Buggles and the The Age of Plastic - Progressive Rock Music Forum

Are they/Is this prog? After all, and before Trev went on to produce the worst music ever made (with obvious exceptions), the Buggles did join Yes and hugely influenced the sound. Drama is a great album. Fly From Here is pretty decent (the main suite at least, which they wrote) even after Trev disrespected Benoit David by erasing him from history (not relevant, but I wanted to say it because it was such a crappy thing to do).

The Age of Plastic is the first Buggles record and while it might not be Apocalypse in 9/8 or Tales from Topographic Shoe Shops, it's quirky in its own poppy way and quite fun.

But is it prog?

How the heck did Trevor Horn erase Benoit David from history?

Geez-us H. Cripes, no.

This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State.

^ This re-recording nonsense makes no sense to me, but I gave up on Yes years ago.

This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State.

^ New Wave or 80s synth pop. Both fit.

This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State.

Ghost Whistler wrote:

Makes no sense to me either. It's just the ego of a world famous producer IMO.

That said, he does (more or less) a good job. It's a decent enough album - far better than Heaven and Earth. I prefer it to Magnification.

Anyway Buggles be good. Not sure I'd call them New Wave though

From the beginning I was not up to the Idea of the Return Trip thing... I saw no point for it, and I loved Benoit's vocals on the original release, so I was never going to give it a fair chance... however, how I wish Horn would do the same thing with Heaven and Earth (which of course he doesn't have any reason to do so, since he has no relation to the writing of that album)... both the mix and the vocals could be very much improved by him.

It's not prog rock by any stretch, but it's a very good electro pop album. I really liked the Buggles back in the day. I think I was 10 when this album came out and I had the singles, Plastic Age and Video Killed the Radio Star. I had no idea who Yes were at the time. I only bought the Age of Plastic album years later, and it still gets the ocassional spin, for reasons of nostalgia more than anything else I guess.

When I did eventually buy the Drama album in about 1984, I remember my friend and I listening for the first time and laughing how the singer looked and sounded like "that guy from the Buggles!"

I had heard 90125, and realised that it was a different singer, then I learned that the 90125 producer was the singer on Drama and 50% of the Buggles (and of course how Downes was also a Buggle!) It all fell into place.

The Buggles were great fun, and very original sounding at the time. Looking back, I'm not really surprised how they caught the ear of Chris Squire. They had a fantastic ear for melody and combined the use of synth and guitar in a way Gary NUman did in the early years, but with a slightly more 'rock' edge. Plastic Age remains one of my favourite pop tunes of all time.

Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy!

Ghost Whistler wrote:

it's quirky in its own poppy way and quite fun.

That's well said, but the "is it prog" question doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

It has some charm and a few highlights, after hearing "Plastic Age" I bought it and wouldn't mind listening to it again, but it's nowhere near my favourites from that time, and I think there's quite a bit of filler on it. And if it's prog it means that the "prog" term doesn't mean anything (which of course is a legitimate point of view in its own right).