Metamatic (1980 album, John Foxx)

>>71152485
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBXIKad4WSU

meh

dated, but enjoyable. I like "Plaza", honestly nothing this guy did ever came close to Midge Ure Ultravox, all 80s schlockiness of some of that stuff aside.

>>71154015
I like the cold atmosphere of the album. It's not for every occasion, but when it comes to listening to Metamatic, it is enjoyable for the mysterious and futuristic aesthetic. It's quite unlike most music I've been exposed to. Apart from some of Gary Numan's and Kraftwerk's songs and albums, I find it difficult to find something that so closely approximates this album's style, say 80% or more similarities in general, so not just generally new wave synth-pop stuff. This album heavily uses the ARP Odyssey synthesizer, almost exclusively, so that's also something I look for in this type of music, or Moog Minimoogs, among other '70s and early '80s synths. I don't think I'm well-versed on Midge Ure's Ultravox discography, although I enjoy the Vienna album.

I'm not exactly sure why you think this would be considered a dated album, though, as it sounds a lot more futuristic to me than most of currently popular music. Perhaps answering my own doubt, you may mean that it refers to a very late '70s/early '80s idea of what the future was supposed to sound like, but that idea itself holds up to me, if not most. How would it compare to Kraftwerk of the same time period, in your opinion, regarding dated qualities?

>>71152485
Without context it's really dated, but imagining if I lived in 1980 and heard that for the first time knowing only machines made those noises, I'd be blown away. Therefore it's a solid, innovative, and groundbreaking album with lots of atmosphere that could still be harnessed today with the right mindset.

>>71154254
I think the Man-Machine fits what you're describing in terms of a late 70s/early 80s vision of the future. In terms of sound all the British synthpop/electronic artists of the time were following Kraftwerk's lead up to around 1982. It's sort of a moot point arguing whether Kraftwerk/Foxx/Ultravox/Gary Numan whoever had the most modern sound during this period, because most of them were using the same synthesizers and keyboards and didn't have the most diverse sound pallete.

>>71154437
The Man-Machine is one of my favorite albums. It's a great example of this kind of futurism. I also really like Radio-Activity, Trans-Europe Express, Computer World, and Autobahn. Electric Café is good, as well as The Mix and Tour De France Soundtracks, although they aren't what I would consider among Kraftwerk's greatest. Ralf Hütter himself is a very enthusiastic cyclist, though, and likely still does it regularly.