New Musik

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

New Musik
Background information
Origin	London, United Kingdom
Genre(s)	Electronic Pop Electropop Synthpop
Years active	1977–1982
Label(s)	Edsel Records, Epic Records, GTO Records, Sony Records
Members
Tony Mansfield Clive Gates (1979–) Cliff Venner (1982–)
Former members
Tony Hibbert (1977–81) Phil Towner (1977–81) Nick Straker (1977–79)

New Musik were an English Synthpop group active from 1977 to 1982. The lead singer and main man was Tony Mansfield. The group wasn't very commercially successful, though their 1980 single release "Living By Numbers" charted high enough in the UK charts (#13) to land the band on TV pop show Top Of The Pops.

Their debut album; From A To B (1980) reached the UK top 30 and contained four chart singles; "Straight Lines", "Living By Numbers" (their sole top 20 hit), "Sanctuary" and "This World Of Water." They also appeared on Top of the Pops in October 1979, with "Straight Lines", and toured the UK in 1980.

Their second album, Anywhere (1981) scraped to number 69 in the charts and neither of its singles, "Luxury" and "While You Wait", charted. The song "Churches" (spring 1981) was relatively successful, though its succeptibly deep apocalypic overtones and references were perhaps less suited to a generation cultured on Duran Duran..

In 1981 a compilation album, Sanctuary, was released in the US, consisting of four tracks from From A To B and eight from Anywhere. Previous to this release, there had also been a four song 10", Straight Lines, released by CBS in the US as part of their short-lived "Nu-Disk" series.

Their third and final album, Warp (1982) was more experimental and failed to chart. Oddly, it featured a synth version of the Beatles "All You Need Is Love", alongside an identically titled track of their own. Tracks such as "Hunting", "A Train On Twisted Tracks" and "Kingdoms For Horses" showed much promise, but the group disbanded shortly after, and this album was only given a CD release in Japan.

The band specialised in catchy synth-pop with clever, often thought-provoking lyrical content. Tracks such as "Dead Fish (Don't Swim Home)" and "The Planet Doesn't Mind" highlighted environmental issues, still a minority interest in the early 80s.

Despite a relative lack of commercial success, their music has retained an enduring appeal and hasn't dated in the way much material from this era has. Several artists have covered tracks by New Musik, including Camouflage who did a version of "On Islands" in 1989. Tony Mansfield went on to achieve success in the field of production for the likes of The Damned's Captain Sensible, with the group Naked Eyes one of his most successful projects. From A To B and Anywhere were released on CD in 1994, and again in 2001, remastered and with bonus tracks.