Rational Youth
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Rational Youth was a Canadian new wave
synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...
band that was originally active between 1981 and 1986, and at various points up until the end of 2021.


History

Rational Youth was formed in 1981 in
Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
,
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
, by
synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
players
Tracy Howe Tracy Howe (born 16 February 1952) is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter with the band Rational Youth, and previously The Normals and Heaven Seventeen. Howe was a member of Rational Youth from 1981 to 1986 and 1997 to 2002 and 2009–202 ...
and Bill Vorn, both of whom idolized the German synthpop pioneers
Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, ) is a Germany, German Electronic music, electronic band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk was among the first successful a ...
. The band is considered to be one of Canada's first synthpop groups.Biography of Rational Youth
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. Retrieved 2013-01-21.
Howe's music career began as a singer and drummer for Montreal punk band The Normals. Howe was later a drummer and singer in Montreal band Heaven Seventeen (not to be confused with England's
Heaven 17 Heaven 17 are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1980. The band were a trio for most of their career, composed of founding Human League members Martyn Ware (keyboards, drum machine, vocals) and Ian Craig Marsh (keyboards) with voc ...
), considered to be one of the first punk bands to use synthesizers. One of Heaven Seventeen's keyboard players was Ivan Doroschuk, who later formed Men Without Hats. Howe also later joined Men Without Hats, as a guitarist, prior to forming Rational Youth with Vorn. The band was formed in the summer of 1981 by Howe and Vorn, joined by keyboardist Mario Spezza. The band's second professional engagement was opening for
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Meols, Merseyside in 1978 by Andy McCluskey (vocals, bass guitar) and Paul Humphreys (keyboards, vocals). Regarded as pioneers of electronic musi ...
, in Montreal. The band recorded their first single "I Want To See The Light" in 1981 for YUL Records, an independent label established by Marc Demouy, a record importer and retailer, and Pat Deserio. Demouy also became the band's manager. Shortly after the single was issued, Spezza left and was replaced by Kevin Komoda (keyboards). The Howe/Vorn/Komoda trio then recorded the album '' Cold War Night Life'', which was issued in early 1982 and was the first all-synth pop release in Canada. It became one of the biggest-selling Canadian independent albums at the time. Vorn left the band at the beginning of 1983 to resume
communication studies Communication studies (or communication science) is an academic discipline that deals with processes of human communication and behavior, patterns of communication in interpersonal relationships, social interactions and communication in differ ...
at university. He earned a doctorate in communication studies at the
Université du Québec à Montréal The (UQAM; ), is a French language, French-language public university, public research university based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest constituent element of the system. UQAM was founded on April 9, 1969, by the government o ...
, and is a
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in the Department of Studio Arts at
Concordia University Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...
. He has been active in the field of
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since 1992. Following Vorn's departure, the group — now consisting of Howe (vocals, keyboards, guitars), Komoda (keyboards), Denis Duran (bass) and Angel Calvo (drums) -- was signed to
Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...
. That year, Rational Youth issued an
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EP. Following the release of the EP and immediately before a national promotional tour, Komoda, Duran and Calvo left the band, purportedly because of about the level of full-time commitment. Howe, left with the band name but no band, did not form another band to tour in support of the EP. Komoda later became a radio producer for
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's '' Brave New Waves''. A subsequent album, ''
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'', was released in 1985 under the Rational Youth name, although Howe was now the only permanent group member. The album was recorded with the participation of over a dozen session musicians, including Dee Long of Klaatu (guitars, keyboards), Ken Sinnaeve of Tom Cochrane and Red Rider (bass), and
Ben Mink Benjamin Mink (born January 22, 1951) is a Canadian songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer best known as a longtime collaborator of Canadian singer k.d. lang. He plays several string instruments, notably the guitar, violin, and the ma ...
of FM (violin, mandolin). Peter McGee (guitars, keyboards) and John Jones (keyboards) also made significant contributions to the record and participated in the songwriting. Amongst the eight keyboard players employed, ex-members Vorn and Komoda also appeared on ''Heredity'', both credited with "additional keyboards". Howe and Long produced. The decision to release the album under the Rational Youth name was that of the record company, Capitol Records, though Howe did not oppose the decision. The record, while successful, is viewed as having created a different audience for Rational Youth, confusing older fans. All three singles from the album ("No More And No Less", "Call Me" and "Bang On") scraped into the lower reaches of the Canadian charts, hitting chart peaks of #87, #89 and #91, respectively. Howe put a band together and toured in support of ''Heredity'' during 1985 and 1986. The touring band consisted of Howe (vocals, keyboards), Rick Joudrey (bass), Owen Tennyson (drums), Kevin Breit (guitars) and Jim MacDonald (keyboards). Shortly after filming a cameo in the film '' Crazy Moon'' (to which they contributed two songs), Howe placed the band on "indefinite hiatus" in February 1986. However, continued interest in the band, particularly in Europe, resulted in ''Cold War Night Life'' being reissued on
compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...
in 1997. This in turn led to a 1997 reunion concert with Howe and Vorn in Lund, Sweden. In 1999, Rational Youth, with a new lineup of original frontman Howe and new keyboard players Jean-Claude Cutz and Dave Rout, released its first album after fourteen years, ''To the Goddess Electricity''. Cutz and Rout had been members of techno-industrial band Digital Poodle. Rational Youth toured throughout Scandinavia over the next two years, playing its final concert on November 3, 2001, at the Tinitus Festival in Stockholm, Sweden. Original members Tracy Howe and Bill Vorn came together again in 2009, at the initiative of Marc Demouy, recording a new version of their 1982 track "Dancing On The
Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...
" in honour of the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall. In 2010, the recording was issued by YUL Records as a CD EP. In 2011, another CD EP was released, ''City Of Night /Cite Phosphore'', consisting of re-recordings of an early single, as well as remixed versions of the original recording. Later that year, Kevin Komoda rejoined, thus reuniting the ''Cold War Night Life'' Rational Youth trio. This trio issued yet another re-recorded single, the CD EP ''Coboloid Race/I Want To See The Light 30th Anniversary Edition''. The release included newly re-recorded songs and newly discovered alternative mixes from the original 1981 sessions. In 2013, the band issued a number of archival recordings, including live material recorded in Ottawa and Winnipeg in 1983. A rarities compilation called ''Magic Box'' was also released, which consisted of early 1980s Rational Youth demos and remixes, and solo recordings from Howe, Vorn and Komoda. In 2014 the band did a few shows as a six piece, featuring Tracy Howe on vocals and synth, Kevin Komoda on synths, Brian Arsenault on synths, Scott Cameron on bass, Paul Grainville on drums, backing vocals, Gaenor Howe on electronic percussion, theremin, backing vocals. This lineup played in Montreal on January 10, Ottawa on January 18 and four shows in Scandinavia in April and May 2014, billed together with the band Psyche. In November 2014, Rational Youth paired with Psyche to record and issue a cover of
AC/DC AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock and Heavy metal music, heavy metal, although the band calls it simply "rock and roll". They are cited as a formativ ...
's " Thunderstruck", a collaborative single that credited both bands. In May 2016 Rational Youth (now a two-piece with Tracy and Gaenor Howe) released the EP "Future Past Tense" through
Artoffact Records Artoffact Records is a Canadian/ Icelandic record label that concentrates on industrial, postpunk, heavy metal, and electronic music. The label was founded in 1999. History In 1997, Jacek Kozlowski laid the groundwork for Artoffact Records. ...
. In September 2016, the band appeared on the compilation, ''Heresy,'' released by Cold War Night Life''.'' A play on the title of ''Heredity'', ''Heresy'' also featured covers of Rational Youth tracks by eighteen artists from Canada, Norway, Britain, Sweden and Germany. Contributions included recordings by former band members, Dave Rout and Kevin Komoda, as well as collaborators Psyche. In 2019, ''Cold War Night Life'' was re-released in deluxe 2-LP and CD formats by Universal Music Canada. In early 2020, Rational Youth undertook their final live performances, with Canadian shows alongside UK band China Crisis and a tour of Mexico, with a final performance in Mexico City on 7 March 2020, as the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
began to take hold, affecting many aspects of normal life, not the least of which were international travel and live music globally. In 2021, to mark the 40th anniversary of Rational Youth's founding, the band released the EP ''Wavelength'' on their Donkeyland label. Three of the EPs four tracks were re-recordings of songs from their self-titled EP of 1983.


Discography


Albums


Studio albums

* '' Cold War Night Life'' (1982) * '' Rational Youth'' (EP) (1983) * ''
Heredity Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic infor ...
'' (1985) * '' To the Goddess Electricity'' (1999) * ''Future Past Tense'' (EP) (2016) * ''Wavelength'' (EP) (2021)


Live albums

* ''Live 1983'' (2013)


Compilations

* ''Total Rational!'' (unauthorised Dutch compilation, 1994) * '' All Our Saturdays (1981-1986)'' (compilation, 1999) * '' Early Singles'' (CD box, 2000) * '' The 20th Anniversary Collection'' (compilation, 2001) * ''Magic Box'' (rarities and demos compilation, 2013) * ''Recordings 1981-84 '' (5-LP vinyl box set, 2014)


Singles

* " I Want to See the Light/Coboloid Race" (12", 1981) * "Cité Phosphore" (7", 1982) * "City of Night" (12", 1982) * " Saturdays in Silesia" (7"/12", 1982) * "In Your Eyes" (7"/12", 1983) * "Dancing on the Berlin Wall" (Dutch 12", 1984; unauthorised extended edit) * "No More and No Less" (7"/12", 1985) - No. 87 ''RPM'' * "Call Me" (7"/12", 1985) - No. 89 ''RPM'' * "Bang On" (7"/12", 1985) - No. 91 ''RPM'' * "Malade" (7", 1985) * ''
3 Remixes for the New Cold War ''3 Remixes for the New Cold War'' is a 1998 remix EP by Rational Youth. Track listing References Rational Youth albums 1998 EPs {{1990s-electronic-album-stub ...
'' (EP, 1998) * " Everything Is Vapour/Money and Blood" (CD single, 1999) * "Dancing on the Berlin Wall" (CD single, 2010) * "City of Night"/"Cite Phosphore" (CD single, 2011) * "Coboloid Race"/"I Want to See the Light" (30th Anniversary Edition) (CD single, 2011) * "Thunderstruck" - Rational Youth & Psyche (7" single, 2014)


References


External links


Rational Youth's Bandcamp page



Artoffact Records website
* {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1981 Canadian new wave musical groups Canadian synth-pop groups Synth-pop new wave musical groups Musical groups from Montreal 1981 establishments in Quebec