Various Artists
Close To The Noise Floor - Formative UK Electronica 1975-1984
- Record Label
- Cherry Red
About this item
Two years in the making, Close To The Noise Floor is a 4CD, 61-track set exploring the origins of electronica in the UK. Featuring tracks from key figures on the cassette label underground alongside early releases by future stars of the movement, this is part primitive rave, part synthesiser porn & part history lesson. Enthralled by the mysterious electronics of Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, Gong & German Kosmische artists such as Tangerine Dream, Harmonia & Cluster, & inspired by the DIY ethos of punk, a quiet revolution took place across the UK in the late 70s & early 80s. The rise of the microchip & the advent of affordable synthesisers enabled countless artists for whom guitars, drums & bass had become old hat, & in grubby bedsits, unremarkable living rooms & art school halls across the British Isles, UK electronica was born.
Exploring every corner of this fascinating & often overlooked chapter in musical history. For proto synth-pop look no further than 100% Manmade Fibre & Spoon Fazer, whilst British Standard Unit & Five Times Of Dust lay out techno templates which wouldn’t take full form until many years later. Elsewhere, the synthesiser laden ambient music of Zorch & the found sound collages of A Tent sit comfortably alongside early forays by familiar names – Blancmange, The Human League, OMD & Throbbing Gristle – in over four hours of futurist, entirely modern music.
TRACK LISTING
Disc: 1
1. Computer Bank - Five Times Of Dust
2. R.A.M. - The Klingons
3. Re-Education Through Labour - Chris And Cosey
4. Sedation Strokes - Malcolm Brown
5. Little Bob Minor - Storm Bugs
6. Tight As A Drum - Thomas Leer
7. Holiday Camp - Blancmange
8. Fractured Smile - Inner City Static
9. Sexuality - We Be Echo
10. God With Us - Bourbonese Qualk
11. Faith - Nagamatzu
12. Disco Song - O Yuki Conjugate
13. Optimum Chant - British Electric Foundation
14. All Night Long - Kevin Harrison
15. Stopping And Starting - Voice Of Authority
Disc: 2
1. I Am Your Shadow - Colin Potter
2. D'ya Think I'm Sexy - British Standard Unit
3. The Single Off The Album - Five Times Of Dust
4. Back To Beginning - Spöön Fazer
5. Gerry And The Holograms - Gerry & The Holograms
6. Drugface - The Passage
7. A New Kind Of Man - John Foxx
8. Green For Go - 100% Manmade Fibre
9. Sentimental - Those Little Aliens
10. Protect And Survive - Final Program
11. Being Boiled - The Human League
12. New Muzak - Instant Automatons
13. Materialistic Man - Cultural Amnesia
14. (Leaving Me) Now - Worldbackwards
15. Music To Save The World By - Alan Burnham
16. Almost - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
17. Kodak Ghosts Run Amok - Eyeless In Gaza
18. Broken Vein - Schleimer K
19. The Distance From Koln - Native Europe
Disc: 3
1. Adrenalin (Return Of The Elohim Pt 1) - Zorch
2. Robot Dance - Sea Of Wires
3. Sea Of Tranquility - Ron Berry
4. Mistral - MFH
5. Joe Goes To New York - Adrian Smith
6. Embryo (Extract) - Mark Shreeve
7. Tripych - EG Oblique Graph
8. Encounter - Carl Matthews
9. Ynys Scaith - Paul Nagle
10. Sedation - O Yuki Conjugate
11. Western Vein - Konstruktivist
12. Dead Of Night (Excerpt) - Attrition
Disc: 4
1. What A Day - Throbbing Gristle
2. No Way Of Knowing - A Tent
3. Go For The Throat - Portion Control
4. Eco Beat - DC3
5. Dying Inside - Renaldo & The Loaf
6. In The Army - Blah Blah Blah
7. God Speed - Legendary Pink Dots
8. Muslin Gauze Muslim Prayer - Muslimgauze
9. Live At Longborne - Suisse
10. Menial Disorders, Extract B2 - Alien Brains
11. Himeal (And She Blew) - Storm Bugs
12. In The Room - Third Door From The Left
13. Dignity Of Labour - Al Robertson
14. Mzui (Extract) - BC Gilbert, G Lewis & Russell Mills