Quartet [Remaster]

Performer: Ultravox
Distributor: MSI Music Distribution

Notes: This digitally remastered U.K. import version contains bonus backing tracks from the original singles released to promote the album upon its maiden release in 1982. In the early-'80s, the new wave movement was disintegrating into a million fragments, as those who embraced guitars and those who embraced synthesizers drew lines in the sand and began to vehemently territorialize. An adjunct arm of the synth-pop scene (see Gary Numan, OMD, The Human League) grew from out of the new wave, and, armed to the teeth with the Germanic sequencers of the '70s and state-of-the-art synthesizers, these groups became part of what was known as the New Romantics. Some grew large (Duran Duran, ABC), others receded into the cut-out bins--Ultravox grabbed the brass ring for a short while, courtesy of their brilliant VIENNA album. QUARTET followed two releases later, produced by former Beatles director George Martin, featuring a fairly stripped-down, but still illustrious Ultravox. The opening "Reap the Wild Wind," with its gigantic drumbeats, soaring strings, and windswept synths remains a high point for the band, and remains the album's finest moment. Ultravox were in something of a disarray at the time of QUARTET's release, but their glorious sound--the sort of stuff the Romans might have danced to had they installed sub-woofers in the Coliseum--remained fresh and invigorating.

CMJ (1/5/04, p.12) - Ranked #9 in CMJ's "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1983".

Ultravox rose up out of Britain's late-'70s punk movement, adding a dark, moody touch to the sonic din. But before long Ultravox was incorporating synthesizers and a pronounced art-rock influence. In both their initial incarnation with singer John Foxx (who went on to a highly influential solo career) and their later phase with Midge Ure, they were enormously influential to the burgeoning new romantic and synth-pop scenes. In the 21st century, their synth-based, distinctly European sound would inspire a whole new generation of bands who took their cue from '80s electro-pop and were eventually gathered under the umbrella term "Electroclash."

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