synth pop

The Flying Pickets is a British a cappella vocal group, that had a surprise number one hit in 1983 in the UK singles chart, with their cover of Yazoo's track Only You. The name 'Flying Pickets' refers to mobile strikers who travel in order to join a picket. The group of six was founded by Brian Hibbard in 1982 by a group of actors , the "7:84 Theatre group", a fringe theatre group who had sung a capella in their production of One Big Blow, based on the 1984 UK miners' strike.

Read more about Flying Pickets on Last.fm.

Le Futur Pompiste, which released one marvelous album in 2004, Your Stories and Your Thoughts, before the vagaries of adult life scattered them far and wide; and Cats On Fire, whose debut long-player, 2007's The Province Complains, captivated all who were lucky enough to hear it (among them the writers at superlative U.K. magazine The Word). It was inevitable that this pair of bands, whose music shares a poise and sophistication rarely heard anywhere, never mind within the modest environs of Finland, would find each other.

Born Nicholas David Kershaw in Bristol, England on March 1, 1958, Kershaw played guitar and sang in a number of underground bands before deciding on a career as a songwriter. However, he ended up performing his own songs rather than giving them to others, and signed a deal with MCA Records in 1983, which spawned a debut single, "I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me", which just missed out on the UK Top 40.

This New Jersey native was initially inspired by England's take on the sound of Detroit, but eventually tracked techno back to its Motor City innovators. When he began listening to music, however, it was the sound of early-'80s synth heroes like Devo, Severed Heads and New Order alongside early hiphop, jazz and 60's Hindi film soundtracks. Geist released his first 12" (via Dan Curtin's innovative Metamorphic label) while studying at Oberlin College in 1994.