Third Noise Principle: Formative North American Electronica 1975-1984, Excursions in Proto Synth pop, DIY Techno, Noise & Ambient Exploration – Cherry Red Records

As the song said: Another year over, and a new one just begun. So what promise do we have for entertainment this year? Will Disco continue to occupy supermarkets and shopping centres just as it does restaurants and nightclubs? When will the culture of re-editing nostalgia for a bygone age finally devour itself, eating its own imagination? The flip-side to this is all the wonderful new music being created by artists exploring the electronic dynamics which wire themselves directly back to a discovery of synthesized, experimental sound. The third in this series navigates America and Canada’s output complimenting the existing UK and European editions. Beginning in 1975 what quickly becomes apparent is just how radically different these records must have felt at the time of their release. Perhaps rock n roll’s guitar flair has informed Data-Bank-A’s ‘Creators’ but when you reach Rhythm And Noise’s ‘Current Slaughter’, or Dark Day’s ‘The Metal Benders’ you realise that the rush of keyboards igniting future horizons was only something machines could truly do. Rhythmic structures aside the compilation also teases out more ‘difficult’ ideas from the likes of Smegma’s wonderfully titled Dancing Hairpiece Wears Two Left Shoes, while contrasting with the equally brutal, early industrial sounds by Lon C. Diehl ‘Intermission: POP’. A world of difference then excitedly opens up inviting you to experience four discs worth of sonic possibilities that doesn’t revolve directly around R&B. Drum machines pulse and chime, synthesisers frighten and exhilarate, as voices smoulder. But all the while you never quite know what’s around the bend. What to expect next. Names of people I’ve never heard of populate the collection – part of the beauty of music is of course discovery – while names like Laurie Spiegel whose brilliant Drums is a revelation, Terry Riley’s contemplative ‘Across The Lake Of The Ancient World’ from 1980, Suicide’s ‘Rocket USA’, Patrick Cowley’s scintillating ‘Primordial Landscape’ plus a whole host of others are all names that notably inform the timeline. The third CD houses some of the most abrasive numbers, although even this disarray is tempered by the atmospheres of Anode’s cinematically charged ‘Evening Thoughts’. By the fourth the more recent early eighties are represented by Ministry’s vigorously funky ‘Work For Love’ alongside Thirty Years proto Techno ‘Executive Slacks’ and this rich seam of music continues to play out its own consequences beautifully. Yet another essential, important release from Cherry Red and one which acts as much as historical education as it does musically – difficult, problematic or melodically otherwise. Introductory essay by Sounds and Wild Planet legend Dave Henderson guides you through and along the wild journey of abandon.

Release: January 25