Buggles - Adventures In Modern Recording (1981)

Note: this release was originally purchased as an LP, later replaced by a the 2010 CD reissue with 10 bonus tracks (UK import). Judging by the prices I'm currently seeing online, this CD must have gone out-of-print after I purchased it.

I'll sidestep my usual responsibilities by letting Trevor Horn explain the history of his album. Just click the thumbnail below:

I agree that this album has weaker material, but unlike Mr. Horn, I don't like this one better than The Age Of Plastic. As mentioned in the Trouser Press review below, this album is "interesting but not gripping." I should also note that the Horn-Downes split was apparently acrimonious. Horn makes it seem like Downes wasn't involved when Downes appears on 4 tracks and has co-writing & co-producing credits on 3 of those 4. Rightfully, Horn should get most of the credit and if it took going the production of this album to get to later Horn-produced albums like The Lexicon Of Love, 90125, Who's Afraid Of The Art Of Noise, Duck Rock, Welcome To The Pleasuredome, and the stuff with Seal, I'm quite glad it happened.

However, if you like The Age Of Plastic, you're probably better off finding a copy of English Garden by Bruce Woolley & The Camera Club than Adventures In Modern Recording.

Press of the time:

• Smash Hits (5½ out of 10): "the whole is much less than the sum of the parts"
• Record Mirror: "a weedy piece of whimsy"
• Billboard: "electronic and progressive rock experimentations"
• CashBox: "Despite their light-hearted pop image, this duo did pioneer the use of many electronic and synthesizer effects that more serious-minded British groups are pushing today."
• Trouser Press: "interesting but not gripping. Who's this intended for?"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #161
• CashBox: #165

Tracks: My crack staff informs me that I Am A Camera was released as a US single, but failed to chart. My top picks are Beatnik, Vermillion Sands, and to a lesser extent, the title track and Inner City.

Bonus tracks: Includes 2 b-sides, the 12" mix of I Am A Camera, plus 7 demos. "Interesting but not gripping," but even more so. Leans more prog rock than synthpop. Two of the demos were given to Yes, another to Dollar.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Nothing from 1981; I wasn't aware of this album until the mid-'90s. When I finally learned of its existence, I picked up a used copy of the vinyl record as it had yet to be released on CD.

I saw "The Buggles" in concert in Houston on April 28, 2023 when they opened for Seal. They included a song from this album in the six song set. Downes wasn't invited and it was really the Trevor Horn show: he played bass, sang vocals, and it was all songs he had a hand in producing. To wit:

• Two Tribes (Frankie Goes to Hollywood cover; instrumental)
• Living in the Plastic Age (from The Age Of Plastic)
• Elstree (from The Age Of Plastic)
• I Am a Camera (from Adventures In Modern Recording)
• Owner of a Lonely Heart (Yes cover)
• Video Killed the Radio Star (from The Age Of Plastic)

Then the band changed clothes and returned to the stage as Seal's backing band. Yes, I bought an overpriced concert tee (two actually - one for Buggles, another for Seal). For what it's worth, when I saw Asia perform in April, 2008 in Dallas, Downes donned a silver sequined jacket and the band performed Video Killed the Radio Star.

Previously revisited for the blog:
The Age Of Plastic (1980)

Buggles - The Age Of Plastic (1980)

Note: this release was received as a gift as an LP, later replaced by a CD.

Even though this album had a January 1980 release date, in my mind it's a summer album. It's also a fun, pioneering synthpop album - most of the recording techniques and synth technology were cutting edge when this was recorded in 1979. I didn't hear this album until the summer of 1982, when my friend Jim gave me his copy of the LP. If memory serves, it was a secondhand promotional release he had picked up for 99 cents at Tower Bargain Center. I was intrigued and, ultimately, not disappointed. Great synth work and production, average song writing, and fair-to-middlin' vocals. This isn't a 5 star album, but it was just what I needed when I got it and started a lifelong appreciation for Trevor Horn's production work. Not even 37 minutes long, it seems like the album is just getting started when it finishes, but I'll just play it again. And not take it too seriously.

Critics are all over the map on this one. I've seen it rated anywhere from 2 stars to 4½ stars. There's a lot of crossover between this album and Bruce Woolley and The Camera Club's English Garden (1979). I made the argument in the previous post that the Buggles' version of Video Killed The Radio Star was a cover, but was rightly corrected in the comment section.

Press of the Time:

• Stereo Review: "They can't sing worth a lick, their technological obsessions are already clichés"
• Smash Hits (8 out of 10): "GREAT TUNES throughout"
• Trouser Press: "could pass as a B-grade science-fiction soundtrack"
• Record Mirror (★★★): "it's a good idea that falls a bit flat"
• RPM Weekly: "the group's music is heavily synthesized and very pop oriented in sound"

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks:  History has been kind to Video Killed The Radio Star, becoming one of the go-to MTV trivia questions. It is heard much more on the radio these days than it was when it was released (for the record, it spent one week in the Top 40, peaking at #40 on December 15, 1979). But the album is so much greater than the futuristic sum of its parts. I don't skip any tracks, but my favorites included the aforementioned VKTRS, Living In The Plastic Age, Clean Clean, and Elstree. All four were released as singles with accompanying rudimentary videos (also considered cutting edge at the time). They all charted in the UK:

• Video Killed The Radio Star #1
• Living In The Plastic Age #16
• Clean Clean #38
• Elstree #55

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  I always enjoyed this album, but my friend Scott absolutely adored it and would usually put it on whenever he came over. Scott being Scott, he never asked first, he just did it.