You may notice that the artist who created these recordings isn't credited prominently. This is a deliberate tactic designed to increase the likelihood of us mistaking this for a compilation of original recordings rather the 'sound-a-like' cover versions they actually are.
Albums of this type had existed since the seventies with the "Top of the Pops" series being one of the most notorious examples. By the nineties, a shift in technology meant that people could use synthesizers and high capacity sequencers to make a myriad of albums with titles like "Synthesizer Hits", "Synthesizer Greatest" or "The Most Spectacular Synthesizer". As these albums were sold quite cheaply they were rather popular - especially with 'financially challenged' teenagers such as myself.
The first sound-a-like album by Project D was imaginatively titled "The Synthesizer Album" and was released in 1990. A second volume appeared later in the same year (with the shocking title "Synthesizer 2") and I bought both on compact disc at the time of release. Teenage me definitely got some enjoyment out of these albums and some tracks were so good they almost sounded like remixes of the original. Yet tracks like "Balero", "Winter Games" and "Tubular Bells" felt like very strange and disappointing choices to represent 'synthesizer music'.
The next I heard of Project D was when "Synthesizer - The Ultimate Sound Experience" was being marketed and sold directly to customers via a TV campaign. This four disc box set featured the same content as the first two "Synthesizer" albums but also included two additional discs. To my mind it is the second two discs where things go wrong here. I mean badly wrong. No...worse than that.
Alannah Myles country song "Black Velevet" is pretty awful in its original form, but played on synth presets it is in a whole new world of terrible. Other abominations include Elton John's "Sacrifice", "Kingston Town" by UB40 and the "Star Wars" theme tune all being mercilessly butchered at the alter of MIDI file mediocrity. I could go on but the horrors are too much to bear. I think it is sufficient to say some of the song choices on these last two records are frankly bizarre.
I am not certain what instruments were used to create these monstrosities but I can definitely hear a Roland D50 and possibly some Ensoniq SQ80 and a Korg T3. I hope group members Chris Cozens and Nick Magnus made some good money from this venture as they truly sold their soul to the devil in creating it.
If you feel compelled to subject yourself to this music then listen to the first album and please skip the rest. I think I only own the box set out of curiosity and looking at it now I sense I will be making a charity shop donation very soon. 1/5
