Rational Youth- Cold War Night Life CD
Second post for today, ladies and gents. Feeling a bit productive today. Below lies a recent favorite of mine, making its way into my latest DJ sets.
The Canadian synthpop/minimal wave band Rational Youth began in 1981 as a duo. Members Tracy Howe (ex-Heaven 17/Men Without Hats) and Bill Vorn released several singles and their debut record, Cold War Night Life in 1982. Soon after the record was released, Bill Vorn departed, marking the beginning of several lineup shifts that would occur over the following years. Several EPs and one more full length (1985’s Heredity, more of a Howe solo record under label intervention) followed before Howe retired the name for almost a decade.
In 1997, Howe reactivated Rational Youth, releasing one more record and touring for four years before playing their final show in 2001. Bill Vorn would join Tracy for the very first show, but could not return to the band full time, instead choosing to persue his interactive robotic work.
Uploaded below is the original Rational Youth LP, Cold War Night Life, released in 1982 by the original two-man lineup. This album was re-released in 1997 on CD with a few 12” bonus tracks, also generously uploaded below.
Rational Youth- Cold War Night Life CD
1. Close To Nature
2. Beware The Fly
3. Saturdays In Silesia
4. Just A Sound In The Night
5. Le Meilleur Des Mondes
6. Ring The Bells
7. City Of Night
8. Dancing On The Berlin Wall
9. Power Zone
10. I Want To See The Light
11. Coboloid Race
*DOWNLOAD LINK REMOVED* – mp3s now available through your favorite digital outlets!
December 10, 2008 at 9:24 am
Hi, what an excellent album! Thanks a lot for posting it, great minimal synth.
If you have any early Figures On A Beach, like Swimming EP or Breathing single can you please post them too,
Best regards from Australia,
Anthony
January 2, 2009 at 8:12 pm
amazing record. why arent they more known today? i mean shure both joy division and new order are pretty fucking awesome but this…oh my.
the year was 1982.
Love the album. such an inspiration!
January 4, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Thank you for showcasing this rare Canadian New Wave gem.
Cheers,
MissP
February 15, 2011 at 6:32 pm
Yes! I've tried to buy this via people online repeatedly and there's always some trouble…have a few of the 7" tracks, but always want the FULL album in order.
I'm in your debt once again!
Joshua
February 15, 2011 at 6:44 pm
Say it ain't so…seems to be a problem with the compression as it has failed on me a couple of times. Can you please re-load, fix or advise? I need this one!
Joshua
December 3, 2012 at 3:49 pm
I’ve already found this “release” elsewhere, prelistened to it and I’ll tell you: I WON’T TOUCH IT.I
I will look out for the vinyl. They unfortunately worshiped the Loudness War here and squashed ANY bit of dynamics out of these great electronic tracks.
If you don’t believe me, take Audacity and “look” at the track. They’ve brickwalled everything. And I stubbornly refuse to add any album to my collection that was “dead-mastered”.
December 3, 2012 at 4:33 pm
Is leaving catty comments about compression and debating the loudness war your raison d’etre, Andy? This is the third comment regarding this I’ve seen here. While I didn’t make this rip and I wasn’t the one who remastered it to CD, I found your comments on Pink & Black (a rip I DID make myself) to be completely inaccurate as I didn’t add any compression or brickwall the rip. Wouldn’t even know how to if I wanted to.
So, instead of coming here and complaining about this and that, why don’t you buy these releases yourself, digitize them to your liking, and share with the world? Sounds like a more productive use of your time than bitching at me.
July 23, 2013 at 1:30 am
Of course “Saturdays in Silesia” has always been a Canuck synthpop anthem, but I never listened to the full album until I downloaded it from here.
I especially like the Kraftwerk-like “Dancing on the Berlin Wall”. Actually the entire album is surprisingly strong. I just checked out snippets of all the tracks on my laptop and I can’t wait to listen to the whole thing on big speakers!
January 9, 2014 at 9:12 pm
I knew some of the single tracks by Rational Youth, but somehow missed out on this great album, (e.g. ‘Le meilleur des mondes’ is absolutely brillant) but now you’ve filled the gap. Danke schön!
June 29, 2015 at 3:45 am
I had this album when it first came out. How awesome it was to listen to it in 1982 and share it with everyone I knew. Definitely a soundtrack to my life back then and one of my all-time favorites to this day.
September 30, 2017 at 4:45 pm
Greetings from Vermont – thank you very much for sharing such wonderful music…