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Blue October
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Blue October is a rare thing -- a British synthpop band. Sure, it could be argued (very convincingly, I might add) that synthpop started with the Brits. It might even look like some of the big boys of Britain are still around: apparently Erasure has another CD coming soon and Depeche Mode haven't officially called it quits (the official homepage spouts rumours of something new every so often) and even the Pet Shop Boys are still churning stuff out. However, besides the former big boys, the scene is remarkably bleak -- Germany, Sweden and even the US have a lot more action and variety.
Of course, it could also be argued that Blue October, in spite of being the traditional "electro-duo" pioneered by Soft Cell and perpetuated by, among others, the aforementioned PSB and Erasure, they aren't really synthpop at all. In fact, Incoming may well be the most acoustic CD in my modern music collection (some of my wife's country CDs obviously don't count!) Blue October is also perched to release a second CD, only now they are a foursome with a new vocalist (sadly, the original vocalist is no longer with us) and a more traditional band format. We'll see if they step even further away from synthpop with this new format, or if they move closer to it. It's hard to tell by the two songs I've heard so far.
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