Suburban Robot

• Track Listing

One man band consisting of Brian Carney, synth-man with UK underground psychedelic band Poisoned Electrick Head (1986-1997), Android 80 sees the Belgium-based Englishman return to his first love: 80s synth pop, vintage synths and the robotic melodies of Kraftwerk and early The Human League. The composer defines his eccentric project as "one man on a lonely platform listening to the voice of Buddha", but Android 80's 'Surburban Robot' is a wry reflection on "Search for a Star" Pop culture ("Materialism is the new vision/You're nobody if you don't want it all/'Cause Sex & Drugs & Rock 'n Roll/has sold it's soul to the shopping mall" on 'Punk's Not Dead') with one nervous eye on an apocalyptic Orwellian future. 1984, a symbolic year for Android 80, a slice of electronic culture, which he tries to honour with tales of twisted digital pop ('David Bowie had a Discotheque') and warped vocoder anthems ('We Love Drugs') in an effort to assure the Hacienda that "the party ain't over yet". Born in St Helens - in the suburbs of Liverpool- a chance hearing of Warm Leatherette by The Normal became a defining moment that changed everything for the teenage cyborg, he traded his heart for a Roland beat box and fell in love with the analogue synth. He composed his first song shortly after an embryonic 1980 concert of The Human League and was further inspired by a "life-changing" show by Kraftwerk in 1981. He discovered the power of stage-costumes from observing Devo and The Residents, aided and abetted by the drug-fuelled excesses of the free-festival/rave movement of the late eighties/early nineties. Swept along by the never-ending madness of the era, he was once declared "the most wasted person I've ever seen in the entire history of the Glastonbury festival" by Michael Eavis himself no less! (founder of the English rock festival), not knowing that twenty years later his solo album would read like a synthetic snapshot of his decadent mis-spent youth. Singer of enraged garage band UFO goes UFA, keyboard player with Phantom feat. Lio and author of a recently published book ('Take Your Protein Pills - The Poisoned Electrick Head Story'), Brian Carney is a far cry from radio-friendly singers, his music is his life and his Jupiter 8 synth an extension of his twisted brain. Conceived in Brussels in 2010, 'Surburban Robot' sounds like a nihilistic electropop symphony, an endless urban nightmare spiked with ascerbic melodies, barbed lyrics and lush synths that drip acid rain down onto the English suburbs. A mutant echo of early Depeche Mode with Dr Starngelove at the controls. Warning! Unidentified Flying Object alert...