Cybotron – Clear

I came across this record quite recently, only in the last few years. I just think it’s a real classic and I’m always surprised that I don’t really see this album cropping up more often. It’s a real hidden gem. Hearing it just sent me down a rabbit hole really of discovering more about the roots of electro and techno. It’s a great reflection too of where technology was up to at the time, just those early 80s synths, drum machines and sequences, creating music using just hardware. I always loved the soundtracks from classic 80s films like Beverly Hills Cop and Ghostbusters and later on, finding albums like Cybotron’s Clear, you can see that’s where those electro textures used in cinema at the time were coming from.

I did actually see Cybotron do a one-off performance at the Barbican a couple of years ago too and it was astonishing. The clarity of those complex arrangements was staggering and it still sounded fantastic.