Act + BIPPP: French Synth-Wave 1979/85 /NWW
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Artist:
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Album:BIPPP: French Synth-Wave 1979/85
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Track:Ping Pong
i love a tell-worthy coincidence. i was recently confessing to mog that one of my guilty pleasures, a song as old as my tales of geek-boy infatuation, had been the synth-poppy love tune Heaven Give Me Words by Propaganda, aka the Düsseldorf group that spawned the '80s synth wave hit Duel. this then reminded me of Propaganda vocalist Claudia Brücken's other act, called Act, a duo she had with British musician Thomas Leer.both Propaganda and Act were signed on to ZTT Records, aka Zang Tumb Tumb (Art of Noise, Grace Jones, Frankie Goes To Hollywood). the short-lived Act released only one album, Laughter, Tears and Rage in 1988, which i mostly remember for having Liberace on the cover. evident in their lyrics and videos was the self-mocked decadence of the '80s the duo wore like a badge. i always thought they were not a band to fall in love with - and i didn't love them - but that they represented a decade and a movement. and were just goofing off, anyway.so, weeks later, i learned about a 2006 compilation called BIPPP: French Synth-Wave 1979/85 [Discogs info here] out of Parisian label Born Bad, featuring a host of obscure groups worth yet more posts (if i get my hands on the comp), including one called Act. this leftfield-ly sent me chasing after a second Act, which i am not done doing.more weeks later, i randomly came upon the ZTT official site and found they had reissued the first Act's only album complete with audio samples online [download here]. (Discogs indicates there is third similarly named group.)the other thing was i recently thought about another synth-happy '80s fixture, OMD , and it dawned on me Ms. Brücken is married to OMD synthman Paul Humphreys. in the where-are-they-now front, the couple are playing as Onetwo - a Wiki quickie shows they were playing with Martin Gore, The Human League, Erasure last year.EDIT: dear me. i get lost in my own telling and forget my point. the über-coincidence was: the above two groups named Act were from the same decade, music subgenre, and continent. i wonder if the French Act were also a duo? all in all, what fun.track on post: the French synth-wave Act doing a song called Ping Pong.video on post: the Anglo-German synth-wave Act doing a song called Snobbery and Decay:
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