OPERATING THEATRE - Miss Mauger

"Dublin's All City Records continue their deep dive into early Irish electronica, jazz, rock, and experimental music with the latest release on the AllChival imprint. A lost gem from 1983, Miss Mauger is the debut LP of Operating Theatre, a little-known proto synth-pop act and experimental theater group led by avant-garde composer Roger Doyle. Featuring the vocals of future Hollywood actress Olwen Fouéré alongside pulsing synths, brass, a vocoder, and the electro acoustic production talents of Doyle himself, it's the first time a Fairlight sampler was used in an Irish studio setting and gives a prescient but alternative take on the new wave sound that came to dominate the charts soon after. Not quite pop nor full-blown electronica, Miss Mauger is a rare creature in the pantheon of Irish experimental music, largely ignored and misunderstood when it was first released, it's now getting the full reissue treatment it deserves -- with two extra tracks thrown in for good measure: "Austrian",