Through the years, you can hear the exit from the TG days - breaking free from the noise yet holding on to a charming primitivism. With this, they entered a period along with many other cold-war era electronic musicans who used the machines to paint bleak melodies, more eerie and haunting than anything new released in the last 10 years on Cleopatra or Metropolis. Through the 1980s, the techno-pop period holds a lot of fond memories for many of us who experienced these songs on Nettwerk Sound Samplers and WaxTrax! comps, but the sound is incredibly dated.
Entering the 90s, much of the thin pop wash was being slowly let go - grooves became deeper, heavier and more instrumental, all leading up to their current sound which is one of sheer brilliance, audio mastery and maturity. The more I listen to the "Union" concert CD from 1998, the sadder I feel not having been there. If you're near London on September 1st, they'll be spinning records at the old ICA, a favorite stomping ground for their Industrial days.
samples:
- Heartbeat (from Heartbeat)
- Just Like You (from Heartbeat)
- Driving Blind (from Songs of Love and Lust)
- Talk to Me (from Songs of Love and Lust)
- Tantalize (from Songs of Love and Lust)
- Stolen Kisses (from Techno Primitiv)
- Cowboys in Cuba (from Trance)
- Re-Education Through Labor (from Trance)
- Morning (from Techno Primitiv)
- Misunderstandings (from Techno Primitiv)