The Modern – Album Sampler

Human League. There, I’ve said it. Opener ‘Industry’ is every bit as a paper-thin and 80s as anything from the Sheffield trio’s career. Disco chicks and haircuts. It gets better and better from hereonin.

You know from the name (well, if you’re owt like me) that ‘Discothéque Française’ is likely to be pretty cracking. “He took her to a disco/To dance the night away/He took her to a disco/A Discothéque Française” A gorgeous use of vocals, very much in the Air bent with a Mexican wave of a recurring sample that shimmies from ear to ear.

At this point I have to confess to a deep love of drum machines. I don’t know why, I can’t explain it, maybe it’s a reaction to my mum playing Phil Collins in my ear ad nauseam when I was just an innocent child.

‘Goodbye Means Forever’ is a perfect study in 80s production-orama ballads. Think Berlin, think Nena, think Martika and then think how ace it would be if they formed a team of ass-kicking, all singing, all discoing crime fighters. Just for fun.

So anyway, I love drum machines, I love twiddly little bits of electronica-glitter and I love 80s funky basslines. Which brings me on to ‘Tokyo Girls’. As blatant as ‘Turning Japanese’ and as sleek and sexy as ‘Girls On Film’. For a more obscure reference point look at ‘Hong Kong Garden’ by Siouxie and the Banshees.

And lastly the jewel in the crown – ‘Suburban Culture’. I never thought I would be writing this in 2004 and not meaning it as an insult but: the opening sounds like Jean Michel Jarre. And then it’s Kraftwerk all the way. Eurokitsch from South London – magic.

Warning: May cause you to try and do the Robot Dance.

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