Tears Of Technology

2LP : Includes bonus track The Turquoise Swimming Pools - "The Winds"

At the turn of the 80s, a new generation of musicians appeared who saw synthesisers not as dehumanizing machines but as musical instruments that could be coaxed into creating modern, beautiful and decidedly emotional music. It was almost as if the musicians were intentionally creating this music to prove the doubters wrong. Compiled by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs,
“The Tears Of Technology” celebrates this brief period when scruffy synth duos from the provinces broke through and took over British pop. Like mellotrons before them, synths could project a strange and deep emotion; listen to OMD’s ‘Sealand’, or the Human League’s ‘WXJL Tonight’, and it was clear that  something in the wiring had an inherent melancholy. 

“The Tears Of Technology” celebrates an era of electronic melancholia, synthesized intimacies and insights – even Tomorrow’s World didn’t see that coming.

2LP (CD tracklist same except**)

Side 1
01 Jean Walks In Fresh Fields - China Crisis
02 Grey Skies - Turquoise Days
03 Real To Real - Simple Minds
04 Tidal Flow - Illustration
05 An Evening In The Ray - Care
06 The Winds - The Turquoise Swimming Pools** (2LP only)

Side 2
01 Youth - Soft Cell
02 Europe After The Rain - John Foxx
03 Personal Loss - Patrik Fitzgerald
04 Lights Of April - Eyeless In Gaza
05 Sealand - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

Side 3
01 Private Plane - Thomas Leer
02 Direct Lines - Electronic Circus
03 Unless - The Pale Fountains
04 October (Love Song) - Chris & Cosey
05 A Map Of You - New Musik

Side 4
01 WXJL Tonight - The Human League
02 Christiana - Paul Haig
03 Tiny Children - The Teardrop Explodes
04 Behind The Shades - Oppenheimer Analysis
05 Feather Bed - Trevor Bastow