Almost overnight, Japan became incredibly hip. Critical praise began to accumulate around "The Art of Parties" single, turning into an avalanche for Tin Drum, a loose concept album about Mao's China.
"Ghosts", an electronic ballad eerily shaded with flittering synths but devoid of a beat or bassline, went Top 10 - the cue for a compelling Top of the Pops appearance, with the pale, still David Sylvian drawing the world into his hush.
"Ghosts", an electronic ballad eerily shaded with flittering synths but devoid of a beat or bassline, went Top 10 - the cue for a compelling Top of the Pops appearance, with the pale, still David Sylvian drawing the world into his hush.
Japan - Ghosts (Top of the Pops) 1981
"Bedsitter", Soft Cell's second Top 5 hit, documented singer Marc Almond's lifestyle, alternating between a crampled flat and the hollow glitz of the New Romantic scene-dream. According to Almond the song came from 'living in really grotty bedsitters...[then] going out at night to clubs looking glamorous...Sort of mixing...the glitter with squalor...I used to wonder about these really glamorous people: what do they look like doing the dishes?'
Soft Cell - Bedsitter 1981
For the debut album, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, Soft Cell voyaged to New York to soak up the scuzz, recording songs like "Seedy Films" and "Sex Dwarf" in a studio near Times Square.
If this first album played up the sleaze to an almost cartoon degree, the 1983 follow-up, The Art of Falling Apart, deepened Almond's obsession with beautiful losers into a harrowed empathy for the broked and discarded of this world.
'DAF (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft) were into deliberately taunting the German media by tackling Nazi and sex taboos head on - part of the confrontation being in the seemingly ambiguous use of Nazi imagery/references', says Chris Bohn, the NME journalist who championed DAF and other early Eighties German art-punk groups. DAF broached this dodgy terrain with songs like "Der Mussolini" - its chorus: 'Dance der Mussolini/Dance der Adolf Hitler'.
DAF - Der Mussolini 1981
"Der Mussolini" and their first Virgin album, Alles Is Gut, sold hundreds of thousands of copies in Germany in 1981, making DAF the fifth-biggest German-speaking pop group in the country, and the focus of much media controversy.
Gold und Liebe, the second Virgin album. touched on an alchemical theme: instead of chasing the profane gold of material wealth, the true quest is for gold of the spirit.
The Human League's producer Martin Rushent suggested making an instrumental version of Dare, hoping to showcase his production skills to the hilt and establish a new benchmark for electronic dance pop. Credited to The League Unlimited Orchestra - a cute nod to Barry White's instrumental project, The Love Unlimited Orchestra - Love and Dancing was released in June 1982: the back cover pointedly depicted the entire team behind the making of Dare, with photos of Rushent, studio engineer Dave Allen and even sleeve designer Ken Ansell, as well as the band.
By the end of 1982, the deluge of synthpop artists - Thomas Dolby, The Eurythmics, Blancmange, Tears for Fears et al. - had diluted the impact of electronics. The Human League's next single "(Keep Feeling) Fascination" did feature some electric guitar, signalling the abandonment of the band's 'synths only' policy. It was the end of an era.
The Human League - (Keep Feeling) Fascination 1983
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