Customer Reviews

Reproduction

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If someone asked me what my number one album in my collection is, I would choose REPRODUCTION with TRAVELOGUE right beneath it.

I happened to be listening to the Human League back in 79 when if you listened to anything besides the BeeGees you were conisdered a weirdo.

This band along with others like Nina Hagen, Kraftwerk, Frank Zappa and Kevin Ayers had a profound effect on me and my sense of individuality.

You have to remember that when REPRODUCTION came out nobody was doing anything like the Human League's music. NOBODY!. Synth was brand new, and there were just a handful of people exploring it. When people heard EMPIRE STATE HUMAN they could not compare it to anything. Nothing like it existed and it went over most people's heads.

ALMOST MEDIEVAL left people utterly confounded. It makes no sense to someone who is used to listening to the average tune. To say nothing of CIRCUS OF DEATH and AUSTERITY. These songs were so astray from the norm that people just didn't get them.

If you want to explore the the pioneers of the synth niche listen to the early Human League. They made it possible, along with Kraftwerk and a few others, for a legion of pop bands in the 80's and 90's to be able to explore electronic music.

People take synth for granted these days. But those of us who remember its infancy treasure and relish the work contained in this album.

REPRODUCTION and TRAVELOGUE is where it all began.

Reproduction was the debut album of The Human League. The talents of Phil Oakey, Ian Marsh and Martin Ware combined to produce an album of amazing originality. The songs are powerful and at times disturbingly dark. As well as up-tempo songs such as the album opener "Almost Medieval" and the single "Empire State Human", there are a few numbers that are almost hypnotic such as "The Word Before Last" and their excellent, if minimalist version of "You've Lost That Loving Feeling". A basic sound using nothing more than synths and voices and a few tape effects. They sing like they have something to say. The play with much depth. At times this is quite an emotional album. These could be the sons of Pink Floyd.

Though this was their debut album on Virgin. They had released a single on Fast Records. That single, "Being Boiled" and it's b-side "Circus of Death" are both included here as bonus tracks. However, both tracks were rerecorded and vastly improved, "Circus" on this album, whereas "Being Boiled" had to wait for The League's second album, "Travelogue". "Introducing" which was the b-side of "Empire State Human" also appears here as a bonus. As well as the four track 12-inch single "The Dignity of Labour" and it's "Flexi Disc" which came with "Dignity" and has the band and management discussing whether or not to include a flexi-disc with the single, and if so - what to put on it!

Fans of The Human League who know the band through their more recent music will find nothing familiar here. This album is by a very different band to the one who produced "Don't You Want Me?". "Travelogue" was similar to this album, if more polished. But following their second album, Marsh and Ware left and formed Heaven 17 with Glenn Gregory. With a tour coming up and desperate to find someone who could sing higher than he could, Oakey roped in two unsuspecting schoolgirls from a nightclub and a new Human League were formed.

You're left wondering where the talent went from this band. After producing two excellent albums, showing much promise, of the two bands that came out of this one neither of them showed the talent and the originality present here.

BUY THIS if you enjoy Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, Eno-era Bowie. You will not be disappointed. The track 'flexi-disc' is admittedly bollocks but the rest of the extras are superb, and these discs are getting harder to find. Travelogue is a good companion to this.
DON'T BUY THIS if you are expecting something like 'Dare' or the later albums with that lineup, or Heaven 17 for that matter. This really is a good example of the synthesiser pop of the post-punk era and you can see it's influence on many contemporary electronic artists. These early Human League albums aren't 'new romantic' or anything of the sort.

The Human League are not a band that I would usually associate with good music . But this album is an exception . There are some strong songs on here and you have to admire the craft that went into these . Almost Medieval , Empire State Human , Introducing , Being Boiled and The Dignity Of Labour Parts 1-4 are all amazing and trance inducing and , to a certain extent , paranoid .

I'd like to thank a reviewer here for mentioning the fact that this is " Human League for those who hate the Human League " for if he had not have mentioned that I probably wouldn't have gone and bought the album .

At least try it if you like experimental electro music - you may be surprised

A patchy debut, to be sure, but there are flashes of brilliance here and this is a record I missed when I didn't have it in my collection. "Almost Medieval" is ingenious, "Empire State Human" might just be the first true synthpopsong, and what in pre-CD days was known as "Side 2" is the perfect artefact of early electronic. But hats off to "The Path of Least Resistance", a track that knocks New Order into a cocked hat.
(Personally I prefer the second album, "Travelogue", but that just shows what a shallow individual I am.)

If we are going to judge this record from the two precedent reviews, we are led to see it as a very good record. Because in general I appreciate the work of Heaven 17, great was my expectation. But I must admit that it was, in part, frustrated. The quality of the melodies isn't a strong point here - the most memorable melody is "You've lost that lovin' feeling". The instrumental part isn't also so much innovative and bold as we could expect - we can hear Gary Numan, Kraftwerk and even Devo echoing here and there. The following records of Heaven 17 would prove to be much more estimulating.