Yaz

Description

Yazoo (known as Yaz in the U.S.) was a short-lived but highly successful English synthpop duo from Basildon, Essex that had a number of top ten hits in the British charts in the early 1980s.<p>Heavily influenced by earlier bands like Kraftwerk, Yazoo expanded upon the synthpop formula by juxtaposing Alison Moyet's bluesy and emotional vocals with Vince Clarke's clinical electronic hooks. Its sound referenced disco but added a more disaffected attitude that disco lacked. Their second album saw greater songwriting input from Moyet, adding a rather more mature and soulful flavour, particularly on the hit single "Nobody's Diary."<p>The group was formed in 1981, using a moniker that Alison Moyet, veteran of a number of southeast Essex based punk and rock bands, had seen on the labels of old blues albums: Yazoo, although Clarke would later confess that this came from mis-hearing the name of the mouth instrument Kazoo which was popular in the late 1970's. Clarke had been the main songwriter in ...