In the late 1980s, Europe developed its own kind of acid house – one that descended from the stiff, hard, aggressive, hyper-masculine Industrial and Electronic Body Music traditions. This European techno variant, called New Beat, was an apocalyptic sort of post-nuclear pop that had militaristic drum machines, grand flourishes of synthesiser and dystopian overtones.
Spotify playlist: early new beat (1986-88)
If, as we discussed in our recent blog on the sounds of Miami bass, in America, being a Transformer was very cool, in Europe, the imminent threat of nuclear armageddon was very ‘in’, as songs like Euroshima (get it?!) and CCCP’s Made in Russia demonstrate.
Being mostly from Belgium, there was also an unapologetically weird Eurotrashy view of sex in new beat records that Antone de Caunes would be proud of.
