ELECTRIC DAY

A great electronic discovery for me. The fact this German group You recorded their debut in 1979, and had it released the following year, 1980, was the big reason I passed on them, given even progressive electronic was going downhill by '79, so I couldn't imagine You being worth my time. Well, I was wrong, I was just blown away by Electric Day.

Unsurprisingly this is Berlin School electronic music, very much as you expect: heavy on the sequencers, but also Edgar Froese- like guitar playing and none other than Harald Grosskopf on drums, although he was credited as Lhan Gopal, don't ask me why, perhaps it was due to his contract with Sky Records (his album Synthesis came out roughly the same time). It's perhaps a bit more hyper than even what Tangerine Dream would do, and they do not go for that "calm and sedate" stuff that Klaus Schulze is known for (I do enjoy his calm and sedate stuff, like on Mirage, so not to knock on him). Mellotron even makes an appearance on "Slow Go". What's really surprising is the tron in question is the Mark II, as the Mark II seemed to have disappeared from recordings after 1973 (roughly the time Genesis put out their live album). England's Garden Shed (1977) is often thought of as the last commercial recording using the Mark II until the 1990s tron revival, but it appears to be Electric Day. My big gripe is why they didn't use the tron more? Tangerine Dream certainly used it to great effect on many of their albums and You could have had that potential. Strangely You would continue using a Mellotron through the 1980s, only this time a Novatron, but I hadn't heard those albums, but apparently a cut above what many other electronic acts were doing at the time. Anyways, I was also happy that there are no new wave, new age, synth pop or modern elements in Electric Day, which makes me ever so happy. Strangely this music reminds me of some of those newer progressive electronic artists you might run across on Bandcamp. Whatever the case, another great album highly recommended to the fans of Berlin School electronic music.