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Red Guitars 'Good Technology' Vinyl 12"
Red Guitars 'Good Technology' Vinyl 12"
Self Drive Records
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£19.49 GBP
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Limited edition of 500 on red vinyl.
Red Guitars, indie favourites of the 1980’s, reformed in 2022 for a UK tour promoted by AEG Presents / The tour was so successful that the original line-up are recording a new album and planning a tour to promote it for Autumn 2023 / June 24th marks 40 years since their debut single “Good Technology” came out and the band are releasing a limited edition, red vinyl 12” extended remix and video to celebrate the anniversary.
“1983: It was a different world.
The world wide web hadn't been invented yet, Facebook and iPhones were another 20 years away and there were a mere 100 McDonald’s in the UK. Thatcher had just won her landslide victory and the first cruise missiles were arriving at Greenham Common. Unemployment was over 3 million. A hundred years of industrial might was to be scrapped in favour of the deregulated banking and service industries which would make us all wealthy.
The burgeoning new technology promised a brighter future for us all. Life would be easier. Culture Club were at number one. Some very popular songs fade over time as tastes change but a great song should be able to speak to every new generation that discovers it. At its core there is a truth. Alternative facts don’t exist despite what the New Right would have you believe.
Good Technology is a very simple three chord song based on a hypnotic kick drum and bass that remain constant and unchanging throughout the entire song. In essence it is a call and response song. For each vocal line telling us of the wonderful new things we’ve got, there is a response from the guitars starting with simple harmonics and building slowly and uneasily to a blistering breathless solo before the pay off.
Politically it is pin sharp but there is no tub thumping here. A dystopian prophesy of things to come. It’s all there. It uncannily predicts the power of the internet and social media, environmental catastrophe, reality TV, the fast food industry and an ever more grotesque arms industry. 40 years on and the promise, like the country, is broken.
Public services have been hollowed out to the barest shells. Levels of poverty are unprecedented since Victorian times. The new gig economy has left people who are working minimum wage jobs struggling to survive. Today there are more food banks in the UK than McDonald’s. It seems the right time to re-release this song to a new audience.” JR 2023
“Good Technology is one of those tracks that grabs you by the ears on first listen, the sort of thing that even before it's halfway through you know you love. Tense pulsing background with sharp spikes of guitar, it's clearly not long after early Talking Heads and New Romantics. It swells and spreads, expansive and awkward, but the thing that sets it apart and makes it worthy of remembering 20 years on is the arresting lyric.” Dust On The Stylus Blog
“Via one delicious melody and an ominously building beat, Red Guitars itemise the sundry achievements of modern science, from underarm personal hygiene to the hardware of instant Armageddon. In so doing, the song constructs an unforgettable vision of a world that's grown too clever by one-and-a-half at least.” Paul Du Noyer reviewing Good Technology in the NME on 27/08/83
Tracklisting:
1. Good Technology 2023
2. Fact (Remix)
3. Good Technology 2023 (Extended Mix)
Red Guitars, indie favourites of the 1980’s, reformed in 2022 for a UK tour promoted by AEG Presents / The tour was so successful that the original line-up are recording a new album and planning a tour to promote it for Autumn 2023 / June 24th marks 40 years since their debut single “Good Technology” came out and the band are releasing a limited edition, red vinyl 12” extended remix and video to celebrate the anniversary.
“1983: It was a different world.
The world wide web hadn't been invented yet, Facebook and iPhones were another 20 years away and there were a mere 100 McDonald’s in the UK. Thatcher had just won her landslide victory and the first cruise missiles were arriving at Greenham Common. Unemployment was over 3 million. A hundred years of industrial might was to be scrapped in favour of the deregulated banking and service industries which would make us all wealthy.
The burgeoning new technology promised a brighter future for us all. Life would be easier. Culture Club were at number one. Some very popular songs fade over time as tastes change but a great song should be able to speak to every new generation that discovers it. At its core there is a truth. Alternative facts don’t exist despite what the New Right would have you believe.
Good Technology is a very simple three chord song based on a hypnotic kick drum and bass that remain constant and unchanging throughout the entire song. In essence it is a call and response song. For each vocal line telling us of the wonderful new things we’ve got, there is a response from the guitars starting with simple harmonics and building slowly and uneasily to a blistering breathless solo before the pay off.
Politically it is pin sharp but there is no tub thumping here. A dystopian prophesy of things to come. It’s all there. It uncannily predicts the power of the internet and social media, environmental catastrophe, reality TV, the fast food industry and an ever more grotesque arms industry. 40 years on and the promise, like the country, is broken.
Public services have been hollowed out to the barest shells. Levels of poverty are unprecedented since Victorian times. The new gig economy has left people who are working minimum wage jobs struggling to survive. Today there are more food banks in the UK than McDonald’s. It seems the right time to re-release this song to a new audience.” JR 2023
“Good Technology is one of those tracks that grabs you by the ears on first listen, the sort of thing that even before it's halfway through you know you love. Tense pulsing background with sharp spikes of guitar, it's clearly not long after early Talking Heads and New Romantics. It swells and spreads, expansive and awkward, but the thing that sets it apart and makes it worthy of remembering 20 years on is the arresting lyric.” Dust On The Stylus Blog
“Via one delicious melody and an ominously building beat, Red Guitars itemise the sundry achievements of modern science, from underarm personal hygiene to the hardware of instant Armageddon. In so doing, the song constructs an unforgettable vision of a world that's grown too clever by one-and-a-half at least.” Paul Du Noyer reviewing Good Technology in the NME on 27/08/83
Tracklisting:
1. Good Technology 2023
2. Fact (Remix)
3. Good Technology 2023 (Extended Mix)
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