The last thing this retro-fueled world needs is another compilation about how fabulous the early ’80s were. We get it, the birth of punk, hip hop, new wave. Yadda, yadda, yadda. But here comes Mike Maguire of Juno Reactor with Bustin Out 1982 New Wave to New Beat Vol 2, a savvy collection that focuses not on a single artist, label or scene, but cleverly, a single year. Picking up where Bustin’ Out New Wave to New Beat: The Post Punk Era 1979–1981 left off, Maguire charts the rise of the drum machine in some of 1982’s game-changing music with a prescient trainspotter’s ear. From Gary Numan’s “Music For Chameleons”, to Shriekback’s “My Spine is the Bassline”, Front 242’s “U-Men”, Klein &MBo’s “Dirty Talk”, ESG’s “Moody (cut down)”, Man Parrish’s “Hip Hop Be Bop (Dub)” and Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock,” it’s easy to imagine 1982 tilling the underground, priming it for industrial, house, techno. Many of the 15 tracks on this compilation are familiar, but by putting them in a chronological context along experimental fare like Mark Stewart’s “Liberty City”, Pylon’s “Four Minutes” and Crish & Cosey’s “Impulse,” Maguire makes you feel like you just came from the hippest post-apocalyptic party of the emerging Regan-Thatcher era. You could try, but no one would believe you if you said, “There is going to be a future, and it’s going to sound pretty f*cking awesome.”

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