If you own any records from The Faint, Ladytron, Fisherspooner, I am Spoonbender, Adult, or G.D. Luxxe, owning no Fad Gadget albums is completely unacceptable. Mute began releasing Fad Gadget (their first signing in fact) back in 1979, and over the course of four full-length albums, Frank Tovey managed to firmly establish electronic music as a new form of punk, combining abrasive synths, punchy drum machines, the occasional vibrophone or other organic instruments, and clever lyrics.
Over the years, I have played Fad Gadget to many friends and have always recommended 'Frank Tovey: The Fad Gadget Singles' as a starting point, but that album was only ever available through mail-order in the UK as far as I can remember. There hasn't been a real interest in Fad Gadget in years. It's a shame, however, as analogue-synth punk has become all the rage with the hipster indie kids. Regardless, Tovey is clearly an original. This collection gathers everything from that collection (all the A-sides and a few more classics), adds a couple more b-sides and an entire second CD of remixes. Forceful power-synth gems like "For Whom the Bells Toll" and "Collapsing New People" (satirizing Einsturzende Neubauten or club-going industro-goths) will be recognizable to anybody who has visited goth/industrial clubs while "I Discover Love" is an easy pleaser for the swinging Foetus fans. My favorites include the much-overlooked single "Life On the Line" and incredibly haunting "Lady Shave". My only complaints about this collection are about the poor mastering job: the levels on disc one are so loud that there's an unavoidable clipping going on, while much of the material on disc two has been mastered from the records themselves. But hey, clicks and cuts are "in" as well, so many people won't mind as much as me. 'The Best of' is available now in Europe and will be released next week in North America. Add it to the Christmas list of your favorite analogue-synth lovin' punker.
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