Medical Records, since the label’s inception, has been a two record at a time imprint. Now it’s time to buck the trend. Medical have three, count ’em, three new LP’s hitting the shelves.
Medical Records, since the label’s inception, has been a two record at a time imprint. Now it’s time to buck the trend. Medical have three, count ’em, three new LP’s hitting the shelves. First up is a new collaborative release with Crispy Nuggets, Electroconvulsive Therapy Vol 1.
The compilation is a smorgasbord of synth wave obscurity. Only one of the names is familiar to me, but the lack of recognition is often the beauty of the genre. First up comes the joy-filled fairground synth of Electronic Circus. Arpeggios leap across scales, keys racing against a staccato beat. Vocals cry, cutting through the honeyed chords for a wonderfully divergent piece of machine pop. Psychic Youth follow with some EBM infused Electro. Speed is again a feature, pace being tapered by hollowed vocals. Aaah…! deliver an adrenaline laced lament. Punk and Industrial influences are present across the LP, but the impact of New Wave is undeniably heavy as with the clean-cut chords of Shazam. There is a delightful D.I.Y. quality running through the entire compilation, perhaps embodied in Arto’s childlike compuphonics in “Kwai Systeme.” Electronic Circus’ second piece “Le Chorale” sits removed on the album, a colourful piece of modern piano. Psychic Youth offer up “Step in Time,” a track some may recognize from Solvent’s excellent minimal synth mix for Ghostly. Berliner Strasse take guitars and mince them through a drum machine, running innocent analogue chords against the accelerating melody. One of the longest tracks closes, Arto’s “Betty Boop.” Echoes of ADN Ckrystall roll forth as slanted harmonies are countered with squashed beats and lost lyrics. A clawing close.
The Crispy Nuggets and Medical collab has already gleaned some quality results. There’s a lot of talk about obscure synth music, with the term being almost immediately linked with unknown artists and unheard self-released cassettes. Electroconvulsive Therapy Vol 1 is at the coalface of this. Tapes and 7”s releases on one-off labels some thirty years ago. Fledgling new wave shares space with early experimenters and mechanized punks on a compilation celebrating those young artists who dared to be different.
Electroconvulsive Therapy Vol 1 is available on Medical.
