Despite having exercised a massive influence over music since 1973, and having recently released two of his most revolutionary and influential albums – Low and Heroes– over the course of 1977, David Bowie was conspicuously absent from Sounds’ list, possibly because he had stolen a march on the paper and had already identified and championed several of the influences their list contained. With his cultural radar constantly tuned into the musical zeitgeist in search of new inspirations and interests, a number of up-and-coming acts exploring music’s new experimental and electronic possibilities had already caught Bowie’s eye, in particular Kraftwerk and the robotic ‘motorik’ disco sounds of Giorgio Moroder’s work with Donna Summer. Music is always evolving from one thing into another, and it’s a very interesting process to read about. Richard’s book is a thorough, well-executed delight for fans of the electronic music genre and puts together all the pieces of information which you possibly already knew in the correct sequence, with myths dissolved and facts confirmed. It draws on actual reality from the time it happened rather than myth and misinformation and is a highly researched report of the music that machines make. Yes, this situation impacted on the bands that we are talking about, there were pressures on people to be more commercial when one of the reasons that they were attracted to Virgin in the first place was so that they could be less commercial should they choose to be. I don’t know that I have a biggest hero as such, but in the summer Karl Bartos from Kraftwerk published a book, ‘The Sound of the Machine’, with Omnibus Press, the same publishers who are putting out my book ‘Listening to the Music the Machines Make’, and I was able to go to one of Karl’s events and was introduced to him afterwards which was a huge thrill. He was absolutely lovely and very funny.

Using the subtitle ‘Inventing Electronic Pop 1978 – 1983’, while the book primarily sources period archive material, additional input comes from Neil Arthur, Dave Ball, Andy Bell, Rusty Egan, John Foxx, Gareth Jones, Daniel Miller and Martyn Ware. Meanwhile, Vince Clarke contributes the foreword while a third verse lyric from the ULTRAVOX song ‘Just For A Moment’ provides the book’s fitting appellation. Author Richard Evans delves deeply into “a true golden age of British pop” in his just-published book “Listening to the Music the Machines Make: Inventing Electronic Pop, 1979-1983,” which tells the story of the revolution spurred by the adoption of the synthesizer as a primary musical instrument.

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Martin’s interests include: music cities and future cities; hidden histories of late twentieth-century alternative music - specifically punk, post-punk and electronic music; and also music journalism in the UK and US printed and online music presses. His current research projects explore the cultural economy of key cities, the role of music in future cultural growth, and the place of music archive in the creation of a cultural city identity. In the Chair is Martin James is Professor of Creative and Cultural Industries at Solent University. Highly anticipated… as a book which dissects the ‘golden age’ of British music between 1977-1983, it’s a must-read.’ Electronic Sound

Recalling the brief time he had been present during Devo’s recording sessions in Germany, Ultravox’s Billy Currie would later recollect, ‘It wasn’t a great atmosphere. It was peculiar. I mean the singer was on the floor playing with cards, he looked like he was in his own unreal world.’ Although Currie did qualify that opinion with the generous observation that ‘We were in the middle of a tour, so we probably looked pretty strange too.’ But if you are looking for a deeper more analytical approach that seeks to place the music into its relevant political and cultural landscape, as Jon Savage did for Punk and Simon Reynolds did for Post-punk and Glam, then this work will leave you unsatisfied. And the author provides almost no conclusion, with the narrative simply coming to a fairly abrupt end. Martyn Ware – previously of Sheffield experimental electronic act The Future, but by 1978 one of the founding members of The Human League – had already outgrown a series of punk-influenced acts, amongst them the dubiously named, and thankfully short-lived, Musical Vomit and The Dead Daughters. Ware was among the first wave of musicians and non-musicians alike who had come to recognise punk’s limitations while simultaneously embracing and celebrating the new possibilities and opportunities the genre had opened up for them: ‘All the infrastructure around punk we absolutely loved,’ he explained later, ‘it’s just that the actual music we saw as being quite old-fashioned.’ Richard Evans’ thesis in Listening To The Music The Machines Make – such as it is – is that punk cleared a space in which electronic pop could flourish, but that it would have done so anyway, having an alternative lineage that completely bypassed the Sex Pistols and all that: Bowie and Bolan, Brian Eno, Delia Derbyshire and Wendy Carlos, Giorgio Moroder and perhaps above all Kraftwerk. The sudden affordability and availability of synthesisers made music accessible to those without ability or expertise, thus delivering on punk’s excitingly egalitarian ethos and achieving a break from the past where punk itself had failed. Artists embraced the technology – initially tentatively, later wholeheartedly – and new forms rapidly emerged, often misunderstood before becoming mainstream.Similarly, Japan started out as a punk band in much the same way as Numan and transformed themselves into one of the most innovative bands of the synthpop era.

With this book, you opted to reference archive material rather than talk to the stars of the period in the present day?

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My book has the sub-title ‘Inventing Electronic Pop’ and I’ve chosen to define ‘pop’ as ‘popular’ so in my telling of the story there’s no career without an audience. On that basis without fans there’s no story… MEANWHILE, IN DÜSSELDORF, LESS than forty miles to the north of Conny Plank’s studio, Kraftwerk were preparing to emerge from their own studio, Kling Klang, to launch their new album The Man-Machine. Released just over a year after their influential Trans-Europe Express album, Kraftwerk’s new record was produced by the band’s founding members Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider and, upon its release in May, easily asserted Kraftwerk’s dominance of the electronic music arena. For us, lovers of electric music, the book by Richard Evans, published on 17 th November, would be the perfect read.

A thorough, well-executed delight for fans of the electronic music genre and puts together all the pieces of information together... in the correct sequence, with myths dissolved and facts confirmed' We Are Cult Cleverly combines impressive research with an effortless and enjoyable readability, and is surely destined to become the definitive final word on this subject.”– The Afterword One of the best things about this era was how these weird avant pop songs could enter the charts, they were classic songs but presented in a strange way with these sounds and boundaries were pushed… as much as I embrace this period of music, I always felt when it all crossed over into the mainstream in 1981, I don’t think it was on the cards and kind of a fluke… SL: Have you always been a big fan of electro music? Where did your interest in this music genre come from?Not really, if it’s a good story then it’s in the book! One of my favourites though is the time that the Musicians’ Union tried to ban synthesisers for fear that they might put “proper” musicians out of work…