The Units -

The Units were an American new wave trio from San Francisco, active from 1978 to 1984. They cut a 1979 white-label EP and the 1980 album Digital Stimulation, a classic of early synthpunk. In 1983, a reconfigured four-piece Units surfaced with the Epic EP New Way to Move and the video hit “A Girl Life You.”

Demos from 1981/82 surfaced on the archival disc Animals They Dream About. Founder Scott Ryser later resurrected The Units as a leftfield act.

Members: Scott Ryser (synthesizer, vocals), Richard Driskill (drums, backing vocals, 1978-80), Tim Ennis (synthesizer, backing vocals, 1978-79), Rachel Webber (synthesizer, vocals, 1979-84), Alex Rudis (synthesizer 1979-80), Brad Saunders (drums 1980-81), Seth Miller (drums, 1981-83), David Allen, Jr. (synthesizer, vocals, 1983-84), Jabari Allen (synthesizer, vocals, 1983-84)

Background

The Units formed in mid-1978 as an eight-piece headed by singer/keyboardist Scott Ryser. After the walkout of five members, Ryser reconfigured the band with drummer Richard Driskill and co-founder Tim Ennis, who relinquished bass (stolen in the walkout) for synthesizers.

They rehearsed in the basement of a Venetian bakery in North Beach, where they held parties and art events for the local new wave milieu. On January 25, 1979, Units friend Rachel Webber secured them a gig inside the window of the Market St. JC Penny’s location as part of a two-day art installation.

White label EP

In August 1979, the Units lineup of Ryser, Ennis, and Driskill self-released a white label 7″ EP with four songs. An alternate 12″ version titled San Francisco, CA – Units appends Side B with two additional tracks: “I-Night” and “Warm Moving Bodies.”

A1. “High Pressure Days”
A2. “Work”
A3. “Cowboy”
B1. “I-Night”
B2. “Warm Moving Bodies”
B3. “Cannibals”

Ennis co-produced the EP with one Arni Russell Synder. Soon after, Ryser formed a second Units trio with Rachel Webber (synth, vocals) and drummer Brad Saunders. This lineup linked with 415 Records, a local indie (based on Castro St.) with a catalog of early Bay Area punk singles by The Nuns, The Offs, and Pearl Harbor & The Explosions. (Ennis surfaced with two drumming credits on a 1982 EP by indie-popsters 48 Rooms.)

Digital Stimulation

The Units released their singular album, Digital Stimulation, on October 10, 1980, on 415 Records. It features eleven group-credited originals, including re-worked versions of “High Pressure Days,” “Warm Moving Bodies,” “Cannibals,” and “Cowboy.”

Musically, Digital Stimulation combines the raw lo-fi analog sounds of early synthpunk (Chrisma, The Screamers) with the kinetic sci-fi manner of Devo. Vibraphonist Jim Reynolds guests on the instrumental “Tight Fit.”

A1. “High Pressure Days” (3:19)
A2. “Digital Stimulation” (3:10)
A3. “Warm Moving Bodies” (3:31)
A4. “Go” (2:10)
A5. “Mission” (1:45)
A6. “Cannibals” (2:44)

B1. “Bugboy” (2:14)
B2. “Tight Fit” (4:03)
B3. “Passion or Patterns” (2:34)
B4. “Town By the River” (1:55)
B5. “Cowboy” (5:17)

The Units self-produced the album at Big Pink West Studio, a Bay Area facility used for 1979/80 singles by Tools and The Cosmetics and the 1978 jazz-funk album by A Tint of Darkness. Studio owner Ken Wagner engineered Digital Stimulation along with the Cosmetics 10″ Colors That Scream, assisted by serial soundman Michael Rosen (Wrabit, Berlin).

Rachel Webber designed the gray-back Digital Stimulation cover: five fractured columns (primary, secondary colored) backed with film strips and member pics by Chester Simpson, whose photography appears in sleeves by the Flaimin’ Groovies, Romeo Void, and SVT.

New Way to Move (EP)

On October 7, 1983, The Units released New Way to Move, a 12″ EP on Epic Records. For this release, Rachel Webber and group-founder Scott Ryser welcomed brothers David and Jabari Allen, all four on synthesizers and vocals. The EP contains four Ryser/Webber numbers, a David co-credited title-track, and the group-credited “Right Man,” a pre-released single.

Bill Nelson plays guitar and supplemental synthesizers on New Way to Move, which features drummer Marc Henry.

A1. “The Right Man” (4:08)
A2. “A Girl Like You” (4:10)
A3. “New Way to Move” (3:22)

B1. “Your Face” (4:07)
B2. “More Alike” (3:55)
B3. “More More Alike” (5:52)

Tubes keyboardist Michael Cotton produced the first two tracks, both engineered by Fits soundman Leon Phillips, a subsequent member of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. Nelson produced the EP’s balance, engineered by Stacy Baird, a soundman for the Bill Summers Heat spinoff Private Eye and the 1981 EG release My Life In the Bush of Ghosts, a collaborative LP by Brian Eno and Talking Heads frontman David Byrne.

New Way to Move pictures the band colorfully dressed and seated by Randee St. Nicholas, a contemporary cover photographer for Jackson Brown, Karla Bonoff, The Knack, Air Raid, and American Noise.

In the video to “A Girl Like You,” The Units perform in a school gymnasium where students dance and a b-boy breaks to the song.

Discography: