Fad Gadget by Frank Tovey

Customer Review: Frank Tovey: Early Techno
I bought The Fad Gadget box set on a whim, I had never heard of Frank Tovey or his alter ego, Fad Gadget. What I got was an amazing array of early techno(ala' Gary Numan etc). Lots of demos and the performance DVDs are worth the price alone. Tovey did some crazy stuff, covering himself with feathers and insanely work the stage like a caged animal. Enjoy!!!
Customer Review: Great tribute to an underated performer
At first glance, this collection doesn't make sense - even to a fan of Frank Tovey. Unreleased tracks, unearthed demos and a slew of vintage clips for a performer who never saw the success of many of his peers. Director Alex Proyas (The Crow) has a few words. There are interviews with members of Depeche Mode and Anton Corbijn, included in a lovely hour long documentary. A set of this love and magnitude for the cult singer just doesn't make sense. Then you open up the sleeve notes and a vintage photo of Frank wearing a t shirt that advertised the newly formed Mute Records and it all comes together. This set celebrates not only Frank's ability as an artist, but his contributions to popular music. As stated in the documentary, Depeche Mode was opening for Fad Gadget in Mute's beginings. When we see Frank's on stage antics (tar and feathers, shaving himself in unsuspecting places), we realize that Frank was more than another musician - but his music is not to be understated here. The set is the first representation of Frank's full career, even his post Fad days, where he was something of a folk singer. Also included is a new track, Sleeper, recorded in 96 and seems to be influenced by the trip hop era somewhat. People catching Frank for the first time will be amazed at seeing a very complete, chronological set of tunes as well as concert performances. The synth driven material is the best on here, but his work with the Pyros was great too, and the best material is chosen for this package. Synth pop fans wanting to catch something of a darker, more energetic version of something along the lines of DM should love checking Frank's material out, while fans will be salivating over the wealth of rarities here. It's also worth noting that this is one of the best assembled retrospective packages I've seen and clearly a lot of digging was done to find some of the best available material out there. The DVDs are especially noteworthy with complete concerts from two different decades, a slew of rare performances and complete promos as well. A top notch collection coming from any artist.


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