Issue 112 PDF

For this month's Electronic Sound cover story, we've picked out 101 Records Of 1981, a crucial year in the history of both electronic and alternative music.

One of the main music talking points of 1981 was the growing number of synthpop bands breaking into the UK mainstream charts, many of them climbing into the Top 10. But at the same time, there was a surge in new independent talent, with the post-punk underground splintering into endless sub-genres – coldwave, alt-funk, punk-funk, industrial, electro-dub, goth, jangly pop, agit-pop, avant-jazz, mutant disco and more – and artists putting out their records via established indies and previously unknown labels. It was an amazing time for electronic, experimental and just plain awesome music – whatever tribe you belonged to – and we're telling the story of the year through 101 milestone releases. It's an epic blast.

Looking beyond the cover feature, we have interviews with Electribe 101 singer Billie Ray Martin, I Monster mashers Dean Honer and Jarrod Gosling, and Californian avant-garde pioneer Dorothy Moskowitz. We also talk to Man Parrish about ‘Hip Hop, Be Bop (Don’t Stop)’ and Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley about his influences, while one-time Piano Magic men Glen Johnson and Cédric Pin step up for our quickfire Q&A session. We have ace cartoonist Savage Pencil as well, discussing his sleeve art for The Fall’s ‘Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul’ single, one of the biggest indie records of 1981.