Saturday 27 February 2010

Electro Classic Jukebox: Human League.


Before the pretty, pretty club-land girls Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley (who, after Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh left to start Heaven 17, created a "new vision" for leader Philip Oakey) joined Human League, there was an entirely different sound that encapsulated the new, experimental style that was seeping through the pores of late '70s England.

Don't get me wrong. While I quite like the post-Reproduction records (Dare is still the darling of the synth-pop world), I still have to say that the exquisitely experimental daring and newness of what they were doing at the time trumps more than a few artists at this time. In an age of Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, glam David Bowie, and Joy Division, this Sheffield band made its mark with an ultimately uncompromising electronic sound, and introduced to us forever the nasal vocals of the one and only Philip.

From 1979's Reproduction, here is the Human League with "Empire State Human."

No comments: