UNITS - History Of The Units (Early Years '77-'83)

This post is a request and I don't know from who but that's now playing no role. Seminal early electronic punk (SynthPunk), full of Moog-y goodness and computer blips. The Units were an American early electronic music/punk rock/New Wave/synthpunk band, founded in San Francisco in 1979 and were active until 1983. They were one of America's early electronic New Wave bands, they are sometimes cited (along with The Screamers) as pioneers of the genre now known as synthpunk. The Units were notable for their use of synthesizers in place of guitars, and multimedia performances featuring multiple projections of satirical, instructional films critical of conformity and consumerism. They are the angry Kraftwerk. Don't even mention guitars to them. I must say, I was quite skeptical and excited about what a band would bring which hate guitars. The more surprised I was when I heard this CD. "Cannibals" I knew already, is on any KBD sampler but the rest was new. Sure not every song is good ('East West' is a total waste, 'Warm Moving Bodies' makes me sleep, 'Red' is superfluous, Zombo needs 5 minutes to please me......) but more than half of the 21 songs are cool so this compilation deserves a visit to my player again. Wanna give you some critical response from wiki: The alternative press publisher V. Vale called the Units "the first San Francisco band to perform using no guitars", and the Los Angeles music critic Kickboy Face of the fanzine Slash wrote of a Units performance, "That night, watching the Units pound their machines into submission, I knew that another cliched concept of mine was biting the dust once and for all. I also knew that there probably was a future to rock n roll after all, and that future did not necessarily include anything resembling guitars." You can read a few reviews about this CD on their MySpace site if you need more convincing. Well, the Units have me positiv surprised and so I can highly recommend this album.

- Extra Special Thanx to Clockwork Riot -

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