Adventures in Modern Recording is the second and final studio album by the English new wave group the Buggles, released in November 1981 by Carrere Records. Although the Buggles began as a duo of Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, the album ended up as mostly Horn's solo effort, as Downes left to join the English rock band Asia on the day recording was originally scheduled to begin. It contains nine tracks, including a version of a track from the Yes album Drama (1980), recorded during Horn and Downes' short initial tenure with the band. Originally named "Into the Lens", the Buggles rendition is titled "I Am a Camera".
A stylistically and sonically varied progressive electronic album, Adventures in Modern Recording depicts Horn perfecting his skill as producer and was described by journalists as a document for how he would produce his later works. It was one of the earliest albums to use the Fairlight CMI, one of the first digital sampling synthesizers.
Upon its release, Adventures in Modern Recording faced mixed reviews from music critics and performed poorly commercially in the United Kingdom, failing to make it on the UK Albums Chart. The album did well in other territories, such as in North America and mainland Europe, reaching number 161 on the US Billboard 200. Additionally, retrospective reviews praised how comparable in quality its sound was to music released in later years.
Five singles were released from Adventures in Modern Recording: "I Am a Camera", the title track, "On TV", "Lenny", and "Beatnik". Except for "Beatnik", the singles were minor hits in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, "Lenny" being a top-20 hit in the latter country. Both "We Can Fly from Here" and "Riding a Tide" (appearing as demos on the 2010 reissue) were re-recorded by Yes (with Horn as producer and Downes on keyboards) for their twentieth studio album Fly from Here (2011).
Background and production
On the day studio sessions for Adventures in Modern Recording were to begin, the Buggles' keyboardist Geoff Downes left to form the English rock band Asia. Although Island Records' publisher renegotiated with Downes, his departure gave the publisher a false impression that Buggles singer and bassist Trevor Horn's career ended, resulting in Island dropping the duo; this in turn led to Horn's other industry acquaintances having a similar viewpoint. Horn recalled feeling "astounded" and "fucking angry [...] I hadn't even got started yet..."
While Adventures in Modern Recording was mostly a Horn solo project, Downes was still involved in the writing and production of "Vermillion Sands", "I Am a Camera" and "Lenny" (where he also handled the drum programming) and played keyboards on "Beatnik". It is stylistically and sonically diverse, as heard in "Vermillion Sands" alone; compared by Chris Roberts of BBC Music to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", The album was one of the first commercially available albums to feature sounds from the Fairlight CMI, one of the first digital sampling synthesizers, and was one of Horn's earliest times working with sampling techniques he'd later incorporate into his works for Grace Jones, Art of Noise and Frankie Goes To Hollywood.
Critical reception
Reviews of Adventures in Modern Recording upon release were mixed. A reviewer from The Morning Call also made an unflattering Yes comparison towards some of the songs, like "Beatnik"; he wrote that while it has the "melancholic frenzy" of the duo's biggest hit "Video Killed The Radio Star", it also has the same Yes-style mixture of "pretentious, meaningless lyrics" and "soaring, grandiose harmonics". Opined Mike Gardner in Record Mirror, "Instead of an invigorating glimpse into their world of hi-sci techno wizardry, we get a weedy piece of whimsy."
A Record Mirror review by Sunie Fletcher of the title track negatively compared it to the "yukky strain of studiedly bouncy, vacuous pop" of "Video Killed the Radio Star". Smash Hits published an unfavorable review of "I Am a Camera", written by Fred Dollar. However, it also ran Martin Fry's review for "On TV", which noted its ahead-of-the-curve production, particularly with its huge drum and clear recording quality.
Retrospective reviews were far more enthusiastic, noting how Adventures in Modern Recordings sound was comparable in quality to music released in later years. AllMusic's Jeri Montesan found the sound of it and The Age of Plastic better than the "unimaginative" pop of the 1990s. Roberts, on the other hand, felt that while Horn's project was ambitious, it had some outdated and chintzy-sounding moments.
Commercial performance
Horn admitted to being uninterested in Adventures in Modern Recording near the end of production "because I didn’t think there was a single there". It was unable to enter the UK Albums Chart, and the title track and "On TV" were only minor hits on the singles and airplay charts of UK magazine Record Business.
However, Adventures in Modern Recording fared better in North America and continental Europe, particularly France, the Netherlands and the US where it was the Buggles' only entry on the country's official Billboard 200 chart, peaking at number 161. In the Netherlands, "I Am a Camera" was a minor hit and "Lenny" was in the top 20, particularly reaching number nine in Holland.
This led to Horn lip-syncing "Lenny" on the country's TopPop series (with ABC as the backing band) The performance signaled the end of the Buggles project; Horn stated in the interview after the performance that while the Buggles were going downhill, he was more focused on his more successful venture as a producer for other acts.
| extra_column = Producer(s)
|title1=Adventures in Modern Recording
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|length1=3:46
|title2=Beatnik
|writer2=T. Horn
|length2=3:38
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|title3=Vermillion Sands
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|length3=6:48
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|title4=I Am a Camera
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|length4=4:56
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Personnel
The following is taken from the liner notes of the 2010 re-issue of Adventures in Modern Recording.
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