While they’ve been a band who’ve only satisfied me a few times (’The Chauffeur’, ‘Wild Boys’,'Hold Back the Rain’, Arcadia’s ‘Election Day/The Flame’, ‘American Science‘), Duran Duran do come from a certain era, which seems wildly exciting now - despite the fact Robert Elms manages to milk a yawnworthy book from it (sadly less amusing than his stand-up poetry). Duran emerged from Birmingham and were certainly part of a regional scene caught in the slipstream of glam and punk and the burgeoning developments that would become electronic music. Duran might have been artier had Stephen ‘Tin-Tin’ Duffy stuck around - sadly Duran became a diluted version of Japan before becoming the Stones of New Romantic.

This 18-track compilation shows you where they were coming from and is a much better testimony than the horrific ‘THANK YOU‘ covers album that both Rhodes and Taylor were involved in! Some of it crosses over with the post-punk/new pop exploration of Simon Reynolds’ ‘Rip It Up & Start Again’, while it makes sense in a year that has seen reissues of work by Depeche Mode, Talking Heads, Ultravox!, and Wire. Rhodes and Taylor have certainly got good taste - making this far superior to many celeb-compilations, e.g. Tricky, Morrissey, Tim from the Office. As a one-disc compilation it nails the era - though I’d have loved two-discs!

The compilation opens on the classic ‘Being Boiled‘, the great 1978 Fast single that was the template for Visage’s ‘Fade to Grey’ - attentive souls might note that ‘BB‘ also features on the tie-in compilation to ‘Rip It Up & Start Again‘ (while it also features alongside ‘The Robots‘ and ‘Warm Leatherette‘ on Rough Trade’s excellent ‘Electronica01‘ compilation). The Japanese equivalent of Kraftwerk, Y.M.O. feature next - good to include them - and hopefully those interested will buy ‘Solid State Survivor‘ and the classic ‘Technodelic‘ as a result (Rhodes and Taylor avoid the obvious choices - YMO’s cover of ‘Day Tripper‘ or their own Clapton-associated ‘Behind the Mask‘). Bowie was probably the key influence and is represented by the gorgeous electronic melancholy of ‘Always Crashing In The Same Car‘ from 1977’s ‘Low‘ - which fits the Ballardian-template found in ‘Warm Leathrette.’

Things shift forward to 1980 with the Psychedelic Furs’ ‘Sister Europe’, which offers a huge drum sound (mimicked by the Cure on ‘Pornography‘), hypnotic guitar against sophoric sax, and surreal lyrics about vomiting on pianos! Simple Minds’ classic electronic single ‘Changeling‘ blends Chic with Tubeway Army and was one of the stand-out tracks from ‘Real to Real Cacophony‘ (the ‘Kid A‘ of the 70s?), though I’d have gone with ‘I Travel.’ The compilation then shifts back a few years to include Mick Ronson’s ‘Only After Dark’ - recently cited in Uncut by Siouxsie Sioux and also covered on ‘Travelogue‘ by the Human League. Perhaps it’s time Ronson’s LP of the same name was reissued?

John Foxx features twice - which with Foxx’s recent Harold Budd-related work and the reissue of the first three Ultravox albums certainly raises his profile. ‘Underpass‘ continues the territory he began to explore with ‘My Sex‘ and ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour‘, while 1978’s ‘Slow Motion‘ (la hit in the early 80s) offers the template for Gary Numan’s albums until he started dressing like the bloke from Judas Priest. Numan is also represented by the Tubeway Armyclassic ‘Are Friends Electric?‘, like ‘Cars‘ it’s obviously one of the greatest singles released, still sounds wonderful and was memorably mashed up with ‘Freak Like Me‘ to give Sugababes#2 a #1 hit (though ‘We Are So Fragile‘ or ‘Down In The Park‘ would have been my choices).

The Normal’s ‘Warm Leatherette’ was a one-off single from Mute founder Daniel Miller and released before his Silicon Teens LP ‘Music for Parties,’ and his production work for Depeche Mode and Soft Cell. More Ballard fun that was later covered by Grace Jones - who has ‘Private Life‘ included, which is fine - but I might have plumped for her cover of Joy Division’s ‘She’s Lost Control’ or her companion to ‘Warm Leatherette‘, ‘Pull Up to the Bumper.’ The root-influences return once again with Bryan Ferry - odd, as you’d have thought Roxy Music might have featured? You can’t quibble with the Mod-associated ‘The In Crowd‘, both a great song and a great cover, but such Ferry/Roxy tracks as ‘Editions of You‘, ‘Tokyo Joe‘, ‘Ladytron‘, ‘Sign of the Times,’ and ‘Both Ends Burning‘ might have been more apt? Ferry’s former associate Professor Eno pops up next with ‘The True Wheel‘ from the classic 1973 LP ‘Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)‘ which alongside ‘Here Come the Warm Jets‘ and ‘Another Green World‘ form an early trilogy of masterpieces…

Kraftwerk’s ‘The Robots’ is set against Summer/Moroder’s classic ‘I Feel Love‘, recalling the brilliant Zeroes compilation ‘Machine Soul‘ before hitting on a post-punk double whammy with selections from Magazine and Wire. Wire’s ‘I am the Fly’ from 1978 was their wry comment on the dead punk scene, showcasing their advanced angular sound from the likes of ‘Reuters‘ and ‘Strange‘ to this single, and ‘Chairs Missing‘ - tracks like ‘Heartbeat‘ and ‘Practice Makes Perfect.’ I recall Wire getting dumped by EMI following ‘154‘ and the incoming Duran mentioned as one of the reasons - will Newman and company like being cited here? Magazine’s ‘Shot By Both Sides’ was their debut single released in 1978 after Howard Devoto returned from academic-related ‘retirement’ after leaving Buzzcocks. Its memorable riff came from Pete Shelley who would use it on Buzzcocks’ ‘Lipstick’ and would later record an LP withDevoto in 2001. Magazine were a great band (even if the fourth LP was patchy) and ‘Shot By Both Sides‘ is one of their greatest moments, alongside ‘A Song from Under the Floorboards‘ (currently covered by Morrissey), ‘The Light Pours Out Of Me‘, ‘Permafrost‘ and ‘Give Me Everything.’ The final selection not noted thus far is another root-influence - the Ig; ‘The Passenger‘ is familiar to the point of being in adverts these days. Certainly a key song of the punk/post-punk era - though ‘Nightclubbing‘, ‘Funtime‘, ‘Fall in Love with Me‘ or ‘Sister Midnight‘ might have been bolder choices?

An excellent compilation, though oddly it leaves off a major influence on Duran: Japan. Picky souls like me like to point out that Duran leaned heavily on Sylvian & co’s material from 1979 onwards - tracks like ‘In Vogue‘,’Gentleman Take Polaroids‘ or ‘The Art of Parties‘ really should have been included. And that gets you onto other missing possibilities: Silicon Teens, Associates, B.E.F., Cabaret Voltaire, Soft Cell, Faust, Spandau Ballet, Throbbing Gristle, and maybe something like Scott Walker’s ‘The Electrician’? Great stuff regardless…

J.A. Parkes