Synthpunk - History

History

A rehearsal tape by Suicide in 1975, The Units 4-song 7" on 9 August 1979, Pere Ubu's "My Dark Pages" (October 1979) with Alan Ravenstine on EML synthesizer (re-released on Rough Trade 049 on a 7" in 1980) and the first demo session by The Screamers with Pat Garrett on 7 July 1977 are candidates for the earliest synthpunk recording. The Units were referred to as "Punks playing keyboards" in an article in the "The San Francisco Examiner" in 1979, The Screamers were referred to as "techno-punk" in an article in the Los Angeles Times in 1978, but this did not become established as a genre name. However in the USA, while a number of art bands moved more towards ambient, or art gallery collage sounds (Ant Farm, Ralph Records) The Units nailed it with ferocious singles like "i-night" which foreshadows The Prodigy and the more intense early work of the Chemical Brothers's "Block Rockin' Beats" for its intensity. The following year saw releases such as Minimal Man's live at The Deaf Club, "She Was A Visitor", and from (Texas?) Enstruction's 1982 " Keep Out Of My Body Bag" with its scattered and unsettling instructions. In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Billy Synth and the Janitors (1978-1982) and later the Turn Ups took an ARP Odyssey synthesizer directly to punk. (Billy Synth found some wider acceptance on Sordide Sentimental, a cult label in Paris, that issued the single with Half Japanese called "Hartzdale Drive Destruction" (SS 33 003) in 1980.)

In the UK the influences came primarily through the labels Mute Records and Rough Trade Records with the release of The Normal's "T.V.O.D."/"Warm Leatherette" single as Mute 001 in 1978 to tremendous influence across genres including punk. There were also odd trans-Atalantic cross-overs, like the Brian Eno produced DEVO 45 "Come Back Jonee" (Virgin 15 815 AT) single. Found in many a punk collection they were a nexus that was and was not what we today call synthpunk, that LA-constructed term favoured by Amer-centric music critics, and the LA rooted world view of Keyboard magazine. It could be said that the biggest influence on synth punk might have been from the textures of metal guitars, not synthesis, i.e. the search for a similar wall of sonic thrash, which set it against synth orchestral works.

Considering synthpunk globally the UK and German and French influences did have far more influence. In 1979 Rough Trade issued what were a blend of punk/metal and synth, the notorious Dr. Mix and the Remix album of synth covers of the Iggy and the Stooges and the Troggs, and work from Paris by Métal Urbain, and from Sheffield, Geoff Leigh's EP Chemical Bank. The digression to synth pop at Rough Trade began at this point with the Silicon Teens among others. Punk influence retreated into Cabaret Voltaire and the not quite punk nor pop work of Fad Gadget (aka Frank Tovey), see "Lady Shave". From Germany contributions were at first hidden within the larger wave of Berlin school TD Dream and prog rock, but included D.A.F., followed in 1981 by the room clearing intensity of Conrad Schnitzler's works like Control.

In the US, 1981 marked a major event in synthpunk history, Alan (Alien) Jorgenson's founding of Ministry in Chicago, the most intense of all synthpunk/metal bands until Nine Inch Nails. The back-linkage to Suicide is found in his guest appearance, barely noted by critics, on Alan Vega's uneven 1981 Saturn Strip, one of the Suicide duo's individual projects.