Song Of The Day 1/28/2014: Bill Nelson - "Acceleration"

Remembering KPOP: It's as if the synth-pop of the early '80s was encased, its futurism now seen as primitive as that of the Space Age '50s and '60s. The novelty of the form at the time, I'm just ruminating here, resulted in a lot of half-songs where the human component was deemed as filler. I'm talking both the singing style and the lyrics, which despite the best efforts of Electric Dreams couldn't be drawn up by a computer. Bill Nelson's stuff was one of the big exceptions to that rift, and "Acceleration" is one of my favorite five or so synth-pop pieces of the era. (Another one's coming tomorrow, and another one came last year.) Nelson was the guitarist in Be Bop Deluxe, a sci-fi progressive rock band that were sort of Roxy Music's more inward twin. "Acceleration" and the near-hit "Flaming Desire" were both featured on Nelson's album Vistamix, an album replete with lots of fleshed-out electronic music.

I heard this often on KPOP, although the nerdy eroticism of "Flaming Desire" seemed more to the public's liking. Everyone was looking for a viable outlet for their hormones at the time. But "Acceleration" is soaring and perfectly matched to its title. I'm okay if you want to remix it.