Adventures in Modern Recording (1981) 

The Buggles

By the time The Buggles released their second album, Adventures in Modern Recording (1981), Trevor Horn was beginning to outgrow the role of pop star. He would later name his memoir after the album, describing it as a template for his subsequent production work. The success of “Video Killed the Radio Star” had given him the financial freedom to take creative risks, and here he treated the album as a playground for sonic experimentation. 

In many ways, the album is like a fully-fledged version of The Buggles debut album The Age of Plastic (1980), finishing the sentences they started with more sophistication and creative flair. Between their debut album and their second, Horn and Downes had both joined Yes; and when sessions for The Buggles’ second album began, Downes left to join Asia. So Horn and long-term engineer Gary Langhan collaborated to finish the production. 

Perhaps it was because Yes’ songs unfolded slowly, but the second album favours long and slow builds. The penchant for radio-friendly synth hooks and hyperactive beats in the first album is replaced with drawn-out cinematic melodramas. Both albums were in keeping with new-wave quirkiness, though. 

The expansion of Horn’s sonic palette and creative grandeur is heard from the first track. It opens up with magnificent scope, where programmed rhythms and layered instrumentation create a tightly controlled and theatrical sound. “Vermillion Sands” is an ominous, jazz-infused track, while brutalist techno-pop track “On TV” creates an almost orchestral density. “Inner City” is a particular highlight with its rigid, mechanical beats and macabre atmosphere.

On Adventures, sampling becomes part of Horn’s production vocabulary. A key development was the use of the Fairlight CMI, a sampling synthesiser that expanded how sounds could be recorded, manipulated and arranged. He would later perfect his confident command over the Fairlight CMI through his project The Art of Noise, sampling sounds in complex patterns to create collages of high and low culture.

The Buggles were always somewhat reluctant pop stars, and around 1981, Horn was moving towards a career in which production would become the main creative act. Adventures in Modern Recording marks a spring board for Horn establishing himself as a producer, and his creativity would continue to mature without mellowing.

A test press of this album directlty from Sarm East is available in our Marketplace. Link here.

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