Rubik's 80s Mix #132 (June 1989)

Welcome to edition #132 of  Rubik's 80s Mix series, each month we are going to focus on tracks that were in the charts on a specific month in the 1980s, which hopefully will bring back special memories for you, on this show, we feature tracks that were in the charts in June 1989.

Listen to the show on Mixcloud here

Playlist

Jason Donovan - Sealed With A Kiss
Soul II Soul - Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)
Bananarama - Cruel Summer '89
Gladys Knight - Licence To Kill
Carly Simon - Why
U2 - All I Want Is You
Holly Johnson - Atomic City
Sonia - You'll Never Stop Me From Loving You
Queen - Breakthru
London Boys - London Nights
China Crisis - Red Letter Day
James - Sit Down
Cliff Richard - The Best Of Me
Danny Wilson - The Second Summer Of Love
Karyn White - Superwoman

Put The Needle On The Record - Week #53

Put The Needle On The Record Week #53 Howard Jones - Human's Lib

For this weeks feature we go back to March 1984 and the Howard Jones album "Human's Lib".

This was the debut album released by Howard Jones and received a fair few bad reviews, which is harsh when you look at the quality of some of the songs on the album, such as, "New Song", "What Is Love?", Hide And Seek", "Don't Always Look At The Rain" and "Natural", for me I can't decide if this album is his best or "Dream Into Action".

This was another purchase from the small HMV on Market street in Manchester back in 1984, I bought the album on the strength of the first 3 singles released from it. I never liked the artwork for the album.

The list of instruments used on this album make for interesting reading, Roland Jupiter 8, Roland Juno 60, Yamaha DX7, Roland TR-808 Drum Machine are the standout hardware used on the album.

Four singles were released off the album, "New Song", (which reached number 3 in the UK Singles chart, it also reached number 27 on the American Billboard Hot 100), "What Is Love?" (which reached number 2 in the UK Singles chart and also did well on the American Billboard Hot 100, reaching number 33), "Hide And Seek", my favourite track off the album (which reached number 12 in the UK singles chart) and "Pearl In The Shell" (which reached number 7 in the UK singles chart).

The album reached number 1 in the UK album chart

Track Listing

Conditioning
What Is Love?
Pearl In The Shell
Hide And Seek
Hunt The Self
New Song
Don't Always Look At The Rain
Equality
Natural
Human's Lib

If you have this album in your collection, dig it out and give it a spin!

Kraftman Releases Computer World EP

The first release by Kraftman in 2025 is a 4 track EP called "Computer World".

The EP features 4 tracks, all of which are versions of tracks originally released by Kraftwerk on their "Computer World" album. The featured tracks are 7 inch versions of, "Computer World", "Home Computer", "Computer Love" and "It's More Fun To Compute" and is a taster for Kraftman's complete recording of the "Computer World" album, more on that soon...

The versions on the EP, with the exception of "Computer Love" are all new arrangements by Kraftman and "It's More Fun To Compute" has additional lyrics by Kraftman.

Full track listing

Computer World (7 Inch Version) 3:16

Home Computer (7 Inch Version) 3:30

Computer Love (7 Inch Version) 3:51

It's More Fun To Compute (7 Inch Version) 3:17

The EP is available as a Digital Download from Bandcamp:

https://kraftman.bandcamp.com/album/computer-world-ep

Put The Needle On The Record - Week #52

Put The Needle On The Record Week #52 Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express

For this weeks feature we go back to September 1977 and the Kraftwerk album "Trans-Europe Express".

As a massive Kraftwerk fan, this I consider to be an essential electronic album you should own, it is staggering how far advanced this album was in terms of its sound and concept, this is before synthesizers and drum machines were available in the mass market, an incredible sonic adventure, it also contains one of my all time favourite tracks and favourite Kraftwerk track, "Europe Endless", this is probably one of the first songs I ever heard that features a sequencer!

As I have mentioned previously I discovered Kraftwerk when hearing "Neon Light" on the radio in 1979, I bought the album "The Man Machine" the day after hearing the track and within 2 days of listening to "The Man Machine" album I visited my second home.....HMV on Market Street in Manchester and bought "Trans-Europe Express" and "Radio-Activity", without hearing any of the tracks on the albums! "Trans-Europe Express", I found to my delight, to be an outstanding album, however. "Radio-Activity" was a shock to my system with only a few tracks being actual songs! I couldn't get into that album at all aside from the title track, "Airwaves" and "Ohm Sweet Ohm".

"Trans-Europe Express" includes some Kraftwerk masterpieces, the title track of course and "Europe Endless", in addition the other standout tracks from the album for me are "Showroom Dummies" and "Hall Of Mirrors", the latter is a really haunting piece of music and unlike anything else I had heard around the time the album was released. The album is rightly considered to be one of the best albums of the 1970s.

To promote the album to the press in France, EMI Records hired a train with old-fashioned carriages from the 1930s to travel from Paris to Rheims while the songs from the album were played over the train's announcement system for the critics.

Two singles were released off the album, the title track "Trans-Europe Express" (which failed to make the charts in the UK but did reach number 67 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the states) and "Showroom Dummies" (which also failed to chart on its original release, however, the track was re-released in 1982 and reached number 25 in the UK singles chart).

The album reached number 49 in the UK album chart (baffling it wasn't more successful!).

Track Listing

Europe Endless
The Hall Of Mirrors
Showroom Dummies
Trans-Europe Express
Metal On Metal
Abzug
Franz Schubert
Endless Endless

If you have this album in your collection, dig it out and give it a spin!

Put The Needle On The Record - Week #51

 Put The Needle On The Record Week #51 Gary Numan - Telekon

For this weeks feature we go back to September 1980 and the Gary Numan album "Telekon".

This is one of the best albums ever released in my view and was the follow up to the album "The Pleasure Principle", what amazes me is very few people have cited it as a groundbreaking album that inspired other musicians, it is a fantastic record and undoubtably sees Numan at the top of his game.

Gary Numan played 2 dates at the Manchester Apollo as part of a UK tour to promote the album and I attended both nights and was the first concerts I ever attended, it was a stunning show with an amazing stage design, 2 massive towers either side of the stage which housed the 2 main synth/keyboard players, I remember it well, especially as the intro for "This Wreckage" opened the show with the curtains closed and then opened to reveal the set, an unbelivable experience, man it was loud and after the first concert, I was as deaf as a doorpost!! Thankfully my hearing restored to normality after a couple of days, I attended the first concert with my brother, it was his first live concert too.

By the way Nash The Slash was the support artist, was n't keen on his music, however, he did a stun ning version of the Jan And Dean track "Dead Man's Curve", he performed wrapped in bandages!!

Enough reminiscing, let's get back to the album, Numan had released the singles "We Are Glass" and "I Die You Die", neither of which appeared on the original album, however, they were included on re-issues later down the line, candidates for singles were the tracks "I Dream Of Wires", which should have been a single and the tracks "The Aircrash Bureau" and "I'm An Agent". I like every track on this album and is in my Top 5, of my all time favourite albums.

Just the one single was released off the album and that was "This Wreckage" (which reached number 20 in the UK Singles chart), "Remember I Was Vapour" was released as a 12 inch single in German, which I still have in my collection and "Remind Me To Smile" was released as a single in the states which also included "I Dream Of Wires" on the B side, again I have that in my record collection.

The album reached number 1 in the UK album chart.

Track Listing

This Wreckage
The Aircrash Bureau
Telekon
Remind Me To Smile
Sleep By Windows
I'm An Agent
I Dream Of Wires
Remember I Was Vapour
Please Push No More
The Joy Circuit

If you have this album in your collection, dig it out and give it a spin!

i-Select #113

White Lion Radio have released edition #113 of i-Select.

This is a series of shows dedicated to electronic/synthpop bands that are unsigned, signed to a small independent label or self release their material.

Listen to the show on Mixcloud here

Playlist

Kraftman - Forbidden Colours
State Of Anguish - I Stand With You
Eckotrigger - Afterlife
Future Perfect - Ghosts
Man Mind Machine - Two Minute Warning (Edit)
Phaserland - Green Light Druid
State Of Anguish - Still The Same
Lonelyklown - Solstice Song
Le Groupe Fantastique - Dance Like Nobody's Watching
O!Dorian & The Lavettes - When The Night Is Cold
MNTL - Don't Wanna Lose This
Platronic - Winter Stores
Uncreated - We Will Attack (Grendel Remix)
Manhatten - Ben-Day
Mayah Camara & Sellorekt LA Dreams - Paint The Town
DanSTAR ft Ellie B - Neverending Story
Sanctions Music - Soulmate
State Of Anguish - Point Of No Return
Lifelong Corporation - Into The Night
Nature Of Wires ft Luka - Under the Radar
Future Analog Ft Neonshe - Algorithm
Obsession Of Time - Last Christmas
Dream Invaders - Commando
Iterations - Transistor Rhythms
Future Perfect - Worst Mistake
Eternity Range - When Doves Cry (Prince cover)
Eckotrigger - Alone With Someone
MTTM - In Your Skin
Phaserland - Lens Of A Dream
Von Kaiser - Christmas Christmas Christmas

Put The Needle On The Record - Week #50

Put The Needle On The Record Week #50 The Human League - Travelogue.

For this weeks feature we go back to May 1980 and The Human League album "Travelogue".

"Travelogue" was the second album released by The Human Leage, the follow up to their debut "Reproduction". This was the last album released by the original line-up of The Human League before the big split, Phil Oakey continued under The Human League name with a new line up and retained the services of Adrian Wright, whilst Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh went on to form Heaven 17, it was a very acrimonious split and time doesn't seemed to have eased relationships.

"Travelogue" is once again one of my all time favourite albums, I just love the sounds and the structures of the songs and believe me, there are some bloody good songs to be found on the album, "The Touchables" (how this wasn't a single I will never know), "Dreams Of Leaving", "The Black Hit Of Space" and the brilliant closing track "WXJL Tonight", one of my favouyrite tracks of all time.

The album has aged incredibly well considering it is nearly 45 years old!

Surprisingly only two singles were released from the album, "Only After Dark", which actually wasn't a single in the true sense as Virgin Records decided to release "Empre State Human" as a single, a track on their album "Reproduction" and package the pressed copies of "Only After Dark" as a free single with the first 15,000 copies of the "Empire State Human" single and "Being Boiled", a re-recorded version which formed part of the "Holiday '80" EP, which also included the tracks "Marianne" (a track that should have been on the "Travelogue" album), "Dancevision" and a medley of "Rock 'n' Roll" and "Nightclubbing" (which reached number 56 in the UK singles chart).

The album reached number 16 in the UK album chart.

Track Listing

The Black Hit Of Space
Only After Dark
Life Kills
Dreams Of Leaving
Toyota City
Crow And A Baby
The Touchables
Gordon's Gin
Being Boiled
WXJL Tonight

If you have this album in your collection, dig it out and give it a spin