Boc soundalike : UNITS - Cowboy (1980!)

IanRedpoint · Post by **IanRedpoint** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:24 pm

I'd never heard of Units before. Pretty sure that they're a late '70s/early '80s new wave band. A contemporary of Devo I guess. Some of their stuff sounds a lot like LCD Soundsystem (particularly 'High Pressure Days') with some wonderfully raw synths, although some of it has dated really badly.

However, the last track on their Digital Stimulation album is called 'Cowboy' and it sure sounds amazingly like BoC for the first 3 minutes before launching off into a cool krautrock ending. Not bad for 1980!

Not the greatest quality but it is on Youtube...

What do ya think?

Distant Nebulus · Post by **Distant Nebulus** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:48 pm

good song, def. sounds like boc.

YELLOW · Post by **YELLOW** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 6:12 pm

sounds awesome!

Saakki · Post by **Saakki** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 7:05 pm

Really nice find! Respect a ton

Soulthriller · Post by **Soulthriller** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 4:19 am

that was beautiful

dp · Post by dp » Mon Apr 18, 2011 4:39 am

nice!

asymmetrical head · Post by **asymmetrical head** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 4:43 am

High Pressure Days sounds familiar... probably played by Rodney on the Roq back in the day since he used to play obscure stuff on his show. That's probably where I heard it many years ago.

Joebot Kill · Post by **Joebot Kill** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 10:18 pm

this is fucking amazing.

cheers man. thank you!

A_Northern_Soul · Post by **A_Northern_Soul** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 10:38 pm

Bloody hell! that's lovely. Thanks for posting.

hexagon son · Post by **hexagon son** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 1:56 pm

where is the "like" button here? i want to click it. . .

asymmetrical head · Post by **asymmetrical head** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 5:47 pm

BOC sounds like them.

polar sky · Post by **polar sky** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:15 pm

That album sounds fantastic. I would compare them to DEVO more for sure. Look up the rest of their stuff:

It's a great album though.

But yeah, the song you posted is great, BoC's older stuff does sound like it a bit.

AFX.NL · Post by **AFX.NL** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:44 pm

great song

IanRedpoint · Post by **IanRedpoint** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 11:05 pm

polar sky wrote: BoC's older stuff does sound like it a bit.

Of course, given their age and their North American childhood it's quite possible that they heard this record at the time. I guess we might have stumbled upon one of their early influences.

Xurbatronic · Post by **Xurbatronic** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 7:59 am

That square wave vibrato oscillation which comes in towards the end is definitely a Casio CZ5000 series! I love those synths and wish I still had mine, it had some wonderful quirks.
Nice track too, thanks for posting it.

polar sky · Post by **polar sky** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 1:15 pm

Xurbatronic wrote:That square wave vibrato oscillation which comes in towards the end is definitely a Casio CZ5000 series! I love those synths and wish I still had mine, it had some wonderful quirks.
Nice track too, thanks for posting it.

That's impossible, the song he posted is from 1980, the CZ5000 was first produced in 1985.

Fun synth though. Very wet do to the digitial phase-distortion.

mechanismj · Post by **mechanismj** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 9:12 pm

LOVE IT

2020k · Post by **2020k** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 9:37 pm

Thank you for posting this!!!

Xurbatronic · Post by **Xurbatronic** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 8:12 am

polar sky wrote:
Xurbatronic wrote:That square wave vibrato oscillation which comes in towards the end is definitely a Casio CZ5000 series! I love those synths and wish I still had mine, it had some wonderful quirks.
Nice track too, thanks for posting it.
That's impossible, the song he posted is from 1980, the CZ5000 was first produced in 1985.

Fun synth though. Very wet do to the digitial phase-distortion.

Quite right polar sky, I didn't know the release date of the album when I commented, but it is impossible. It did sound like a CZ though! And massive bonus geek points to you for knowing when the CZ was released - that's one of the reasons I love this forum. Very clued up people!