1980s 66 Items

Copy closer to NM

Yukako Hayase’s 1988 debut album, “mizu to tsuchi”, is now being reissued for the first time ever! Hayase made a name for herself with her ennui, whisper voice along with her famous cover by Yuko Ando. Several artists have cited Hayase as an influence on their work, including Kahimi Karie. The record is made up of 7 songs, amounting to approximately 30 minutes of excellent pop music.

Expanded double-LP of »Exploded View« from Dutch minimal synth pioneers The Actor. Originally released in 1982 by Trumpett Tapes, the album was repressed for the first time by Mannequin Records in 2014, and is now coming back to life again in 2022, enriched by an extra full-length of demos from a 1981-1984 period.

The Communards’ sophomore album ‘Red’ consolidated the genius of the musical partnership between Bronski Beat singer Jimmy Somerville and pianist Richard Coles. Fusing synths and hi-NRG production with lush string and horn arrangements, The Communards straddled pop and the political, the album’s themes set against the political unrest and moral panic of late 80s Britain. A global smash upon its release, this remastered and expanded 35Th Anniversary Edition features an extensive array of B-sides, live tracks, demo versions and remixes, including classic mixes by legendary 80s club doyens Shep Pettibone, Clivilles & Cole (better known as C&C Music Factory) and a euphoric new 2022 remix of ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’ by UK outfit The 2 Bears (Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard and DJ Raf Rundell). Available on Deluxe Double CD , Collector White & Red Double Vinyl , Black Vinyl. All editions remastered , with new sleeve notes.

The Communards’ sophomore album ‘Red’ consolidated the genius of the musical partnership between Bronski Beat singer Jimmy Somerville and pianist Richard Coles. Fusing synths and hi-NRG production with lush string and horn arrangements, The Communards straddled pop and the political, the album’s themes set against the political unrest and moral panic of late 80s Britain. A global smash upon its release, this remastered and expanded 35Th Anniversary Edition features an extensive array of B-sides, live tracks, demo versions and remixes, including classic mixes by legendary 80s club doyens Shep Pettibone, Clivilles & Cole (better known as C&C Music Factory) and a euphoric new 2022 remix of ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’ by UK outfit The 2 Bears (Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard and DJ Raf Rundell). Available on Deluxe Double CD , Collector White & Red Double Vinyl , Black Vinyl. All editions remastered , with new sleeve notes.

Soundway’s telescope to forgotten and lesser known musical realms extends to Argentina on a brand new, triple vinyl compilation, Síntesis Moderna: An Alternative Vision Of Argentinian Music 1980-1990. A digital rewilding of computer and synth powered music, dripping with an impressive variety of influence, from Italo disco, electro-funk, post punk, tango, ambience, jazz-fusion, Afro-folk and techno pop. The record is a cultural document of a musical decade transformed after the lifting of restrictions of English language music post Falklands War, and the end of Argentina’s military dictatorship.

Engürdetz perhaps weren’t a known name to the vast music devouring public - but for a brief period in time & to a scene of chosen few, they were a name associated with raw, gut-opening & kill em' all industrial mayhem. Made up by the duo of Drajan (Brainbombs, Diskad, Orchestra Of Constant Distress a.o.) & Lanchy (Brainbombs, Totalitär, Swinehood a.o.).

With only three extremely limited cassettes released between 1986-1988 they managed to maintain a place in Swedish industrial history - connected to acclaimed & contemporary names such as Lille Roger (later Brigher Death Now) & Arvid Tuba.

’Sillmjölke’ differed from the duo’s previous outputs. The tracks had moved closer into the formula of a ”standard” song formula & the influences from British industrialists such as Whitehouse had become more apparent, along with sections that made your mind venture to the freer & ambient sides of Swell Maps (even if they didn’t necessarily know who Swell Maps were at the time).

Pioneers, that’s what we call them. Not properly a giant team, but a bunch of forward thinking producers. In the heyday of the italo disco there was some forward thinking, a new way to address the club scene. 1985 is the golden year and if you want to get to the core of the synth-pop experience look no further ! This previously unreleased compilation collects a series of unbelievable tracks. An outstanding vision featuring la crème de la crème of the early 80s scene. All the way from electro wizard Alexander Robotnick to the astonishing performance of vocalist Mya Fracassini, through the French connection of Bigazzi brothers of Mon Bijou.

Blondie’s first concert in 17 years on February 10, 1999, at New York’s Town Hall, was an
emotional one. This show, brilliantly captured on the aptly named “Live”, features the founding
members Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Jimmy Destri and Clem Burke and includes remarkable
classics such as ‘Atomic’, ‘The Tide Is High’, ‘One Way Or Another’, ‘Call Me’ and ‘Heart of Glass’,
as well as songs from their successful comeback album “No Exit” with the worldwide hit single
‘Maria’.
“Live” returns to vinyl in a magnificent Collector’s Edition. Fans can look forward to listening to
Blondie on Strictly Limited 180g White Vinyl in a beautiful 2LP Gatefold packaging featuring
original photographs from the concert in 1999.

Nothing compared to Prince. As a performer he was known for his flamboyant style and showmanship. This was recorded during the Purple Rain tour, the album that spent 24 at number one and made Prince a superstar. Part 1 and part 2 together create the perfect combo where, accompanied by The Revolution, Prince plays all the hits: ‘Let’s Go Crazy’, ‘1999’, ‘When Doves Cry’, ‘I Would Die 4 U’ and ofcourse: ‘Purple Rain’’. An unstoppable songwriter, the multi-instrumentalist also penned plenty of hits for other artists until his early death 2016 at the age of 57.

Exclusive live performance straight from the ‘Construction Time Again Tour’.

EU reissue from 2019. tiny wear. Original inner sleeve. Vinyl is close to NM.

Vinyl with a couple of light scuffs

Limited to 500 copies.

2024 Repress

Previously unreleased material from Steve’s private recordings, remastered from the original masters, 140g vinyl, 4 page photography insert with liner notes. Three emotional years in the making, Be With and Efficient Space finally present Steve Hiett’s Girls In The Grass. Pressed alongside the long awaited reissue of his one-shot masterpiece Down On The Road By The Beach, these ten balearic soul instrumentals are of equal necessity; unrivalled beauty rescued from the fashion photographer-guitarist’s Paris Tapes (1986-1997).

Emotional Rescue returns to the music of British "pop" band Furniture, with an EP of the band's own extended versions, remixes and unreleased takes of their particular output. Taken from three 12"s that followed When The Boom Was On (ERC072), the songs included cast a light on their development from 3 to 5 piece, adding Sally Still (bass) and Maya Gilder (keyboards) and the new male/female frontline. The subsequent broadening of their line-up and sound meant they could start to address the kind of pop music they wanted to play. After the early releases garneered radio play and reviews, Furniture were launched into the melee of '80s pop. An anomaly, the band found they attracted a specific kind of "intense" follower, who were often beguiled by Furniture's freaky normality. This was addressed on the 1984 release, 'I Can't Crack'. A more urgent version of the sound Furniture had debuted with 'Why Are We In Love', the track, sung by Tim, was based around a sequencer-like rhythm played live by drummer Hamilton Lee, and a clarinet part played by Tim's brother, Larry Whelan. A mix of bleakness and euphoria, the song was and is a favourite of the band and considered one of their best self-productions, as well as becoming a latter day club play. This is followed by the studio experiment 'Throw Away The Script', where the band wrestled with sequencers and synth-pop, but then countered it with a free-jazz sax solo. Found on the flip of the double A -side of 'Love Your Shoes' 12", this instrumental version too became an underground club hit, including a cult play at Fran Lenaer's influential Valencia club, Spook Factory. Played loud, the studio mastery, trickery and oft-accidental discoveries come to the fore, with tissue-damaging frequencies giving extra sound system shaking bottom end. The B-side continues the band's love of making extended mixes with 'Dancing The Hard Bargain'. Co-produced with Tim Parry (formerly of Blue Zoo), they threw everything at these 12" versions. Able to relax and focus on the sounds they really liked, rather than the ones thought more commercial, this can be clearly heard on this compelling, percussive mix, a stop-start breakdown becoming a band hallmark. To close this collection is the mammoth 'Bullet'. Again sung by Whelan, an edited version of which debuted on the 1986 Survival compilation of Furniture tracks called 'The Lovemongers', here this previously unreleased original take is centred on a mesmeric tape loop, live drums and a guest appearance by violinist Helena Bjorelius.

Reprint of the album published in 1995 by Milestone Records. It is an album that collects the first songs of the group that we now know as QUEEN.

Celebrating a Decade of Dark Entries with a compilation titled Tens Across The Board. We revisit our roster and chose 10 songs from 10 bands from 10 different countries spanning the years 1981-1993. The songs flow in chronological order and have never appeared on vinyl, with 7 of the songs previously unreleased. Features tracks from PARADE GROUND, DISENO CORBUSIER, LENA PLATONOS, VICTROLA, BORGHESIA, TOM ELLARD, X-RAY POP, SECOND DECAY, FROM NURSERY TO MISERY, and CYRNAI. All songs have been remastered by GEORGE HORN at Fantasy Studios. The vinyl is housed in a custom designed jacket by ELOISE LEIGH featuring our label’s colors black-white-red with connect-the-dots pattern linking the 10 songs via maps/timeline/location, all relating to the reissue process, plus source images from San Francisco, our hometown. For this landmark release we've also printed a 2-sided fold-out wall poster that includes every artist we've released in our first 10 years 2009-2019 in black, red and silver metallic ink, plus an 8x11 insert with lyrics, notes and photos.

This 1983 album appears on vinyl for the first time.

Previously unreleased material from Steve’s private recordings, remastered from the original masters, 140g vinyl, 4 page photography insert with liner notes. Three emotional years in the making, Be With and Efficient Space finally present Steve Hiett’s Girls In The Grass. Pressed alongside the long awaited reissue of his one-shot masterpiece Down On The Road By The Beach, these ten balearic soul instrumentals are of equal necessity; unrivalled beauty rescued from the fashion photographer-guitarist’s Paris Tapes (1986-1997).

2019 vinyl edition with printed inner-sleeve (with the lyrics). Includes a bonus 7″ of original track ‘Chacun fait (C’ qui lui plaît). Spring 1982: Grégory Ken and Valli aka Chagrin d’Amour bursts into the scene with ‘Chacun fait (C’qui lui plaît)’. The track gets 9 airplays a day on the newly created NRJ radio and 35 000 copies of the 7″ are sold every day ! In the blink of an eye, a team of experienced musicians is gathered around prominent sound engineer Dominique Blanc-Francard: Slim Pezin (guitars), Bernard Paganotti (bass), Philippe Drai (drums) and Jean-Pierre Sabar (keyboards). After a few days in New-York with Richard Avedon who shot the cover pictures the album is ready and set to become a cult release over more than three decades.

Minimal Wave presents an LP of tracks by Belgian synthwave luminaries The Misz, entitled The Lonely Crowd. The Misz formed in Gent in 1983 by Jan Van den Broeke and Dries Dekocker at a time when they had both just relocated from the country. They lived on the same street and collaborated freely with the limited equipment they had, which always centered around the Fostex 250 4-track tape recorder. They used an unknown monophonic synthesizer, casio synths, roland drum machines, hand drums and guitars through effects pedals, improvising with their voices and often and included friends for additional voices and sounds. They captured these sonic experiments and sometimes released them on cassette in editions of 100-200. They were also included on numerous cassette compilations throughout the 1980s on labels like Mad In Belgium, The Cassette Factory, 3RIO Tapes, Minimart production, Fraction Studio, Cauchy Productions, Home Product, R.R. products, ZNS Tapes, and Body Records.

The Misz described themselves as young, immature and bit strange yet totally bold and fearless. They sang about what surrounded them from world politics and environmental catastrophes to love and lust. The songs on The Lonely Crowd span from various cassette releases and have been remastered from their original reel to reel tapes.

The LP is pressed on 180 gram vinyl as a limited edition of 600 copies, the first 100 are in white and the remaining 500 in black. The cover and inner sleeve are printed on matte heavy card stock featuring photographic collages, typography and design by Peter Miles.

We are proud to release a compilation from British post-punk/Futurist group Ghosts of Dance formed in North Devon in 1981. The members were Yvette Norris (vocals), Kevin Maynard (drums), Daryl Hunt (bass), Mark Butcher (keyboards), and Pete Heaton (guitar). Ghosts of Dance took their name from the song 'Ghosts' by David Sylvian which appeared on the first Japan album. After playing an early gig in Barnstaple, a gentleman in the audience named Richard Newman expressed his interest to start a record label and release their music. Richard scheduled a recording session for the band at Otter Studios in Georgeham with producer Harry Williamson, son of Henry Williamson, member of progressive rock band Gong. The debut single ‘Ghosts of Dance’ was released in 1982 on Plastic Canvas Records to mixed reviews as it was very different from anything being released at the time. Our compilation includes their debut single along with 9 bonus tracks recorded between 1981 and 1983 on vinyl for the first time. The band call themselves “Vocal Trance Music” on the 7” sleeve credits and it’s accurate. We call it melancholic pop with gloomy atmosphere and dream-like melodies. The final track shows the band moving in a New Romantic direction with Mark taking over the main vocals. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. Each copy is housed in a jacket featuring original artwork by John Hurford and includes an insert with photos, lyrics and liner notes by Pete Heaton.

Limited to 500 copies.

• Cover art by famed artist Hiroshi Nagai
• Extensive liner notes and bios
• Compiled by Andy Cabic (Vetiver), Zach Cowie (DJ & music supervisor) and Mark “Frosty” McNeill (dublab)
• 2xLP housed in a deluxe wide spine jacket with over sized fold-out booklet, full color printed inner sleeves, and custom die-cut obi card
• Remastered audio

Pacific Breeze documents Japan’s blast into the stratosphere. By the 1960s, the nation had achieved a postwar miracle, soaring to become the world’s second largest economy. Thriving tech exports sent The Rising Sun over the moon. Its pocket cassette players, bleeping video games, and gleaming cars boomed worldwide, wooing pleasure points and pumping Japanese pockets full of yen.

Japan’s financial buoyancy also permeated its popular culture, birthing an audio analog called City Pop. This new sound arose in the mid ’70s and ruled through the ’80s, channeling the country’s contemporary psyche. It was sophisticated music mirroring Japan’s punch-drunk prosperity. City Pop epitomized the era, providing a soundtrack for emerging urbanites. An optimistic spirit buzzed through the music in neon-bathed, gauzy tableaus coated with groove-heavy strokes.

Pacific Breeze is an expertly compiled collection of choice cuts that range from silky smooth grooves to innovative techno pop bangers and everything in between. Long-revered by crate diggers and adventurous music heads, this music has never been released outside of Japan until now. Including key artists like Taeko Ohnuki and Minako Yoshida, as well as cult favorites Hitomi Tohyama and Hiroshi Sato, the long-awaited release also features newly commissioned cover painting by Tokyo-based artist Hiroshi Nagai, whose iconic images of resort living have graced the covers of many classic City Pop albums of the 1980s.

Many of the key City Pop players evolved from the Japanese New Music scene of the early ’70s, as heard on Light In The Attic’s acclaimed Even a Tree Can Shed Tears: Japanese Folk & Rock 1969-1973, the first release of the ongoing Japan Archival Series. In fact, you could say City Pop set sail with a champagne smash from Happy End, the freakishly talented subversives who included amongst their ranks Haruomi Hosono and Shigeru Suzuki, both featured on this compilation. As Michael K. Bourdaghs noted in his book, Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon, this music was, “Deconstructing the line between imitation and authenticity.” Some of the best City Pop teeters in this zone—easy listening with mutant exotica, tilted techno-pop, and steamy boogie bubbling beneath the gloss.

Vocoder were a quartet from Zaragoza, Spain formed in 1981. Keyboardists Antonio Laval, Alfonso Olarte and Antonio Tenas met while attending university, and were later joined by vocalist Pilar Pellicer. They recorded several demos with synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines, creating a soundtrack for the clubs and dance floors. After sending demos to various record companies, they signed a deal with Aviador Dro's sublabel Neón Danza and released two EPs, "What Happens Now"/"Radio" in 1984, "Mindanao"/"Amor de Robot" in 1985 and a self-titled LP which was produced by Michel Huygen (Neuronium) in 1987. Vocoder also appeared on the TV program La Bola De Cristal, presenting their music video for "What Happens Now," in which the band danced in a supermarket with a shopping cart full of synthesizers. The group mutually disbanded in 1988 and continued to organize concerts for other groups touring in Spain. Cuadro Sinóptico compiles both two-song 12" maxi singles as one four-song EP. All four songs were recorded during 1984-85 at Doublewtronics Studios in Madrid, Spain, using the most advanced and sophisticated techniques of time in digital recording and Direct Metal Mastering (DMM). The band utilized many professional synthesizers of the time: Roland Juno 60, Prophet V, Korg Poly 61, Yamaha DX-7, Roland TR-909 and the Linn Drum, which was used by most Italo Disco artists. These songs were recorded in the highest fidelity with disc jockeys in mind. Genuinely catchy, Vocoder combined soaring melodies with cybernetic coldness. A futuristic sound for the modern age topped with Pilar's charismatic vocals. Lyrically they address robotic love, disco dancing, and the tropical island of Mindanao, and sing in Spanish, English and French. All songs on Cuadro Sinóptico have been remastered from the original reel to reel master tapes for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA. Each LP includes a double-sided insert with photos, lyrics and liner notes by Flemming Dalum, a Danish DJ who introduced much of the world to Vocoder in 2008 on his “French Spanish Italo Connection” mix. Vocoder want you to barricade yourself in the discotheques and dance away the depression.

Limited to 999 hand-silkscreened numbered copies!