Front 242 - Front By Front

Front 242... you couldn't go to a club in the late '80s without hearing that classic refrain "one, you lock the target..." This was always my favorite album, kind of like they'd spent the early 1980s refining their sound just to create this. In a way, Depeche Mode paved a similar sound and formula, but added in the pop songwriting that ended up making them superstars. Front 242 went on to make some great music in the early-90s, too, before splintering.

25Men - the many faces of James Ray

James Ray and the Performance, James Rays Gangwar, MK Ultra, The Sisterhood... James Ray has taken on many incarnations for his musical output. Some people wrote him off as a sub-Sisters of Mercy copy, but I think he had more in common with 80s "industrial" bands like Front 242, Mussolini Headkick, etc. Anyway, this outfit, dubbed 25Men, is my favorite. Released in 2008, it reminds me of unstructured early '90s industrial music.

The Sisters of Mercy

The Sisters of Mercy produced some of the '80s most seminal music. And even into the early '90s. Floodland is my favorite, mostly because it didn't sound like anything else at the time and thus, it has aged pretty well, despite being essentially a synth album. So many '80s band, especially ones using electronics, seemed to be using presets of keyboard and drum sounds and now are embarrassing relics of New Wave. But Floodland still has a grand guignol bombast and mystery to it. Like the sea...

Sky Cries Mary

Seattle band Sky Cries Mary started out as the moniker of Roderick Romero, who released 2 albums of rather uninteresting experimental soundscapes in the late-80s. He then formed a proper band, turning out some of the most original music of the 1990s. This Timeless Turning sounds like nothing else I own. With the soaring vocals of Anisa Romero, they are at times delicate, spiritual and overwhelming. Interesting postscript: Roderick and Anisa now focus on building treehouses and furniture...

no, really: http://www.interiorprovisions.com/

Oceania

One more project I forgot was this one between Jaz Coleman and Maori singer Hinewehi Mohi. They produced two albums of chillout "world music." And Youth is even listed in the liner notes for some added production work.