Buggles - Adventures in Modern Recording

by Tommy Gunnarsson

published: 31 / 3 / 2010

Buggles - Adventures in Modern Recording

Label: Salvo Music
Format: CD

Variable quality second album from Trevor Horn's late 70s/early 80s synthesiser project, which originally released in 1981 has just been reissued on CD for the first time and will appeal to hardcore fans only.

Review

One of the YouTube clips I have watched the most during the last year is one where a temporarily reunited The Buggles play 'Video Killed the Radio Star' live for the very first time, during the Prince’s Trust concert in 2004, which was dedicated to the work of Trevor Horn. It’s fascinating to see and hear how Horn, together with his original studio team, had managed to re-create the sound of the legendary debut single from 1980, which still sounds as amazing as it did back then. The album that followed the single, 'The Plastic Age', included seven more great songs, focusing on the themes of nostalgia and fear of modern technology, and I really don’t lie when I say that it’s one of my favourite albums ever. In 1981, the follow-up, 'Adventures in Modern Records', was released, after Horn and fellow Buggle Geoff Downes had been members of Yes for a year, recording the album 'Drama' with them, and also touring around the world. And I must say that it’s quite audible, when listening to the album. Where the debut album was more or less a synth pop album, the second (and last) album is a more varied bunch of songs. We do get some tracks in the good old Buggles style, like 'Vermillion Sands', 'On TV' (which is the most synth-poppy song on this record) and the single 'I Am a Camera', but we also get some songs that sounds like… well… Yes, which isn’t very good in my book. On this, the first real CD release for 'Adventures In Modern Recordings' (it was released on CD in Japan two times in the 80’s and 90’s), they have added a lot of bonus tracks (actually, there are more bonus tracks than regular tracks, as the original album only included nine songs), ranging from demos to remixes from old 12” singles, most of them recorded in late 1980/early 1981, which means that most of them still have the 'Age of Plastic' sound, but then again, songs are often unreleased for a reason. With that said, some of the demo recordings here are very good, and would have suited fine the first album, in my opinion. It’s good to finally see this album on CD, and the re-release is very well put together, with informative liner notes. But while 'The Age of Plastic' is a must in every music collection, “Adventures In Modern Recordings” is mostly for die-hard fans. And maybe the occasional Yes fan, if there still are any.