Greg Horn

Greg Horn started out in West Lafayette, Indiana as guitarist and vocalist of Dow Jones and the Industrials, a punk and new wave band with a wiry, keyboard-inflected sound that earned them a split LP with the Gizmos in 1980 before the group dissolved in 1981. Horn relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, where he found work at the PBS station KAET and met synthesist Galen Herod. Together they formed Tone Set, the minimal synth-pop duo that released Cal's Ranch and Calibrate and earned rare praise from Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo. When Tone Set ended, Horn returned to solo work, self-releasing Das Funk Ist Verboten in 1983 on cassette: a record that entered the Top-10 most sought-after items in the tape collector world, with originals now changing hands for several hundred dollars.

This VOD release (VOD146.GH) compiles both of Horn's solo cassette albums: Das Funk Ist Verboten (1983), with a bonus 7", and Pointless (1985). Where the first is full of ruggedly catchy electro-pop and New Wave dancefloor energy,  Boomkat called it "stripped-down, cut-up and serpentine electro-pop bullets and funereal coldwave themes" with "timeless, concentrated minimalism", the second moves toward a more sophisticated and digitally inflected sound while retaining all of Horn's instinctive melodic directness. Two essential documents of the Arizona minimal synth scene, on vinyl for the first time. Edition of 444 numbered copies.