Ceramic Hello – The Absence Of A Canary

This one is a tough one ..some great early synth pop mixed with some weird cheesy but almost classical instrumental electronic pieces … a good blend of dark and light .. now onto the bad..who ever the vocalist is should be held for crimes against the human ear …out of key caterwauling and just plain bad lyrics and vocals ruin a few tracks … it hurt my soul to think someone didn’t let thr singer know he can’t sing or even talk in key somewhat in key ……I don’t care if someone isn’t a great singer ..in fact i prefer character over pitch but this one is comically bad on most tracks ….for fans of early 80s minimal cold wave and synth pop if you can suffer through the vocals …

"Sampling The Blast Furnace" on side 4 isn't the one with Andy McCluskey (OMD) & Martha Ladly produced by William Orbit, but the original 8-track demo that both Brett Wickens & Roger Humphreys liked far more.

Any white labels from this period would be Suction Records white labels - there are no "Not On Label (Ceramic Hello Self-released)" versions in existence.

A very strange concept for the album. While Wickens' songs are fantastic, Humphreys' interludes are inessential at best, but mostly annoying, disrupting the flow of the album. For my playlist I simply threw them out and added "Theatre matrix" at the end - and voila, 8 perfect minimal synth songs, a marvel to listen to.

Unfortunately very little of the additional material is up to anything, the best of them are just that - "demo sketches". Probably Brett simply didn't have time to develop them, what with his successful designer carrier. What is crazy, however, is how he didn't get around to release "Sampling the blast furnace". It's a wonderful, pioneering work and what a crime it's been released well after its time. Though maybe it's a good thing after all - it surely would've been lost in the shuffle then, but now we can marvel at this perfect beauty of synthetic creation!

Also, thank God it's the vocoder version! Checked out the McCluskey-sang one on YouTube - well, just proves the fact that Andy has an uncanny ability to crap over a song with his whiney, nasal wail at will (he'd easily challenge Bernard Sumner, if a competition of this kind could've been organised).

But overall it's a great (if flawed by unnecessary interruptions) album and a worthy reissue, deserving its place in any serious collection of early 1980s analogue electronic music.

Some people trying to sell this CD for high prices, suggesting that it's rare. Please note we are always keeping this CD in print - you can always buy from us here or on Bandcamp.

Superb melancholic and weird synth pop. "Sampling the Blast Furnace" has a great vocoder.

I think it's kinda funny a first press hasn't sold in nearly 2 years, yet sellers are trying to get what perhaps this record once sold for back in 2015.

On November 20, 2012, Suction Records will reissue Ceramic Hello's seminal 1981 LP, "The Absence of a Canary." A long-time cult favorite among fans of obscure '80s synthpop, this LP remains a highly sought-after by "minimal synth" vinyl collectors. The LP has been painstakingly remastered, transferred from perhaps the last sealed copy of this LP in existence. Long-time followers of Suction Records will that we had originally planned to reissue this LP in 2002. Ten years + one sold-out reissue on VOD later, and we are very excited to make this Canadian minimal synth classic available again.

Although this won't be the first official reissue of the LP, it is the first time it will be reissued in its original single-LP format, with the original artwork. It is also the first time that the LP will be reissued in CD / digital format (in addition to vinyl, of course!).