Metamatic Forums Socialising The Green Room First ever 45/LP /Casette /cd ?

re: ELO Out of the Blue

- it ain't crap.

Perhaps not, but I certainly wouldn't have bought it..

Yeah, I've still got that on Vinyl.
John Foxx, Japan, Simple Minds, and err... can't remember..

I did...with a record token! Also painstakingly transferred it from vinyl to mp3 last year, and then they issued the 30 year re-master or whatever, which I didn't buy....yet.

Greetings everyone, this is my first visit/post on the Metematic site.

Well, I don't own this Finnish K-tel compilation myself, but since being from Sweden and a synthpop/new romantic addict I'm familiar with most of the tracks you ask about:

Secret Service: "Flash in the night":
Secret Service was a pop/disco/synthpop band in the 70s and 80s. They did a bunch of hit singles like "Oh Susie", "Ten O'Clock Postman" and "Flash In The Night", selling 4 million records just outside Sweden. They were big in most European countries and South America. Ask your mothers if you dont believe me...
The Singer of Secret Service, Ola Håkansson, is one of Sweden's greatest pop song composers/producers with numerous of hits (also international) for different artists.
Flash in the night is a rather catchy synthpop/disco tune, and one of the best songs by the group.

Strasse: "Crash Slowly":
The band Strasse is not very well known (even in Sweden), but they're in my opinion one of the best bands ever from Gothenburg (2nd city of Sweden).
Strasse only released one LP and some singles in the 80's.
The music style is a bit hard to explain, but I would say new romantic/new wave/rock with quite an arty touch.
...Or as some journalist once tried to review the band (in their early days):
"...it's not punk, it's worse!"
Crash slowly is the english version of the single "Långsam krash", also available on the album.
I prefer the swedish lyrics, but Crash slowly is also great.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention:
Crash slowly, as well as the whole album "Följa John" are produced by no one less than Midge Ure!
Also worth checking out by Strasse: The singles "A stairway to you", "Hunger Hunger" and the album track "Kamouflage (du tänder mig)", which is one of my favourites.
Strasse did a comeback in the beginning of the 21st century, with the surprisingly good CD Transylvanian flower.

Adolphson-Falk: "Flashing blue":
Another great swedish synthpop single translated and released in english.
I guess the duo (Thomas Adolphson and Anders Falk) tried to make an international career.
Well, they never managed to be as successful abroad as they were in Sweden.
Adolphson-Falk is one of Sweden's most well known 80's bands.
They have made six albums (if i count correctly) plus a couple of compilations, and a bunch of singles. Most releases are sung in Swedish.
In the 80s they were quite synthpop-sounding, as their engineer Greg Fitzpatrick was the leading importer of high tech electronic instruments in Sweden.
Greg is unofficially considered as the third member of the band, creating all the electronic sounds.
Flashing Blue (or Blinkar blå) is one of their finest moments, a slow electronic tune with a cold feeling.
A-F also wrote the christmas tune "Mer Jul", with an humorous/ironic(?) text about wanting more christmas.
This song is a swedish classic, being played EVERY christmas in shops and on the radio for the last 23 years and will do so forever I guess...
A-F have been touring some the last couple of years, doing an acoustic show.
I guess they wanted to prove that theis songs are good enough to manage without all the electronic sounds. I can agree, the show were actually quite good, although I prefer the synthetic versions.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MemberD:
and then they issued the 30 year re-master or whatever, which I didn't buy....yet.

You should do this.
It's a masterpiece.

I think it comes with a pop-out spaceship too.

I'm a long way from being a fan of ELO, but this is a classic, innovative album - a shining example of a band at the height of their form really hitting that magic spot.

aaaaaargh!

Hi Galliano! Many, many thanks for this! The intrigue continues - really want to hear that Finnish Compilation now!

I had a copy of Modern Dance and as I recall the song by the News was "Living in a world without love", closely followed by Simple Minds and "Love Song"

Maybe different versions...

H

That's the one I have.