Time to See the Light--Rational Youth--Electronic Pop from Montreal

I was never a big fan of electronic music when I started listening to music as a teenager.
Even though I was taking piano lessons, my idea of great music involved loud music, guitars, power chords.

Like every self-respecting rocker, I would faithfully watch show like Midnight Special and Don Kirschner's Rock Concert to see musical idols perform, and perhaps get a preview of the great new music to come. There weren't so many outlets back in those days for music.

One night I still remember seeing Gary Numan for the first time one night on Don Kirschner's show.
I was completely flabbergasted. What sort of nonsense were they trying to foist on us. At the time I thought it was totally laughable stuff. Weird. Wimpy. For a long time I just couldn't listen to much in this genre. It felt like novelty music. I thought it was cheesy and for the most part unserious.

But in reality electronic music has its good and bad, and of course can be superb, transcendent. Synthesizers and Computers are just another tool to be used to make music to express ideas, and for every 20 stinkers in any genre, there are always a few good, even great albums to be enjoyed.

I didn't overcome my musical prejudice for a long time. The whole "man becoming machine" thing is still pretty uncompelling to me. Even if in this day and age there it appears that there was more than a germ of truth to the concept.  I suppose I have a greater appreciation for music with a human face.
And that's why I was completely taken aback when I heard New Order for the first time. I heard it playing on my stereo, coming from my own college radio station. It definitely altered my perceptions about electronic music in a way that other groups like Devo could not.

I'm pretty sure it was "Age of Consent" playing that day--it was about the time the release of Power Corruption and Lies, which I became an owner of shortly thereafter. In those days I didn't know that it was a new incarnation of Joy Division after Ian Curtis' sad demise. It was an immediate, visceral reaction to great music, and it helped open me to listening to music rather than compartmentalise my musical preferences narrowly.

Which comes to the point of my post. I was reading Have Not Been the Same, a terrific and weighty tome on Canadian rock of the 1980's and 90's, and learning about a lot of groups that never reached my American airspace. I enjoyed the book a great deal. There is even a compilation CD that came out in conjunction (i.e. not with the book) that gives you a taste of the diversity and quality of the bands of the era.

When I was young, I knew Canadians could play Hockey and brew strong beer like LaBatt's and Molson, but believed they could never compete with the Americans and the Brits in rock and roll. I guess in the Cold War era, everything felt like a stupid competition. BTO of course was some crazy exception of course.

The Unity of Things is the Essence of Truth...

Based upon my Canadian research, the first album I bought happened to be by an electronic group of the 80's from Montreal called Rational Youth. I don't think they are any big secret to fans of new wave and electronic music, but they are fairly new to me. Some of the song titles of Cold War Night Life seemed vaguely familiar. I have to say that this album is pretty terrific. When you compare the quantum leaps of technology in the music world, you have to admire what these guys did back in the early 80's. The music was all created on keyboards. And unlike a lot of the music of era, the music does not seem so dated. In fact, I find it to be as good or better than most of the better-known synth-pop contemporaries were doing.

I find a lot of creativity in the music on Cold War Night Life. Sometimes groups latch on to a sound and their songs seem a bit samey, but there is a great deal of diversity in the arrangements. Instead of being a record with a few strong cuts and mediocre material, the songs here are universally good. The music is a combination of bounciness, and sombre macabre spookiness. There is an noticeably aggressive muscular quality to the music that is hard to ignore.  I cannot help but believe that these guy were pretty influential to other groups. I'm a little reminded of comeback era Wire, and they also seem to be a precursor to industrial music. The band was Tracy Howe, Bill Vorn, and Kevin Komoda, all playing synths, with Howe as lead vocalist.






Though Dancing on The Berlin Wall is probably the best known song, there are other songs that I like better. Though these days, seeing young people in the Middle East doing the Harlem Shake in a symbolic defiance of their governments, I see a bit of a connection. Dancing on the Berlin Wall is almost a Gothic "Rocking the Casbah" in a way. As for my tastes, Beware the Fly is probably my favorite on this album, dark clever atmospheric pop with haunted house organ sounding synths segueing into the ostinato laden chorus. Saturdays in Silesia is another Cold War synth classic with almost a Flashdance rhythm to it. Other recommended cuts are the the opening song Close to Nature, City of Night, and the instrumental tune Power Zone. The reissue also includes the tremendous electro-ballad I Want To See the Light. Definitely one of the band's high points. Coboloid Race, also included, is also very good, with a more industrial metallic sound.



When I first tried to pick up a copy of this, I was surprised to find that it would cost me a good amount of cash. I actually wound up buying it on Amazon UK. Right now it seems it can be purchased at a reasonable prize. If that changes, be aware that Yul records, the label that originally issued Cold War Night Life has come out of mothballs and is active once again. You can order the album directly from the label's website. To celebrate the label's 30th anniversary, they have released 4 Rational Youth eps, containing remixes, some newly discovered and never before released.






It has been nearly 25 since the Berlin Wall fell and I don't think people today understand just what things were like back then. For all we knew about life under Communism, there was a lot we did not know, and the same was true about life in the world of Capitalism. I don't think you will learn much about such things by listening to Rational Youth, but quite honestly by listening to the album you can get a little idea of what people were thinking at the time, beliefs and opinions, which were colored by a world seemingly running on a course toward mutually assured destruction. Of course if you had been to Russia at the time and seen how parents bundled their children for winter weather, you wouldn't have many doubts as to whether they loved their children or not. And certainly Rational Youth took the lyrical content of their songs extremely seriously. All I'm saying is there is a certain context to these songs which I still may find interesting today, but I understand how they would not seem so meaningful to people who were born after Communism collapsed in Europe.

All in all Rational Youth put out a very intelligent, forward sounding synth-pop album which should be better known. In addition there are other releases under the moniker, but none with the original lineup. There is an anthology of their music entitled All Our Saturdays which is readily available and includes music from Heredity, the 2nd album. Years later Howe put out another Rational Youth album To the Goddess Electricity on a Swedish label, which is a bit pricey to get. A Singles box set came out in 2000, but was released in limited quantities. But I recommend you go right to the first album if you want to hear the group. If you are a fan of synth-pop, electronic music, or merely an 80's nostalgist, this disc sound pretty essential to my ear.