Musick the Needed Work - S: Sophisticated Boom Boom

 

Way back in the golden age of music, in the year 1982 there were two bands named after one of the best songs by one of the best bands of all time, namely "Sophisticated Boom Boom" by the Shangri-Las.

One of the two groups was a five-piece girl group from Glasgow championed by John Peel. This is not them.

If you google Sophisticated Boom Boom today, you'll find a lot about Dead or Alive's debut album or about the Glasgow band mentioned above, but little about this Swiss band. This was a group fronted by three girls, Esther, Marianne Sunier, & Monique Sieber. 

 

They were accompanied by Ernest "Nez" Maeschi, his younger brother Stefan Maeschi, & friend Pasquale Isernia. They wrote most of the music & provided the musical backing. 

 

Their self-titled album from 1982 was origianlly released on Off Course Records, the label run by Swiss new wave notables Grauzone & Stefan Eicher.

Sophisticated Boom Boom transported the Brill Building/Red Bird/Girl Group sound from the Sixties into the New Wave of 1982. These 14 original compositions don't lack in punk esprit. Their sound was probably too cheerful, too bubblegum, & too life-affirming for the gloomy early Eighties. That's probably why they fell gloriously out of sight in those jagged times & stopped after just one album. 

(Eshter & Marianne Sunier went on to form the C86/power pop girl group Chin-Chin) 

 

Sophisticated Boom Boom - Sophisticated Boom Boom, Off Course Records ASL3306, 1982.
decryption code in comments

Side 1 -
Yeah Yeah Yeah
Boom Boom Rap
Jimmy Jimmy
Frustration
Trocadero
Beat Girls 1
Numa

Side 2 -
Boom Boom a-GoGo
Dance with Me
Number One in Radio
Train to Boyscamp
Beat Girls 2
Ready to Dance
Out & On My Own

 

 

 

The fix is in,
NØ