The Age of Plastic

This is a good article. Click here for more information.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with
Age of Plastics
.

The Age of Plastic
Sarm East (London)
  • Brick Lane
    • Genre
    Length36:24
    LabelIsland
    ProducerThe Buggles
    The Buggles chronology
    The Age of Plastic
    (1980)     		Adventures in Modern Recording
    (1981)
    Singles from The Age of Plastic
    1. "Video Killed the Radio Star"
      Released: 7 September 1979 [4]
    2. "The Plastic Age"
      Released: 14 January 1980[5]
    3. "Clean, Clean"
      Released: 24 March 1980[5]
    4. "Elstree"
      Released: 27 October 1980[5]

    The Age of Plastic is the debut album by the English

    UK Singles Chart
    . Most of the album's other tracks were written during promotion of the single.

    The album was recorded on a budget of £60,000. Bassist

    Sarm East Studios
    . Mixing was completed before Christmas 1979.

    The Age of Plastic reached number 27 on the

    Notting Hill, London
    marked the first time that the group performed the album in its entirety.

    Background

    On TV", a track later included on their second album, Adventures in Modern Recording.[8]
    Talking about the formation of the Buggles, Downes said about the demos:

    We’d sort out the songs at my place and do all the arrangements together. Later we’d kick the artist out of the studio and spent most of the studio time just doing different things of our own, using every moment to our best advantage. It was a big experience for both of us and after a couple of years of doing that, we had quite a few songs together... It was at that stage that we decided to become artists. We felt that it was about time that somebody started making good, well-produced pop records again. We wanted to give people something more than they already had.[9]

    "Video Killed the Radio Star"
    Excerpt from the song.
    Problems playing this file? See media help.

    The Buggles were signed to Island Records, who gave Horn and Downes recording and publishing contracts. The group started recording their first studio album in the first half of 1979.[10][8] Although Woolley was originally intended to be the band's lead vocalist,[9] he left the group during the sessions to form his own band, the Camera Club, who also recorded versions of "Clean, Clean" and "Video Killed the Radio Star", songs that appeared on their 1979 album English Garden.[8] When "Video Killed the Radio Star" became a huge commercial success, Horn and Downes realized that they needed to record more material to fill out a full album, so they wrote additional songs, during the promotion of the single, while in airport lounges, dressing rooms, rehearsal rooms and studios.[11][12]

    Production

    The Age of Plastic was afforded a budget of £60,000 (equivalent to £320,000 in 2021).

    Sarm East Studios was very small and Horn wanted to record real drums.[13] The Buggles went to London's Wardour Street to recruit two women to appear on the album.[9] The mixing and Horn's vocal recording were later performed at Sarm East Studios,[9][10] and mixing was finished before Christmas 1979 for a 1980 album release.[12] Sarm East mixer Gary Langan used a 40-input Trident TSM console to record and mix the album, which was housed inside the same control room as were two Studer A80 24-track machines and outboard gear that included an EMT 140 echo plate, Eventide digital delay, Eventide phaser, Marshall Time Modulator, Kepex noise gates, Urei and Orban equalizers, and Urei 1176, Dbx 160 and UA LA2 and LA3 compressors.[10]

    Vocals were recorded at Sarm East to a click track using a Roland TR-808 drum machine and other various machines and boxes that were synced to the tracks.[10] As Langan recalls: "In those days of relatively limited technology we again had to push what we had to the limit... If, for instance, something required an effect, whether it be tape delay or phasing or some big, delayed reverb, the art was to get that effect right and record it... It all had to be done and then, as I said, it would influence the next process."[10] Langan has noted that balancing the backing vocals in the songs was an issue because of the limited storage capacities of the time: "We'd make it as clean as we possibly could, bounce that down to two tracks and then we'd erase."[10]

    Style and composition

    I don’t have a great feel or a great blues voice. Then I heard Kraftwerk's The Man-Machine and I thought, that’s it! A mechanised rhythm section, a band where you’re never old-fashioned, where you don’t have to emote. It sounded so new and exciting, so full of potential.

    — Trevor Horn[14]

    Unable to make the album sound similar to others of the late 1970s, Horn "figured that if I couldn't get records to sound like Elton John, which I couldn't because I couldn't figure out how they did it, then whatever I could do, I'd better exaggerate it." He had also wanted to "perverse things with sound, except that in 1978 and 1979, none of the equipment which would later allow me to do that was available. So I had to pre-date that technology by finding my own ways of achieving certain sounds."[13] Audio noted that the album's sound was reminiscent of duo Godley & Creme's debut album Consequences.[15]

    Some music reviewers have labeled The Age of Plastic as the first landmark of another

    ELO and Kraftwerk.[6][8]

    Geoff Downes plays behind a Roland keyboard
    Geoff Downes performing in 2012

    Downes and Krinein Magazine noted the tracks'

    Johnny Richardson from the Rubettes, who's really good. We also used the occasional session guitarist to play various bits and there were three or four girl singers involved. Apart from that, we did everything ourselves."[9] Downes claimed to have used George Shearing's trick of doubling melody lines in block chords very heavily on some of the songs.[21]

    Themes

    Trevor Horn (pictured 1984) wrote the lyrics to tracks from The Age of Plastic.

    The Age of Plastic is a tragicomic[12] concept album with lyrical themes of intense nostalgia and anxiety about the possible effects of modern technology.[10] The lyrics, which were written by Trevor Horn, were inspired by the works of J. G. Ballard.[22] The Buggles have claimed that they were necessarily a "plastic group" to meet the needs of a "plastic age", explaining the album's title, The Age of Plastic.[23] Downes has said that the lyrics were "trying to make cynical comments on a number of issues."[6] Eight tracks are included on The Age of Plastic: "Living in the Plastic Age", "Video Killed the Radio Star", "Kid Dynamo", "I Love You (Miss Robot)", "Clean, Clean", "Elstree", "Astroboy (And the Proles on Parade)" and "Johnny (on the Monorail)".[24] The album's lyrical concept was compared by Orange Coast magazine to that of the works of Canadian progressive rock band Klaatu.[25]

    "Video Killed the Radio Star," the second track, refers to a period of technological change in the 1960s, the desire to remember the past and the disappointment that children of the current generation would not appreciate the past.[26] The fast-paced third song, "Kid Dynamo," is about the effects of media on a futuristic kid of the 1980s.[6] Of the album's fourth track, "I Love You (Miss Robot)", Downes has said it is about "being on the road and making love to someone you don't really like, while all the time you're wanting to phone someone who's a long way off."[9] Wave Maker magazine viewed the song as "a darkly soothing, bass guitar-driven ballad which brings us back into cyberpunk country."[19]

    "Clean, Clean" is the album's fifth track, and follows the story of a young boy who grows out of being a gangster, and, despite not willing to do so, will at least try to keep the fighting clean.[27] Wave Maker found "Elstree," the album's sixth song, as lyrically similar to "Video Killed the Radio Star," as it follows "a failed actor taking up a more regular position behind the scenes and looking back at his life in regret."[19] The slow-tempo ballad "Astroboy (And the Proles on Parade)",[20] according to Wave Maker, "once again revisits cyberpunk with a much lighter vibe, although the keyboards do occasionally border darker realms, expecially [sic] with the post-chorus hook,"[19] and the album closer "Johnny on the Monorail" has a "pop atmosphere" that "better suits the flow of the rest of the album."[19]

    Release

    Contemporary professional ratings
    Review scores
    SourceRating
    The Rolling Stone Record Guide
    		[30]
    Smash Hits8/10[31]
    Sounds[32]

    The Age of Plastic was first released in Australia on 10 January 1980,

    Prophet V sounds.[36] The Age of Plastic appeared on the UK Albums Chart for six weeks, reaching number 27 on the chart.[37] The album debuted at number 32 in Norway, eventually reaching number 23, and peaked at number 24 in Sweden.[38] It also reached the number 15 spot on the French Albums Chart[39] and number 35 in Japan.[40]

    Lead single "Video Killed the Radio Star", released months earlier, was commercially successful, topping the record charts in 16 countries,

    UK Singles Chart.[37] From January to October 1980, three more singles were issued in support of the album: "Living in the Plastic Age", "Clean, Clean" and "Elstree".[24] All of the singles had chart success in the UK,[37] with "The Plastic Age" and "Clean, Clean" gaining chart success on an international level.[41][42]

    A

    The Rolling Stone Record Guide (1983), opined that "aside from the wonderful 'Video Killed the Radio Star' — perhaps the most successful recent example of a single where the production was catchier than the material", the album was "high-tech dreck."[30] Conversely, Melody Maker noted that the album is "all jerky twitchings and absurdly inflated post-punk melodrama" and named it as "essential."[28] The Canberra Times's Keith Gosman found the production excellent and said the album sounded "crisp as fresh dollar bills."[44] Smash Hits rated the album 8 out of 10 and called it "quite human and therefore the most enjoyable of the lot."[31]

    Retrospective reviews

    Retrospective professional ratings
    Review scores
    SourceRating
    Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music
    		[46]

    Among retrospective reviews, Jeri Montesano from AllMusic described it as "a fun record that doesn't need to be taken too seriously" and that "it would be difficult to find a record from this era that sounds half as good. Pop rarely reaches these heights."[45] While reviewing the Buggles' second album, Montesano stated that both albums "still sound fresh" compared to 1990s pop music.[47] Amazon editorial reviewer Grant Alden also compared the album to 1990s pop, and labelled the group as "Part of the early-1980s great explosion of pop music [...] to have any real impact."[48]

    The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction described the LP as "one of the best examples of the decade's characteristically disposable pop",[49] while Spin named it one of the "8 Essentials of Post-Kraftwerk Pop."[50] Napster's Nicholas Baker liked the album's composition and concluded that "this LP is not so much a guilty pleasure as an essential point in electropop history."[3] Metro Pulse's Anthony Nownes found the tunes "punchy, memorable" and "accessible", concluding his review with "If all rock records sounded like this—shiny and slick and highly processed—the world would be terrible. But a few Trevor Horns—people who use studio technology the way a curious and playful child uses a room full of fictile toys—are nice to have around."[51]

    Less favourably, Joseph Stannard opined that The Age of Plastic "sounds like unfinished business, a series of good ideas in need of elaboration."[52] In a review of the album's 1999 reissue, Richard Wallace of the Daily Mirror wrote that the record "shows how [The Buggles] pioneered the synth-led nonsense which fused much of the decade's pop, but had little creative imagination. That bombastic electro-sound became [Trevor] Horn's trademark as a producer. Skip it."[53] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian called it "awful beyond measure", pointing to the liner notes conceding that "we did not have an album's worth of material" and called reissuing it "wasteful, it's stupid."[54]

    Legacy and influence

    Popular French bands such as Justice, Daft Punk and Phoenix have been influenced[clarification needed] by The Age of Plastic.[55] Justice has said that they were "totally fascinated by The Buggles' first album [The Age of Plastic]. It's full of stuff we like - there's a bit of electro, a bit of pop, a bit of classical going on there... We like the way they operated too, as an autonomous duo..."[56]

    In 2000, as part of the Island Remasters series, the album was reissued with three bonus tracks, "Technopop", "Island" and "Johnny on the Monorail (A Very Different Version)".[57] The album was remastered and re-released again on 24 February 2010 in Japan. The new edition included nine additional tracks, three of which were from the 2000 re-release album. A single and special DJ version of "Elstree" also appeared on the 2010 reissue of the album, as well as a 12" version of "Clean, Clean".[58] The album's 2010 reissue briefly appeared at number 225 in Japan.[59]

    On 28 September 2010, the Buggles reunited to play their first full-length live performance of the album. The event was billed as "The Lost Gig" and took place at Ladbroke Grove's Supperclub in

    Notting Hill, London. It was a fundraiser with all earnings going to the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability. With the exception of "Video Killed the Radio Star" and "The Plastic Age", which the band had previously played together, "The Lost Gig" saw the first live performances of all of the remaining songs from The Age of Plastic.[60][61]

    Track listing

    All tracks are written by the Buggles, except "Video Killed the Radio Star" and "Clean, Clean", which are by Horn/Downes/Woolley[24]

    Side one
    No.TitleLength
    1."Living in the Plastic Age"5:13
    2."Video Killed the Radio Star"4:13
    3."Kid Dynamo"3:29
    4."I Love You (Miss Robot)"4:58
    Side two
    No.TitleLength
    1."Clean, Clean"3:53
    2."Elstree"4:29
    3."Astroboy (And the Proles on Parade)"4:41
    4."Johnny on the Monorail"5:28
    Total length:36:24
    Bonus tracks on 2000 CD reissue[57]
    No.TitleLength
    9."Island" (edit)3:33
    10."Technopop"3:50
    11."Johnny on the Monorail" (a very different version)3:49
    Bonus tracks on 2010 Japanese CD reissue[58]
    No.TitleLength
    9."Video Killed the Radio Star" (single version)3:25
    10."Kid Dynamo" (single version)3:29
    11."Living in the Plastic Age" (single version)3:51
    12."Island" (edit version)3:33
    13."Clean Clean" (12-inch version)5:15
    14."Technopop"3:50
    15."Elstree" (single version)4:06
    16."Johnny on the Monorail" (a very different version)3:50
    17."Elstree" (Special DJ edit version)3:36

    Personnel

    Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[24]

    The Buggles – producers

    Additional musicians

    Technical personnel

    Chart positions

    References

    1. TeamRock. Archived
      from the original on 29 December 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
    2. ^ a b Jackson, Josh (8 September 2016). "The 50 Best New Wave Albums" Archived 1 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Paste. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
    3. ^ a b Baker, Nicholas. "The Age of Plastic: The Buggles". Napster. Archived from the original on 24 February 2014. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
    4. ^ "The Buggles BPI certification".
    5. ^
      better source needed
      ]
    6. ^ a b c d e f g "Buggles Sound in the New Decade". The Sydney Morning Herald. 30 December 1979. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
    7. ^ "Top 100 Albums of the Eighties". Classic Pop. Archived from the original on 7 July 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
    8. ^
      better source needed
      ]
    9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Deller, Fred (21 February 1980). "Life With the Buggles". Smash Hits. 32.
    10. ^ a b c d e f g h Buskin, Richard (December 2011). "The Buggles 'Video Killed The Radio Star'". Sound on Sound. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
    11. ^ Whitehouse, K.M. Trevor Horn, C.B.E. Archived 8 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine. The Art of Noise Online. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
    12. ^ a b c Downes, Geoff (2011). The Age of Plastic (Media notes). The Buggles. Japan. UICY-25077.
    13. ^ a b c Cunningham, Mark (1998). Good vibrations: a history of record production. Sanctuary. p. 301.
    14. The Word
      : 64.
    15. ^ a b Audio, Volume 64, Issues 2–6. 1980. p. 103. Retrieved 28 April 2013. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
    16. ^ a b Peel, Ian (1 January 2010). "From the Art of Plastic to the Age of Noise". trevorhorn.com. Archived from the original on 11 November 2013. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
    17. ^ a b c "Buggles Rehearsal – Sarm West – Geoff Downes". sonicstate.com. 24 September 2010. Archived from the original on 14 March 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
    18. ISBN 978-0472034703
      . Retrieved 22 May 2013.
    19. ^ a b c d e Smith, Ryan (7 December 2012). "Into the Lens: Spotlight on Trevor Horn, Part I". Wave Maker Magazine. Archived from the original on 11 November 2013. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
    20. ^ a b c L., Vincent (7 December 2003). "Buggles – The Age of Plastic". Krinein Magazine (in French). Archived from the original on 15 May 2013. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
    21. ^ "#askYes Geoff Downes' Keyboard Inspirations". yesworld.com. Archived from the original on 25 July 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
    22. ^ "Yes Ask YES – Friday 10th May 2013 – Geoff Downes". yesworld.com. 10 May 2013. Archived from the original on 13 August 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
    23. ^ "Buggles Drafted To Join Yes". Billboard. 31 May 1980. Archived from the original on 5 October 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2013.
    24. ^ a b c d The Buggles (1980). The Age of Plastic (Media notes). Horn/Downes/Woolley. Island Records. ILPS 9585. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
    25. ^ Tuber, Keith (May 1980). "Tell a Friend". Orange Coast. 6 (5): 85. Archived from the original on 8 November 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
    26. ISBN 978-0-7546-3132-3
      .
    27. Montreal Gazette
      . Retrieved 27 July 2013.
    28. ^ a b "Buggles - Age of Plastic CD Album". Melody Maker. CD Universe. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
    29. ^ Martin, Alf (9 February 1980). "Buggles: The Age of Plastic". Record Mirror. p. 14.
    30. ^
      ISBN 0394721071
      .
    31. ^ a b Smash Hits. Volume 31. 7 February 1980. p. 31.
    32. ^ a b Page, Betty (9 February 1980). "Buggles: The Age of Plastic (Island) **". Sounds. Archived from the original on 5 October 2013. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
    33. ^ "BUGGLES "THE AGE OF PLASTIC" ALBUM ADVERT 10X6" APPR B/W". eBay. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
    34. ^ "1980 – BUGGLES – The Age Of Plastic – Press Advertisment [sic] – Poster Size". eBay. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
    35. ^ @Trevor_Horn_ (6 October 2020). "When the threat of being withdrawn from the shops was real. #theageofplastic #throwbacks" (Tweet). Retrieved 20 November 2020 – via Twitter.
    36. ^ @asiageoff (6 October 2020). "Hans didn't play a note on the album and the case was thrown out. He programmed a couple of Prophet V sounds, and the sequencer on Plastic Age. That's all. Fact. @Trevor_Horn_ @asiageoff" (Tweet). Retrieved 4 February 2020 – via Twitter.
    37. ^ a b c d "Buggles | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
    38. ^ a b "Norwegiancharts.com – Buggles – The Age of Plastic". Hung Medien.
    39. ^ a b "Tous les Albums classés par Artiste" (in French). infodisc.fr. Archived from the original on 23 June 2010. In the box under Choisir Un Artiste Dans la Liste & Appuyez sur OK :, select BUGGLES.
    40. ^
      ISBN 4-87131-025-6
      .
    41. ^ "The Buggles - The Plastic Age" (in Dutch). ultratop.be. Retrieved 7 October 2013.[dead link]
    42. ^ "Buggles, Clean, Clean" (in German). charts.de. Archived from the original on 8 November 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2013.
    43. ^ "Buggles". Trouser Press. Archived from the original on 5 April 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
    44. ^ Gosman, Keith (22 February 1980). "Rock Music Not For 'Permanent Jumps'". The Canberra Times. Archived from the original on 8 November 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
    45. ^ a b Montesano, Jeri. "The Age of Plastic". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 21 October 2010. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
    46. ISBN 0753501597
      .
    47. ^ Montesano, Jeri. Adventures in Modern Recording Archived 5 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine. AllMusic. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
    48. ^ Alden, Grant. "Age of Plastic". Amazon. Archived from the original on 28 February 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
    49. ^ "BUGGLES". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. 7 January 2007. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
    50. SpinMedia. Archived
      from the original on 1 October 2021. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
    51. E.W. Scripps Company. Archived from the original
      on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
    52. ^ Stannard, Joseph (6 April 2010). "The Buggles: Adventures in Modern Recording". The Quietus. Archived from the original on 20 April 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
    53. ^ Wallace, Richard (23 July 1999). "Music: CD releases out this week". Daily Mirror. Archived from the original on 5 October 2013. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
    54. ^ Petridis, Alexis (21 October 2004). "Lost in music". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
    55. ^ Horton, Matthew (18 November 2013). Why are Justice, Phoenix and Daft Punk so in love with soft rock? Archived 9 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine. The Guardian. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
    56. RFI Musique
      . 13 June 2007 Retrieved 23 November 2013.
    57. ^ a b The Buggles (2000). The Age of Plastic (Media notes). Island Records. 546,274–2. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
    58. ^ a b The Buggles (2010). The Age of Plastic (Media notes). Island Records. UICY-94425. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
    59. ^ a b ラジオ・スターの悲劇＋９ (in Japanese). oricon.co.jp. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
    60. ^ "Buggles All Around". Mojo (205): 15. December 2010.
    61. ^ Petridis, Alexis (29 September 2010). "Buggles: The Lost Gig". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 October 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
    62. ISBN 0-646-11917-6
      .
    63. ^ "RPM Top Albums – March 22, 1980". Library and Archives Canada. Archived from the original on 2 June 2013. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
    64. Musica e Dischi
      (in Italian). Retrieved 27 May 2022. Set "Tipo" on "Album". Then, in the "Titolo" field, search "The Age of Plastic".
    65. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Buggles – The Age of Plastic". Hung Medien.
    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Age_of_Plastic&oldid=1182854416"