Hey folks!

Just a quick newsletter with some 1988 albums I’ve heard recently that I intend to nominate. Everything here gets a Like rating, save the final one.

Act, LAUGHTER, TEARS AND RAGE (YouTube, Spotify) [tracks 1-16 only]

Synthpop from a one-and-done group, in a mode that’s a bit outdated for 1988, but I think that’s why I liked it. Vocalist Claudia Brücken sounds, to my ears, a bit like Lords of Acid’s Ruth McArdle, only more German and politically angry. Walked so that Goldfrapp, et. app., could run.

Étienne Daho, POUR NOS VIES MARTIENNES (YouTube, Spotify)

French pop! Has that 1988 slickness you’d find in U.K. pop (Swing Out Sister, Johnny Hates Jazz, that sort of thing) but sonically pushes it towards dream pop, while the songs (as you might gather from the cover) have a 1950s simplicity and tightness. Dunno what else to say, I liked it.

Geinoh Yamashirogumi, SYMPHONIC SUITE AKIRA (Archive.org)

I’m told Archive.org is the only place you can find this version of the soundtrack (not to be confused with the version that has the poster on the cover, which is missing tracks), so forewarned. But it’s publicly available, so it counts for eligibility. Anyway, I remember the music from this (baby’s first anime) being striking, but I don’t recall it being so groovy at times. (Neo-Tokyo’s hips are about to E•X•P•L•O•D•E) If this was just released as-is, sans movie, I still think it would have legendary status.

Hugo Largo, DRUM (YouTube, Spotify)

I remember not liking Hugo Largo’s 1989 album METTLE. But this is essentially the same thing, right? Maybe I’m just dumb, it’s been hypothesized before. Or maybe doing a Kinks song in Hugo Largo format (voice, two basses, violin) makes the difference? Who can say.

Les Rita Mitsouko, MARC & ROBERT (YouTube, Spotify)

French pop! Back in 1988, if you showed regular people this, or previous album THE NO COMPRENDO, it would be regarded as weird and/or arty. And it’s not at all! It’s perfectly cromulent rock-pop! The only thing that makes them “alternative” is that there’s that sheen of, let’s call it “wackiness,” about them (c.f. The B-52’s, Devo, and Sparks, who are actually on here twice). But they’re singing in French, so no idea if any of it is genuinely funny. Anyway, sadly both Fred Chichin and Catherine Ringer have now passed, so throw this on to remember how they could make folks smile.

Midas, UNDER THE CLEAR AIR (YouTube)

What if giallo soundtrack pioneers Goblin went all pastoral? It might sound… a little… like this. (extremely Joel Hodgson doing Johnny Carson voice) Mmmm hmmm, that’s good prog!

Vernal Equinox, NEW FOUND WORLD (YouTube, Spotify)

Here’s Kent’s Top Choice of the Newsletter, the only one here with a Like/Love rating. The cover is pure Windham Hill, but inside it’s proto-IDM, stuff that wouldn’t be out of place on the seminal ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE comps. If it’s not on the level of pioneers like Aphex Twin (how could it be?), they definitely saw the future and managed to take a snapshot of it. Between this Helen Ripley-Marshall’s GREEN CHAOS, 1988 was a heckuva year for electronic music.