Silicon Teens

  • Silicon Teens
  • Music for Parties (Sire) 1980 

Daniel Miller is as responsible as anybody (save Robert Moog) for the rise of synthesizers in modern rock — via his Mute Records, a groundbreaking single (as the Normal) and production work for Depeche Mode and many others. The illusory Silicon Teens (despite the personnel list on the sleeve) was a pseudonymous Miller studio project, offering fourteen percolating synth versions (with vocals) of such rock’n’roll classics as “Memphis, Tennessee,” “Judy in Disguise,” “You Really Got Me” — you get the idea. There are several originals as well, but the title says it best: a good time is guaranteed for all. The approach here is more conservative and reverent than the prior more devolutionary Flying Lizards, but the two concepts are not that far apart.

[Ira Robbins]