Track Listing

1. Living In The Plastic Age
2. Video Killed The Radio Star
3. Kid Dynamo
4. I Love You (Miss Robot)
5. Clean, Clean
6. Elstree
7. Astroboy (And The Proles On Parade)
8. Johnny On The Monorail
9. Island
10. Technopop
11. Johnny On The Monorail

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7451 in Music
• Released on: 2004-10-11
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 47 minutes

From Amazon.com
Part of the early-1980s great explosion of pop music (witness: Squeeze, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson) to have any real impact, an accident of fate-titled "Video Killed the Radio Star" inextricably links the Buggles to the rise of MTV. Unfortunate for the band's future, the two best Buggles tracks (the other, "Clean Clean") were cowritten with Bruce Woolley, who simultaneously released them (with less success) with his new band, The Camera Club. The artificial sound of these comparatively primitive keyboards and drum machines, once embraced by nihilist popsters on the edge of punk, has since mutated (Gary Numan, Eno, Woodentops, etc.) into the all-but-voiceless electronic music of the late '90s. Regardless, the Buggles manifested a handful of pop gems in science fiction clothing. And why not? We still read Bradbury and Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. Oddly, what once seemed such smart and jaded music now plays as the voice of joyous optimism. Go figure. --Grant Alden

Customer Reviews

Plastic fantastic!
It's quite an album, even now. 'Video' is probably one of the stand-out tracks but that's not to say the title track and 'Elstree' especially aren't up there with it. 'Video' does indeed feature Ultravox's Warren Cann on drums (he's not credited) as he took session work before the 'Vienna' album was released. Likewise Billy Currie who toured with Gary Numan: being a member of Ultravox in 1979 meant being skint!

Considering Trevor Horn was to go onto produce Frankie, The Art of Noise etc a few years later, 'The Age of Plastic' is remarkable for his cohesive, intelligent production. You'd think he'd have been producing for many years before this! The small but interesting production details - the human breathing on the title track, Horn as film director uttering "action!" on the intro to 'Elstree' (and "cut!" at the end!) are fascinating. The lyric itself is also noteworthy: Horn makes a point about how the war films of the past were sometimes far removed from the reality of conflict: "All the bullets just went over your head/There's no reality and no-one dead".

True, it does conjure up a nostalgia for a long-gone Britain with great references to "The Picture Parade" (a filmgoer's magazine), cinemas with names like The Esoldo and coffee bars called The Giacondo. It's ironic as he would've only been a kid in the 1950s!

From this period (1979-80), there are perhaps fewer than ten really outstanding. 1980 was arguably a year when things really started to change musically with a growing interest in - and use of - electronics and so albums such as Closer, Vienna, The Age Of Plastic, the first Visage album,
Telekon and Travelogue still stand the test of time. Buy this and remind yourself of that.

DVD killed the video star
Recorded on the threshold of the synth-dominated 1980s, Buggles' first album felt like a gateway to that decade. In a way, it's a shame that the catchy but twee 'Video, etc' made number one as it cast Horn and Downes as opportunist one-hit wonders. Via Yes, Asia and a host of hugely-successful productions for other artists, the duo proved that they were worthy of more than that. There's no doubt that this was conceived as glossy, cutting-edge fodder for the pop market, but quality will always out and Buggles' writing, playing and recording standards were way above the younger artists Horn would go on to produce. If you've heard Frankie Goes To Hollywood's Peel sessions, you'll know what I mean. 'Relax' was Horn's triumph.
All but two of the songs here are cartoon sci-fi, a colour fantasy to contrast Gary Numan's darker universe. The album is full of good, romping tunes, flawlessly presented. The exceptions are the nostalgic chart-topper and 'Elstree' (the best song). An album to be enjoyed without worrying about intellectual challenge.

Techno Pop
Before there was techno, there was Technopop, the Buggles rarely heard song on the b-side to Clean Clean until it's inclusion on the newer CD reissue; and techno pop, an apt description used in the day to describe the sort of music found on The Age of Plastic. The only real competition until then would have been Kraftwerk's The Model, and a handful of unknowns taking the punk ethos in an electronic direction which would soon explode into the new music of the Eighties, i.e. Human League et al.

Even at the time, I found it intriguing that a straight-ahead American rock station was playing Clean Clean, and just a handful of--for them--very experimental acts such as Talking Head and B52's. Well, that didn't last very long; for a short while they probably just didn't know better! Thank God for college radio and some modern rock outlets taking the baton and running with it. Still, astonishingly, it was that otherwise dull broadcast outlet which first introduced me to the Buggles, and got me hooked.

This record is one of those rare works in which every track has it's own singular appeal, and grabs one as an instant classic, which it remains to this day. The production is first rate, and the songwriting is very inventive, just the thing to keep a young person listening over and over, discovering new nuances each time. Although this rates as one of my favorite all-time "pop" masterpieces, the musical accomplishment was quite serious, and the lyrical content was equally engaging, even to a young Yank who had only the vaguest grasp as to its actual meaning. I thought Elstree was a person until seeing Lucas or Spielberg talk about it on DVD special features.

Regardless, for someone like me who has always been drawn to synthesizer sounds, this was a groundbreaking album which paved the way for electronics to be used in more than just "space music". To this day, a large part of the appeal for me in many styles of music from post punk to EBM/industrial lies in the many interesting, and yes, emotive sounds coming from the synths. The Buggles may have had a decent sense of humor to complement their bleak take on modern society, but you also get the sense of serious emotions and wistfulness, not at all hampered by the instrumentation, contrary to much popular opinion about the supposed "coldness" of non-acoustic sounds. For proof, look to a later Trevor Horn masterpiece, the evocative Moments in Love by Art of Noise, featuring a generous helping of sampling technology.

For his work here and with Art of Noise, as well as with Propaganda, Pet Shop Boys and others, in my book Horn rates as one of the great producers, along with Martin Hannett (for different reasons) of modern music, noteworthy for far-reaching influence. Still, not withstanding the serious qualities at work, The Age of Plastic is just plain great ear candy.