A tribute to Frank Tovey’s Fad Gadget

A tribute to Frank Tovey’s Fad Gadget

Commemorating the 10-year anniversary of the death of Fad Gadget founder Frank Tovey, Mute, NP Contemporary Art Center, and Envoy Enterprises are launching an exhibition dedicated to the life and work of the groundbreaking electronic musician.

The group show and performance series runs from March 1 until April 8 at various locations in New York, and features a diverse list of artists including Fischerspooner, Ike Yard, Olaf Breuning, Xeno & Oaklander, Edwin Pouncey, and others. (See here for a complete program schedule.)

Tovey’s group Fad Gadget was the Mute label’s first signing, back in 1979; between 1980 and 1984, Tovey and his band took synth-pop in a darker direction, miles away from the high-gloss polish of the Top 40 acts of the era. Fireside Favourites, Incontinent, Under The Flag, and Gag are all essential documents in the history of post-punk and electronic pop, with chugging, proto-industrial rhythms and raw analog sound. (Tovey also released an album under his own name, Snakes and Ladders, in 1986.) In 2001, The Best of Fad Gadget was compiled to introduce the group’s music to a new generation of listeners, and Tovey hit the road supporting Depeche Mode on tour, but he died of a heart attack the following year, at just 45 years old. The 2006 album Frank Tovey By Fad Gadget remains the definitive anthology of his work.

Fad Gadget’s centrality to contemporary club culture has been reaffirmed by the many DJs who turned to Tovey’s music for their DJ mixes—a list including Daniele Baldelli, Optimo, Magda, Mogwai, Klaxons, and Dr. Lektroluv. Paris’ tres hip Colette recently included Fad Gadget’s “Coitus Interruptus” on the Colette Sex compilation, alongside tracks from Fingers Inc., Jimmy Edgar, Two Lone Swordsmen, and Mark Van Hoen.