STARTER - S/T

"STARTER was a minimal electronic/synthpop group from Switzerland, formed in 1980 by vocalist and fashion designer Francis Foss, Claudine Chirac (from fellow Swiss Wave group Grauzone) and Jet Harbour. Originally the band also included Stephan Eicher who co-wrote two songs but departed before the band recorded their debut album. STARTER began in the city of Bern when Francis, Claudine and Jet decided to create their own brand of New Wave music inspired by Gary Numan and Kraftwerk.They released their debut, self-titled album STARTER in the summer of 1981, making this summer the 30th anniversary of this long out-of-print and extremely hard to find LP!\r\nUsing early analog Roland and Korg synthesizers, STARTERS music seamlessly merges wistful electronics from Germanys Neue Deutsche Welle movement and powerful vocal stylings from French Chanson. Alongside their Swiss Wave contemporaries like Grauzone, Yello, Liliputt/Kleenex, STARTER created a new brand of hallucinatory _جø¬_Techno-Pop made up of chopped rhythms, energetic and almost epileptic vocals that are immediately catchy and hypnotic, perfect for the dance-floor. In 1985 STARTER reformed as a duo with Francis Foss on vocals again and Gary Grey on synth/rhythm programming. Their first single _جø¬_Victim_جø¬_ took cues from Italo Disco and Bobby Orlandos Hi-NRG dance sounds and is the bonus track on Side B of this LP. The song _جø¬_Part of You_جø¬_ was chosen as the lead track on the Gomma compilation CD Teutonik Disaster 2 in 2003 recruiting new fans worldwide and ushering Francis Foss to release a homemade CD-R/DVD compilation of the entire STARTER discography in 2004.\r\nAll songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley in 2011. Each LP includes a lyrics sheet with unreleased photos and a STARTER badge/button". - Dark Entries.