25 amazing synthpop songs that you have never listened from bands you haven’t even knew existed (or the testimony of how a band can become the ground base for an entire genre)

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All genres have excellent bands – whether they are still active or have already disbanded, this would not be taken into consideration here – that, besides the fact of playing great, wonderful and amazing music, paradoxically, never had too much success, doesn’t matter if the possibilities were placed under a mainstream or underground basis. But the chance of success is overall reduced for most bands because the music business is thoroughly difficult, and not all the groups listed below, despite a lot of them being quite talented and astonishing, would have the opportunity to conquer an audience, especially if solely based on their musical greatness and creativity. The music industry is complex, and the success of a band depends a lot more on contacts, contracts, publicity, agent and visuals, than talent and musical abilities per se. So, below, I have selected amazing and overwhelming synthpop songs from bands that had potential to break into the mainstream – if not all of them, at least a dozen of it –, but unfortunately, this never happened (although some of them have found a modest degree of success). For one reason or another, the vast majority of these bands haven’t had the opportunity to make it into the music business (with only a few exceptions), never properly consolidating a career. 

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1 – Michigan: Karma Shines

Michigan – as far as I could research on the web – was a German synthpop group, that had disbanded at some moment, throughout a somewhat prolific career. They don’t have any social media (like the vast majority of bands on this list) to search for, but apparently, had a solid and fruitful career, as YouTube is full of videos featuring their music. They were the primary example of a synthpop band profoundly influenced by Depeche Mode.

2 – Sea of Sin: Ride The Sky

Sea of Sin – again, as far as I could research – was also a German synthpop band. Like other groups on this list, they were thoroughly influenced by Depeche Mode. Apparently, they were active from the early 1990’s, to the early 2000’s, when they ceased activities. In their short career, they’ve released their debut album, Watch Out!, in 1995, and the EP Illuminate, in 1997, both by Subtronic Records. Their final album, a full length titled Urban Chemistry, was released in 2000, by Synthphony Records. 

3 – Days of Fate: Lonely People

Another German band, with Depeche Mode similarities, albeit with darker nuances. This band has managed to achieve a reasonable level of notoriety within their home country, building a style of their own, amalgamating a great array of influences and genres in their compositions. Although they have a somewhat very concise discography, the band was active for fifteen years, from 1993 to 2008. 

4 – The Dignity of Labour: Liquid

The Dignity of Labour – also known as TDOL – is a perfect example of a little known synthpop group, with a decades long career. Although it has a very short discography, The Dignity of Labour – that shortly after it was created, in the mid to late eighties, diluted as a group, but strongly continued as a project of its main creator and composer, American musician Kirk Taylor – is active nowadays, releasing albums and doing occasional live performances with supporting musicians.   

5 – The Human League: Empire State Human

Having Started activities in 1977, in 2017, The Human League will complete forty years of existence. The most successful band on this list, they achieved higher fame in the eighties, with several singles becoming hits worldwide, and greatly increasing their public profile and fame. Among their most well-known successes, are songs like “Don’t You Want Me”, “Human” and “Heart Like a Wheel”. As the band entered the nineties, and the general acceptance and tolerance the public had for electro and synthpop started to decline, the band’s career became unstable and erratic. The only original member is singer Phillip Oakey, that is part of the group since its inception, in 1977. The other members are female singers Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley, both having joined The Human League in 1980, initially only as backup singers, before becoming full time members, with more prominent roles. Now seen more as a nostalgia act, the band has a discography comprising nine full lengths, releasing only one album per decade, since 1995. For live performances, they are usually backed by a cast of additional musicians. They have sold a total of twenty million records worldwide, although the vast majority of these at the height of their fame, during the eighties. Nowadays, they are hardly remembered by anyone outside their cult following fan base.       

6 – Seven Red Seven: Thinking Of You

This is a band that has some songs on YouTube, but little is known about them. Nonetheless, they managed to do some interesting stuff in the traditional verve of the genre, being virtually exceedingly influenced by the Speak and Spell era of early Depeche Mode.  

7 – Children Within: Headbanger

This is another group, upon which very little is known. But from all of these bands, this is certainly the most Depeche Mode-esque of them all. The song follows exactly the same sonorous patterns, nuances, essences and harmonic devices from the Speak and Spell era. Nonetheless, it’s an awesome tune, and if you like synthpop, there is a high chance of you sympathizing with this song. 

8 – Starsign: Patience

Starsign is another unknown band that had disbanded for a long time now. Apparently, they were also from Germany. Their only album, Transceiver, was released in 2003. It is also another example of a group exceedingly influenced by early Depeche Mode, being amazingly impressive how the vocals resembles the voice of Dave Gahan, Depeche Mode’s singer. On this list, this is one of my personal favorites.  

9 – Iris: The Picture

Iris is an American synthpop group, active since 1993. With a great presence on the genre underground scene and a respectable discography, Iris is one from only a handful of bands on this list that managed to make a reasonable and moderately successful career. A perfect example of a group that followed a more original and genuine style – instead of being another Depeche Mode-esque generic act – Iris is a duo consisting of musicians Andrew Sega and Reagan Jones. More flavored, romantic, libertine and with an exceptionally free-flowing harmony, The Picture is the cover version of a song by German synthpop group Hubert Kah. 

10 – State of the Union: Fall from Grace

Another example of a great and promising act with a very personal style, State of the Union is an electronic project from Laguna Beach, California. Signed with Infacted Recordings and WTII Records, State of the Union is the emotional, creative and artistic vehicle for a musician called Johann Sebastian.

11 – Fake the Envy: Into The Night 

Fake The Envy is a moderately successful Danish band, that has achieved some sort of notoriety in their home country. Active since 2001, the group consists of musicians Kristian Krøll, Kent Ricard Petersen and Jonas Gudjonsson, and has four releases available on their bandcamp page.

12 – Edenfeld: Somehow, any day

Edenfeld is another German synthpop group, that apparently had disbanded, although not without consolidating first a good reputation. With a more peculiar style, the song Somehow, any day, is an interesting one, having a presence and a vibration of its own. 

13 – Rename: Maybe later I will fall

I really don’t know anything about this band. Nonetheless, the song Maybe later I will fall is a major exemplar of the genre, showcasing in what simple, but beautiful terms the synthpop, as a genre and as a sonorous form of art, should sound like. 

14 – De/Vision: Dress Me When I Bleed

Another German band (I know, Germany probably has the highest percentage of synthpop bands per one hundred thousand inhabitants, I suppose [it’s only a speculation, but it’s proved Finland has the highest percentage on heavy metal groups – 54 bands per 100.000 people]), De/Vision is active since the late eighties, and has a very extensive discography. It’s a prominent band in their home country, and this video is probably the most beautiful on this list. 

15 – Wolfsheim: Approaching Lightspeed

Wolfsheim was a moderately successful German (what a surprise) synthpop duo, consisting of musicians Markus Reinhardt and Peter Heppner, active from the late eighties until 2004. The band ceased to exist as a result of conflicts and arguments between the two artists, that even led both to court, on legal disputes for the Wolfsheim name. Neither of them gained the battle, as justice settled the case forbidding one to continue the project without the other.   

16 – The New Division: Opium

An astounding project by American musician John Glenn Kunkel, Depeche Mode is an obvious influence here, although The New Division clearly has its own style. A beautiful song with a unique beat, Opium is an amazing hit, that combines synthpop with a wider array of electronic influences.

17 – Elegant Machinery: Shattered Grounds

Elegant Machinery is a synthpop band from Sweden, created in the late eighties. Since then, the band has disbanded and regrouped in two occasions. Although it has a somewhat concise discography, Elegant Machinery has managed to improve the scene with their catchy, soft and easy minded rhythms. 

18 – Mesh: My Perfection

Mesh is a synthpop band from England. Active since 1991, My Perfection is one of their most beautiful songs. Like a lot of bands on this list, Depeche Mode acts as one of their main influences. 

19 – Decence: Speaking

Decence is another band upon which virtually nothing is known. Nevertheless, the song selected below, Speaking, is another great example of a very good and exhilarating synthpop tune. With abrasive and uplifting beats, it follows the general patterns of the genre, although in a more interesting and peculiar style.

20 – Frozen Plasma: Hypocrite

Frozen Plasma is a notorious German synthpop duo, consisting of singer Felix Marc, and musician Vasi Vallis, of NamNamBulu fame. An exponentially famous and groundbreaking act in the German underground scenario, Frozen Plasma has shaped their music towards a more futuristic and modernist sonorous approach, which gave them a unique style, easy to recognize, to love and to sing.

21 –Statemachine: Play With Passion

Statemachine is a synthpop act from Sweden, active since 1996, upon which very little information is known. Their last post on their official FB page was from December 10, 2015, and before that, on March 12, 2015, which indicates that, since there is a lot of time between updates, the band probably are undergoing little to no activity. With an interesting sound, that merges some elements of electronica, the song Play With Passion is a great representative of their style, that closely arranges an eccentric move towards indietronica, as well as other genres, easy to perfectly align with synthpop components.

22 – Portland: You Are Nobody

Another seemingly unknown band, that sounds very similar to early Depeche Mode. Although You Are Nobody is not exactly a great hit, it’s a beautiful song, and very representative of the style followed by the group.

23 – Cause & Effect: The Beginning of the End

Cause & Effect was a synthpop duo from California, formed by musicians Sean Rowley and Rob Rowe. The Beginning of the End is a song with a more Tears for Fears “vibe”, being a very serene and reflexive synthpop tune, although closely resembles more general and traditional influences, like early Depeche Mode songs, like Shouldn’t Have Done That, The Sun & The Rainfall and Lie To Me, amongst others.

24 – Blue Birds Refuse to Fly: Burning

A good song from another seemingly unknown band, Burning has traditional synthpop harmonies, but intertwined with a more electronic vibe. An interesting tune, it departs from the general proceedings of the genre, despite maintaining the basic principles of synthpop.    

25 – CHROM: Blame You 

Last, but not least, a great song from CHROM, an amazing German synthpop duo, consisting of musicians Thomas Winters and Christian Marquis. Active since 2007, CHROM is characterized by an intelligent blend of futurepop, synthpop and EBM. One of my favorites on this list, Blame You is a superb, drastic and effervescent major song, that reshapes the creativity upon which several genres are able to converge.  

Conclusion:

Well, what we’ve really learned, throughout this whole ordeal? That synthpop as a genre, and especially as we known today, would not properly exist without Depeche Mode. Their influence was huge throughout the world, whatever and whenever the genre is heard or played. Early Depeche Mode – most prominently their albums released from early to mid-eighties – were a significant influence on most of the acts presented on this list, mainly because the generation of the musicians in question similarly coincide (they were probably mostly teenagers when Depeche Mode began its rise to stardom). Depeche Mode albums released from the mid-eighties to early nineties have played less importance on these groups in particular – and the songs featured on this list, with a fewer exceptions – mainly because most of them had already developed their styles, although Depeche Mode as an influence in  general would never stop. And we have to take into consideration the fact that these bands mostly disbanded some time along the way, while Depeche Mode’s career never stopped, although their greatest and most successful period was until the early nineties, with their glorious days going until Songs of Faith and Devotion, their 1993 rock album, that was followed by a live version released that same year. From that time on, Depeche Mode would release only one album every four years (and this is a year for Depeche Mode to a release new material: a new album, titled Spirit, is scheduled to be out in the next month [the follow up of 2013 Delta Machine]). Oh, and yes, of course, on this article we learned also that synthpop is a genre specially loved and appreciated throughout Germany. I don’t have the slightest doubt on this matter!  


​Wagner