David M. Allen

★★★ The DNA Of DMA THEMSAY. DL/LP

Rookie engineer establishes electronic blueprint for Martin Rushent’s Genetic Sound studio.

With his postpunk outfit Pinpoint in tatters, David M. Allen leapt at the chance of free recording time alone at Martin Rushent’s studio in early 1981. The sleepless nights spent deciphering Roland’s exorbitantly pricey and befuddling System 700 modular synth and MC-8 Micro Composer poured into the hioctane New Romantic pop of Just A Combination and The Sound Of Muzak, packed with deep squiggling bass and reverbing drums. Allen’s low alto voice, somewhere between Neil Arthur and Phil Oakey, excels amid The Dice Are Loaded’s Cold War unease and Drowning In The Wave Of Dublife’s stark separations. Ignore the nine-minute closer’s discordant sonic muck-about, and the future Cure-producer’s innate musicality and intuitive feel for arrangements shines through. It boded well for his next assignment: The Human League’s epochal Dare.