flashback: simple minds - "real to real cacophony" and "empires and dance"

when the simple minds released their first album ("life in a day"), 1979) the sound of it was not a big surprise at all: velvet underground, roxy music plus their own johnny and the self abusers kind of punk rock. when they released their second album "real to real cacophony" later the same year it sounded like a completely different band: dark synth drones, urban voodoo rhythms, manic vocals, experimental structures, strange basslines and lots of echoes. the tracks sounded more like unfinished fragments than like real songs. "empires and dance" (released in 1980) is also a great album. still far away from mainstream pop. "today i died again" and "room" are two of the best new wave songs ever.

"naked eye" on youtube
"today i died again" tv performance on youtube
"i travel" tv performance on youtube