At the core of it all This Is 1983 is a riotously fun listen and while it’s possible to simply take it at face value, in true eighties style, there’s definitely the feeling that there’s something much more going on underneath the neon sheen.
[Purchase] We are living in a new age of materialism, of self-interest, apathy and an undeserved sense of entitlement, of punch-drunk police, terrorist atrocities and horrendous natural disasters, where the bankers turned out to be even bigger wankers, health and safety is the new common sense and aspiration has replaced ambition, ruining it for everyone. We hide more and more behind endless flickering screens that always have to be brand new and bigger/smaller/bigger/smaller, spouting vitriol and nonsense in equal measure, hoping to be agreed with or at least listened to but simply becoming lost in the endless torrents of “information.” Want to escape from all of this? Well why not don some Carrera shades, slot a C90 cassette of songs recorded off the radio into a Walkman or the car stereo of an Audi Quattro or Volksvagen Scirocco, turn up the volume and escape to 1983?
The influence, style and sound of the eighties has been slowing creeping back into the musical firmament for quite some time now, heard in the recent glut of nu-kosmische releases, the rediscovery of the cassette and the embrace of glossy analogue sounds as innovation. Even in the commercial arena it has become fashionable to be defiantly eighties again and pop veterans like OMD, The Human League, Pet Shop Boys and Duran Duran have all returned in a style that is unashamedly retro. Though some of them have come close, most notably The Human League with “Credo,” replete as it is with absurd and often seemingly meaningless lyrics (“Leave your cornflakes in your freezers. Leave your chocolate and your cheeses”), unembarrassed bravado and minimalist approach, the results have generally been just a little bit too polished to fully recreate that true early eighties feeling.
Admittedly they’re a damn sight more effective than newer artists trying their hand at a fresh take on the decade, like the intolerably shrill LaRoux or the perfectly styled but ultimately rather lackluster newbies like Hurts. Many of these artists have tried to “improve” on the eighties sound with ultra-slick production values that may often sound great but ultimately miss the point. Surely if you’re going to try and recreate that quintessential sound then why try and change the inherent quirks and idiosyncrasies, or remedy the limitations and faults that are the defining characteristics of an archetypal eighties record?
On Risk Risk’s debut full length album This Is 1983 released through the ultra-geeky, uber-bonkers, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amiga worshipping Astro Chicken label, however, there are no such modern tweaks. This is pure, died-in-the-wool eighties retro synth pop and disco in all its neon-lit, shoulder-pad wearing, big-haired, aerobasizing glory direct from the years of Gary Numan, Ultravox, Spandau Ballet and Heaven 17. Thankfully there’s not a hint of the now insufferably overused autotune here either. What we get is pure Kraftwerkien vocals: blank, matter of fact, sometimes slightly flat and often simply spoken word that chime with a true understanding of what makes those records great. Couple this with all analogue sources, hand-played synth lines and tongue only mildly lodged in cheek lyrics and you have an artist who truly inhabits the era.
As is often the way with pop albums, several tracks really stand out and are infectious in that can’t them out of your head way. The “Pocket Calculator” referencing “Digital Love” (“Plugging in, my home computer. Pressing buttons, to load the program”) in particular could easily have been a smash hit if it had been released back then, and Risk Risk’s fantastically blank delivery of “Go Go! Go! Go! Go!” is pure class. Pulsing, hi-NRG tracks like album opener “Are We On Air?” or “Streetwalk” personify eighties pop, the latter a list song cataloging walks through the streets of various well known cities and landmarks to in yer face, stomping kick drums, warbling synthesizer pads, and a world weary shout of “Streetwalk!” as the only chorus… once this stuff is in, it’s in forever.
If there’s a focal track that embodies the album title it is “Wake Up,” telling the story of a time of greed and capitalism, referencing Wall Street and the computer boom as well as any number of now hilariously dated eighties pastimes (“I see the women wearing pastels… Aerobic workout on TV”). But is he talking about then, now, or both? Then there are the big disco numbers like the unforgettably catchy “Adventures in Modern Lifestyle,” Risk Risk lamenting the neon-lit cities of the future reduced to a casino in which to gamble for your fortune as well as further eighties tropes with a synth-bed that doesn’t quite work. “I’m a dancer in the dark. I like dancing in the park!” he intones on “Dancer in the Dark” (is that reference to Les Rhythmes Digitale’s ‘Darkdancer?’), again recalling all those absurd lyrics from the eighties that existed simply because… what the hell… they rhyme!
There’s not a weak track on the album and if a few fall a little flat it is only because they reside in the shadow of even better ones: “Limousine Talk” feels a little awkward after the brilliant “Digital Love” and “Riders In The Night” couldn’t hope to live up to the genuinely hilarious “Wake Up” that immediately precedes it. They may arguably lack the same level of catchy dynamism or memorable delivery but this is still an exceptionally strong and consistent debut. The album concludes on a rather sombre note with “Imagination,” all Visage fx, quivering synth-theramin, minimal, glinting new romantic synth-lines wreathed around a plaintive vocal and cautionary lyrics. We discover that perhaps we haven’t escaped at all. The wheel turns, does it not?
At the core of it all This Is 1983 is a riotously fun listen and while it’s possible to simply take it at face value, in true eighties style, there’s definitely the feeling that there’s something much more going on underneath the neon sheen. Risk Risk is going to find this hard to top.
This Is 1983 is out now on Astro Chicken. [Purchase]
AC03 “Risk Risk – This is 1983” TEASER by Astro Chicken Records
