If technology is in danger of sucking the soul out of music, there was a time when electronic developments were massively innovative fun. This well-rounded compilation from Jazzanova’s Alex Barck and Gerd Janson of Runing Back Records ropes together a brace of outings from the early 80s by names like Propaganda, Codek and even jazz-veteran Jean-Luc Ponty. There are echoes of electro, its boogie offspring, post-punk and space-disco, often delivered with a kind of what-does-this-knob-do innocence. The US is represented by the dubs of Sylvester’s ‘I Need Somebody To Love’ and Will Powers’ ‘Adventures In Success’, which was massive on NY radio and hard to track down since. There are no barriers here and marvellous tackle like Talking Drums’ funky disco kneesup ‘Courage’, would’ve stayed in a dusty Belgium record shop if not discovered by Alex. Now it’s here and anyone getting off on the Prins Thomas-space disco thang will fall to the floor masturbating furiously at some of these sounds.
5 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Kris Needs