Now THIS really makes me want to bust out the dark eyeliner and dive deep into the stacks…

Synth Britannia from the BBC: “A documentary following a generation of post-punk musicians who took the synthesiser from the experimental fringes to the centre of the pop stage.”

According to the BBC’s fantastic info page (which includes video interviews, blogs and a wonderful track listing), the program aired last month, but through the miracle of the interwebs, we all can relive the salad days of synth pop. Here are the first 2 sections, and the rest can be found in the related videos column on YouTube:

This totally reaffirms my nerdy childhood love for all those Kraftwerk and Gary Numan records. Taking the punk aesthetic & applying it to machines, the artists from this era were pioneers in pop music and musical technique. Everything I hear in this film sounds as fresh and exciting now, as it did on the wonky cassette player I had as a kid. I doubt the “electro-indie” stuff playing in Urban Outfitters and on Gossip Girl will last as long. It’s a history lesson for trendoids who think they’ve re-invented the wheel.

Thanks to the good people of MAKE Magazine online for tipping everyone off to all this synthy joy. 🙂

– Jocelyn