Various

Soul Jazz Records" new collection, Electro Throwdown - Sci-Fi Inter-Planetary Electro Attack on Planet Earth 1982-89, is a journey into the outer reaches of electro, a galactic roller-coaster ride of turbo-charged sci-fi grooveology. The album is comprised of mainly private-press and independent label electro jams of the highest calibre (with some as rare as space ships landing on Mars) all created in the 1980s, at a time when a vocoder, a Roland TR-808 drum machine and a groove was all that was needed to get the party started. With a few notable exceptions (Michael Jonzun"s Jonzun Crew and The Packman) the album features mainly under-the-radar killer tracks from a host of one-off artists and back-room electronic pioneers - including Pretty Tony, Planet Detroit (James McCauley, aka Maggotron) and Rich Cason - who together helped shape the sound of electro across the USA from Miami to New York, Los Angeles and beyond during the 1980s.