Seattle’s Medical Records delivers some very cool, vintage synth punk this week with the release of Red Fetish‘s A Derangement of Synapses LP, due out October 9th via the label. Hailing from Stoke-on-Trent in the UK, the band consisted of Neale James Potts and Mike Richardson. The tracks that make up this LP offering were recorded between 1982-83, and were hand picked by the label out of a “large demo collection” that included “multiple versions of certain songs”. Originally recorded to 4-track using analog gear like the Korg 770, Yamaha CS10, Korg Rhythm 55, and even guitar at times, the duo scratched at the scab of Thatcher-era malaise using this mostly machine-based approach. A Derangement of Synapses includes both proto-techno instrumental workouts, as well as punk leaning diatribes about the pit-falls of post modern culture, with the vocally driven tracks on this record really helping to frame Red Fetish’s aesthetic thru their sci-fi and fin de siècle imagery.
On “Modern Age (First Vocal Take)“, the population has nearly doubled, and yet everything’s so clean it gleams. Meanwhile, sea sick synth lines blare back and forth, as the duo warns that in the Modern Age, “you ain’t allowed to dream”. Blaring alarms are tripped on “The Last Man“, as the final chapter in humankind’s history is written in the shadow of martian death rays and mushroom clouds; and while the song’s protagonist “used to be a poor man”, now he “has the most”–even if he has to live underground as a “human mole”. After all that apocalyptic mania, then, you can’t blame a guy for his luddite fantasies, when on a track like “2 Transport“, he dreams that “one day all machines will fade away/and all ruling classes die”. Marxist sentiments aside, that leaves one to wonder, without the machines, what would Red Fetish fiddle with as Rome burned?
[contextly_sidebar id=”ac1cIQCva3Jukt9sYQqFj36Isu3GWdoi”]Indeed, we’d be missing a lot here without the duo’s synth and drum machine driven compositions, as they do much to forward this band’s sound of a culture teetering on the edge of it’s own destruction. While the arrangements are kept minimal and 4-track, they often seem to pit dueling synth lines against rapid fire drum patterning and dark tinged low end. “Frenzy“‘s hectic acoustics create a circling urgency, as strangulated machines seem to speak in alien tongues. On “Abandon Tip“, off-kilter drums and alarming tones create a mood of dislocation and hysteria; while on the later track, “I Walked About“, two synth lines vie for audio space from their opposing channels, before the single-noted line disintegrates into pitch shifting weirdness–like some strange drug gradually taking hold!
Other notable instrumentals include “Crazy City” and “The Immortals“, two back-to-back tracks that utilize a more rock oriented beat, giving the cuts a motorik or even prog-leaning feel. Both are extended synth jams built around channel-panned and interlocking melodies, and they have a brighter more expressive feel than proto-techno leaning tracks like “Frenzy“, “Blaze“, or the magnificent “Church Music“. On this later cut, everything comes together in a gleaming Modernist facade that is both classic and future forward feeling. A driving backbeat here means that this is anything but staid church music, even if it does borrow it’s organ, which eventually launches off into unusually detailed and spectacular keyboard runs.
Ultimately, A Derangement of Synapses is the kind of intriguing sonic document we’ve come to expect from Seattle’s Medical Records. Recorded between 1982-83, these tracks sit at a crossroads in the development of electronic music. With the first round of punk rock already safely co-opted by the powers at be, and with pop music about to be revolutionized by digital electronics, Red Fetish’s machine driven approach, and sci-fi vision, would become the new norm for an emerging generation of musicians. While the duo’s place in that history might be just a footnote, A Derangement of Synapses provides more vital “fossil” evidence for the relationship between genres as diverse as post-punk, industrial, and techno.
