Fortran 5

Recruiting a bevy of oddball-celebrity sidemen and guest vocalists -- sampled or otherwise -- somewhat blurred the backbone of the group, but David Barker and Simon Leonard recorded several albums of inspired ambient-techno as Fortran 5. Indebted to such culprits of British whimsy as Syd Barrett and Monty Python, the duo usually recorded with samplers blazing, the unholy result of which included bizarre pop collisions like Donna Summer and the Pretenders or the Champs' "Tequila" and thrash-metal. With roots in the Mute Records artists I Start Counting, the pair debuted with 19...