK dub landmark LP The Pounding System [Ambience in Dub]. A more avant-jazz flavoured other-worldliness, even foreshadowing dubstep, continues with Benjamin Lew and Steve Brown teaming up on ‘Dans Le Jardin’. Shriekback are represented here with their rousing funk chant of ‘My Spine Is My Bassline’, and Colourbox with their 4AD debut ‘Breakdown’. Another serious master-stroke is the inclusion of South London’s infamous Portion Control, whose fearsome brand of ‘electro punk’ or ‘hard rhythmic electronics‘ is represented by ’Fiends’ from their 1982 debut album, I Staggered Mentally, showing why they were later cited as an influence by Depeche Mode, Skinny Puppy, Orbital and the Prodigy. The set ends with the hugely-influential but obscure Pylon, from Athens, Georgia, who were much championed by R.E.M. and the B-52’s. ‘Four Minutes’ was the b-side of the 12-inch version of their ‘Beep’ single, heaving through a crashing, alien dronescape, making a suitably unorthodox finale for this rather fine summation of a year when blips on the musical radar often assumed depth charge proportions.

Year Zero - Bustin' Out 1982 Compilation - Volume Two by Year Zero