The Age Of Plastic is Buggles’ first studio album.
Trevor Horn was born in 1948 in the north of England. His father was an engineer who played the double bass semi-professionally with the Joe Clarke Big Band. At the age of 8, little Trevor took up the double bass under his father’s tutelage and also learned to read music. At the age of 17, Horn decided to become a professional musician and was able to play pop covers for a local dance band. At the age of 21, Horn moved to London to play in Ray McVay’s big band and work as a studio musician. At the age of 24, Horn became more and more interested in recording studios, which would become the future focus of his career. Horn lived for a time in Leicester where he helped set up a local studio, learning a lot about studio technology.
Four years younger than Horn, Geoffrey Downes was born in 1952 into a musical family. His father played the organ in church as a chaplain and his mother was a pianist. Downes followed in his parents’ footsteps, playing piano and keyboard in local bands in his home village of Stockport. Downes studied music at Leeds Conservatoire, but after graduating he did not pursue a career in art music but instead moved to London where he supported himself as a session musician.
In 1976, at the age of 28, Horn returned from Leicester to London where he first crossed paths with keyboard player Downes. Horn and Downes played together for a while in disco singer Tina Charles’ backing band and then formed the short-lived band Chromium. Playing with Horn and Downes in Chromium was future collaborator Anne Dudley (Dudley and Horn formed the ”anti-band” Art Of Noise in 1983), who was important to Horn, and German synthesizer maestro Hans Zimmer, who would go on to become one of the most successful film music composers on the planet. Chromium’s only album released in 1979, Star To Star, is essentially a rather corny disco record, but at its best it has echoes of the Buggles.
Read also: Review: Yes – 90125 (1983)
In 1977 Horn and Downes teamed up again to make demos for a project first called Bugs and then changed to Buggles (sometimes also called The Buggles), a slightly clumsy but humorous reference to The Beatles. The Buggles is a silly name, but so is The Beatles, which is perhaps not so easy to grasp nowadays as the name has become so deeply embedded in the core of Western culture.
”It was originally called the Bugs … studio insects—imaginary creatures who lived in recording studios creating havoc. Then somebody said as a joke that the Bugs would never be as big as the Beatles. So we changed it to the Buggles.”
Geoff Downes
Horn and Downes developed the songs together with guitarist Bruce Woolley, who left the band before the album was finished. Hans Zimmer programmed some sequences and sounds for the Prophet synthesizer for the album, but for one reason or another he was not credited. Zimmer sued the Buggles for negligence with little success. Apparently the matter did not remain a long-term issue as Horn and Zimmer later collaborated on the soundtrack of the film Toys.
The demos took almost a year to complete, but they finally helped Buggles secure a record deal after several disappointments with Chris Blackwell’s British-Jamaican label Island. Buggles was able to start recording The Age Of Plastic in the spring of 1979. The final budget was a whopping £60 000, which at the time was no mean feat for a brand new band. However, Blackwell’s investment was worth every penny as Horn and Downes really put the money to good use in the studio.
The production of the album is credited to Buggles, but it is probably reasonable to conclude from the future careers of Horn and Downes that the main responsibility in this area has been that of future super-producer Trevor Horn. The Age Of Plastic sounds precise and full-bodied. Few pop albums of the same era sound as good. And best of all, although The Age Of Plastic is a child of its time, it still sounds very timeless today.
Like Mike Oldfield on his QE2 album released the same year, Buggles makes extensive use of Vocoder to transform vocals into robotic sounds. Horn’s own vocals, in particular, as lead vocalist, are almost always effected in some way. However, vocal melodies play an important role throughout the album and, especially in the choruses, they are often doubled, tripled or overdubbed who knows how many times so that different singers are layered into a seamless-sounding super choir. And although Horn’s voice is often affected, overall he does a great job with the vocals. They have just the right amount of a certain kind of wry, distanced irony and, on the other hand, enough emotional grip. Like the whole album, listening to Horn’s singing is above all fun!
The Age Of Plastic is a loose concept album that deals with the effects of technological development on human beings in a sarcastic tone with a wink. And while some of the lyrics are just a bit of fun, some are actually quite apt, if not prophetic, from the perspective of 40 years ago. The album has a rather upbeat atmosphere, but on the other hand there is often something threatening and the songs seem to tell of a future where something has gone a little wrong or at least something of basic humanity has been lost. The dystopian science fiction writer J.G. Ballard was a favourite of both Horn and Downes, and Horn, who was responsible for the lyrics on the album, has made Ballard a great role model whose influence has resonated throughout his career. Alongside its futuristic themes, The Age Of Plastic also has a charming nostalgic undertone that emerges here and there. Most obviously in the album’s hit song ”Video Killed The Radio Star” which mourns the loss of radio stars to the new media, and in ”Elstree” which fantasises about an old, now forgotten, b-movie star. The Age Of Plastic excitingly collides nostalgia and futuristic sci-fi visions in both lyrics and music.
Living in the plastic age
Looking only half my age
Hello doctor lift my face
I wish my skin could stand the pace
Musically, Horn and Downes’ guiding idea was to take Kraftwerk’s electronic style and combine it with a more traditional pop sound. The Buggles wanted to bring some warmth to the German electronic cold. The end result could be described as a combination of Kraftwerk’s electronic innovations, 10cc’s smart pop, Abba’s melodic good vibes and The Alan Parsons Project’s orchestrally rich hi-fi sound.
The Age Of Plastic is often referred to as synth-pop. Sure, its rich sound is created almost entirely by synthesizers, but it’s always backed by so many instruments typical of ”real” rock bands that I don’t think it quite fits that definition. Almost every song features a drum kit (there are three different drummers on the album) and a Horn’s bass guitar, with a few short electric guitar breaks here and there. Maybe this is a nitpick, but I would argue that despite the synthetic nature of the album, The Age Of Plastic is actually prog-pop disguised as synth-pop. After all, Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes were two progressive rock fans who were just born a little too late to be part of the genre’s first outburst in the late 60s.
”Living In The Plastic Age”, which starts with strange noises and bells, kicks off the album effectively and at the same time successfully introduces the overall style of the album. The sound of the song is orchestral and richly detailed. Horn and Downes layer on a hefty dose of various synths and ’real’ instruments. The drums play with precision, so precise that they could actually be made by a drum machine, but because it’s a real drum player that Horn just drove with endless repetition to extreme precision, the result is just the right amount of contextually mechanical yet at the same time vivid enough. This nicely supports the theme of the album. The human and the mechanical meet. The new and the old meet hands on The Age Of Plastic in a very unique way. Throughout the album, the real drum kit is an important contributor to the humanity and only in the hypnotic ”Astroboys” is the rhythm track left entirely to the drum machines and sequences. As for the rhythm section, mention should also be made of the bass guitar, elegantly handled by Horn. His bass patterns on the album are often simple, but always very musical.
”The Plastic Agen” is followed by the album’s hit and most famous song ”Video Killed The Radio Star”. The song evokes mixed emotions in me, on the one hand the OUA-OUA chorus and the chorus chant are a bit annoying to listen to, but on the other hand Horn and Downes have constructed the whole thing so irresistibly efficiently and skilfully that in the end you can’t help but succumb to the song’s delicacy, which is bursting with details. And the composition itself isn’t quite as simple as it might seem at first listen.
(”Video Killed The Radio Star” had actually debuted in November 1979 (The Age Of Plastic was released in January 1980) on the debut album English Garden by Bruce Woolley’s The Camera Club , which also features an alternative version of another Buggles song ”Clean Clean”.)
The third track ”Kid Dynamo” is the highlight of the album. Pushing forward with an intense, breathtaking drive, the fast-paced track is an energetic rollercoaster ride. Its layered vocals (combinations of male and female vocalists) are particularly delightful to listen to. ”Kid Dynamo! I remember you! Kid Dynamo!” chants the vocalists energetically and I for one can’t help but join in on the couch at home. Horn’s tasty bass pattern gives the song a fertile breeding ground around which to hear some of the album’s most boisterous drumming. ”Kid Dynamo” is an excellent pop song and simply a lot of fun to listen to!
The Age Of Plastic reaches its peak with ”Kid Dynamo”, but the last five tracks of the album continue the hit parade to the end. Each song on the album contains tasty melodic moments and insightful production choices.
All that we said
How media builds stars
And our minds won’t change
Only our cars
Read also: Review: Jon Anderson – Change We Must (1994)
The Age Of Plastic was sold to the masses with ”Video Killed The Radio Star” which became a big hit single. The song went to number one in no less than 16 different countries and for some reason did particularly well in Australia. The iconic reputation of ”Video Killed The Radio Star” was finally sealed on August 1, 1981 when its music video was the first to be shown on the new music-focused MTV satellite channel.
Three other singles were released from the album, all of which were reasonably successful, but sales of The Age Of Plastic were relatively modest. However, there was enough success to start working on the next album. However, the next Buggles album was left unfinished when, in a surprising turn of events, Horn and Downes ended up replacing vocalist Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman in the legendary Yes. Horn and Downes’ Yes adventure (more on that in the upcoming Drama album review!) was limited to one album and one tour. For now. Both men returned to the Yes orbit even later.
After Yes, the duo returned to work on the next Buggles album. However, Downes jumped ship early on to join Steve Howe (Yes), John Wetton (King Crimson, U.K.) and Carl Palmer (ELP) to form the AOR supergroup Asia.
Horn completed a new Buggles album on his own called Adventures In Modern Recording. This album is more synthetic than its predecessor and better fulfils the definition of synthpop given to The Age Of Plastic. Adventures In Modern Recording did not achieve much success and Horn lost interest in the project and began to really push his career as a producer again. It was a winning decision for Horn as he eventually became one of the most successful producers of the 80’s and 90’s whose great production style was enjoyed by the likes of ABC, Grace Jones, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Pet Shop Boys, Tina Turner, Seal and so on. Horn played a major role in shaping the sound of 80s records and has sometimes been called ”the man who invented the 80s”. But if Horn invented the 80s, the album that gave birth to producer Trevor Horn was the hugely entertaining pop gem The Age Of Plastic.
Best tracks: ”The Plastic Age”, ”Video Killed The Radio Star”, ”Kid Dynamo”, ”Clean, Clean”, ”Elstree”, ”Astroboy (And The Proles On Parade)”, ”Johnny On The Monorail”
Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI
Tracks
- ”Living in the Plastic Age” 5:13
- ”Video Killed the Radio Star” 4:13
- ”Kid Dynamo” 3:29
- ”I Love You (Miss Robot)” 4:58
- ”Clean, Clean” 3:53
- ”Elstree” 4:29
- ”Astroboy (And the Proles on Parade)” 4:41
- ”Johnny on the Monorail” 5:28
Buggles
Geoff Downes: keyboards, synthesizers, drums, drum machine programming, vocoder Trevor Horn: vocals, bass guitar, guitar, synthesizers, programming
Other musicians
Dave Birch: guitars (”Living In The Plastic Age” and ”Video Killed the Radio Star”) Richard James Burgess: drums Tina Charles: backing vocals Debi Doss: backing vocals (”Video Killed the Radio Star”) Linda Jardim: backing vocals (”Video Killed the Radio Star”) Paul Robinson: drums Tom Blades: guitar Bruce Woolley: guitar
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