Music Review: Fad Gadget - Gag

It has been some time since I last did an album review that wasn't Bauhaus or Peter Murphy (which is rather an exercise in futility as you all know I will give highly favorable reviews to all those bodies of work because...well...they are my favorites). So, today I shall review Fad Gadget's "final" album, 1984's Gag.

The album cover for Gag

Fad Gadget was the stage name Frank Tovey adopted for a time. Tovey tried to learn various musical instruments as he grew up, but never had enough coordination (or perhaps patience) to stick with any and drifted away from music while he went through school. After school, Tovey got into experimenting with sounds eventually buying a synthesizer. He recorded his first demo and sent it to Daniel Miller (AKA The Normal, who had himself just released his first, and only, set of singles "Warm Leatherette" with "T. V. O. D.").

Afterwards, Tovey signed to Mute records where he worked closely with Miller to produce his first album, Fireside Favourites. Not being familiar with how recording an album went, many of the more technical aspects were left to Miller, but the music was all Tovey's work and ideas. He felt strongly about leading the direction of the album and felt similarly when it came to performing the songs live.

With each new album, the music gained in complexity of sounds as Tovey learned more about recording albums. This eventually led to the production of Gag, often seen as a major turning point in Tovey's career. Gag marked the first time other musicians helped record parts of songs. Gag also marked the final album that Tovey recorded under his stage name of Fad Gadget. All his future endeavors saw him using his real name.

Frank Tovey

In general, Fad Gadget's music has bleak, dark humorous lyrics that center around themes of sexuality, violence, capitalism, etc. The music is heavily driven by synthesizers and his singing tone is typically droning (in a sense) and expressionless. This isn't to say his vocals are boring. They merely add to the subject matter that he chooses to write lyrics around.

As Tovey's career wore on, he became increasingly known for his bizarre stage antics (thins like jumping into the audience and covering himself with tar and feathers as depicted in the music video for "Collapsing New People"). He also staunchly disliked industrialization (and perhaps the music genre of industrial) and changed his style to feature more acoustic sets. However, by 1993, Tovey had essentially removed himself from the music industry.

2001 saw the brief resurrection of Tovey, using the name Fad Gadget once more, to support Depeche Mode on a tour and begin writing new music. Sadly, this new album Tovey was working on was never finished as he passed away from a heart attack in 2002 at the age of 45 (he had had heart problems since he was a child).

Gag was considered a bit of an experimental album as opposed to a commercial album. It opens with "Ideal World" which is a dismal outlook at a perfect world that exists only in your mind or dreams where there is "no stress, no death/when you fall you wake/and feel no pain." The content and style of this song falls in line with other songs Tovey produced previously. I find it fairly catchy and is one of my favorites from the album.

The second track, "Collapsing New People," was actually the first song I heard from Fad Gadget. It is one of the first collaborations Tovey did, working with Einsturzende Neubauten (a band whose name translates into "collapsing new buildings").  This number is also catchy and features fairly dark lyrics ("Stay awake all night/but never see the stars/and sleep all day/on a chain-link bed of nails"). I don't really know what the lyrics are communicating, but I greatly enjoy the song, for what that may be worth.

The third track, "Sleep," is a very odd number. It opens with a piano and sounds that represent a baby babbling. I've always found this song to be particularly creepy ("sleep, baby sleep/daddy's gone out to earn your keep/sleep, baby sleep/momma's sad, hear her weep"). However, the song seems to have a positive note despite all the darkness. Lyrically, it's as if the father telling this story hopes for his baby to live a better life than he did and be a better person while he toils to help make a brighter future for the child.

The fourth track, "Stand Up," takes on a very different feel compared to the other songs. The music is more upbeat and lyrically tries to make the point that you should fight for your dreams and not let others step all over you. A bit out of place compared to other Fad Gadget songs, but possibly a personal message in which Tovey is trying to say he's going to make music in his way and won't pander to a label or particular people. It's a neat reprieve from the darkness several of the songs on this album contain.

Skipping to track seven, "The Ring," I love the music on this one. It's sort of a dark cabaret dealing with the subject of marriage and what happens when you are young and really full of lust instead of true love, leading to pain and shattered dreams. Rarely do you get a taste of the darker side of marriage, so this one is a bit special in that regard. I much enjoy it.

On the whole, Gag certainly shows a more experimental side of Fad Gadget. It's a neat album, but in being largely experimental, you often find yourself getting one song that's dark followed by another that is upbeat, and back and forth. It isn't the most uniform and flowing album. Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, as Bauhaus's The Sky's Gone Out is similar in the lack of flow department. However, I feel that album pulled that aspect off a bit better than Gag does. Still, I find this a fairly solid album and worth a listen. Frank Tovey, you are missed.


Rating: 3.5 out of 5

More Information: Official Site of Fad Gadget/Frank Tovey