New Musik

New Musik were one of the first British groups to come out with a sound that successfully combined synths and "real" instruments, and they did so while the likes of The Cure and Joy Division were still looking for somewhere to plug their keyboards in. Their albums are a bit patchy, but the singles are marvellous, and it remains a mystery why they were unable to build on their hit "Living By Numbers". The songwriting ability was certainly there, they had an appealing sound and good clean, radio-friendly production, but they drifted off into obscurity nevertheless. Shame.