''The Golden Hour of the Future'' is a compilation album of recordings made by the electronic band The Future and early recordings by the original line-up of

The Human League The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their third album ''Dare' ...

. Material by The Future features

Martyn Ware Martyn Ware (born 19 May 1956) is an English musician, composer, arranger, record producer, and music programmer. As a founding member of both the Human League and Heaven 17, Ware was partly responsible for hit songs such as "Being Boiled" and " ...

Ian Craig Marsh Ian Craig Marsh (born 11 November 1956) is an English musician and composer. He was a founding member of the electronic band the Human League, writing and playing on their first two albums and several singles, until leaving in 1980 to form the ...

and Adi Newton, who recorded around ten songs in the home studio of a recording engineer in 1977. The band compiled a demo tape from those recordings, which they played to record companies on an ill-fated trip to London. The band did not find a recording deal and Newton left the band to form

Clock DVA Clock DVA are a musical group from Sheffield, England, whose style has touched on industrial, post-punk, and EBM. They formed in 1978 by Adolphus "Adi" Newton and Steven "Judd" Turner. Along with contemporaries Heaven 17, Clock DVA's name wa ...

. Ware and Marsh continued as The Future for a short while before deciding to recruit Ware's friend

Philip Oakey Philip Oakey (born 2 October 1955) is a British singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the lead singer, songwriter, and cofounder of British synth-pop band the Human League. Aside from the Human League, Oakey has enjoyed an e ...

as lead vocalist. Now renamed The Human League, the trio recorded in an abandoned Sheffield factory, where they put together their first two singles for the

Fast Product Fast Product was an independent record label, established in Edinburgh by Bob Last, his partner, Hilary Morrison and Tim Pearce in December 1977. Its first release was also the first single by the Mekons, released on 20 January 1978. The labe ...

label (" Being Boiled" and "The Dignity Of Labour") as well as a number of other recordings before signing to

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), Tom Newman. It ...

. Most of those other recordings are included on this compilation album, along with many of The Future's recordings - only those songs that were later re-recorded for Virgin were omitted from the compilation, for contractual reasons. The album was compiled by

Richard X Richard Philips, better known by his stage name Richard X, is a British songwriter and music producer. Gaining attention as a pioneer of the bootleg craze, Richard X has earned success as a producer and remixer. He has helmed hit singles for arti ...

and released on his Black Melody label in 2002, with assistance from Human League members past and present and Sean Turner, creator of th
Blind Youth website
The album was preceded by the promotional limited edition EP '' Dance Like a Star'', which included four Human League recordings not featured on the album.The Human League
/ref> The album was re-issued in September 2005 as a re-mastered edition, both as a CD and as a digital download. The track listing remained the same although digital releases featured a 'Shorter version' of the final track 'Last Man on Earth'. The CD carried a new catalogue number MELCD5.

Personnel and credits

*Produced by The Future and

*Recorded in Sheffield *

– Vocals & synthesizer *

– Synthesizer & devices * Adi Newton – Vocals Tapes / loops treatments *Cover design by Designers Republic

Track listing

References

External links

Blind Youth - the early work of The Human League

Musicbrainz release group page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Golden Hour of the Future Split albums The Human League compilation albums 2002 compilation albums