‘I Can Detect You… ’ was my first dip into the local record shop’s occasional 5p box. A single reviewed in the first issue of Sounds I bought – I instantly recognised the Barney Bubbles sleeve, with its neat chemical formula/fraction – Arthurs name rang a bell from his production work with Tonight (if not for his previous work in glammy 70s satirists A Raincoat). A power-poppy guitar thrust carried through the A-side’s nifty chorus, although it was the stalker-ish tension of the verses that connected first. But if its cascading synths, electronic beats and talk of blown fuses, overloaded circuits and transmitters already seemed to have one foot in the future, its B-side really raised the stakes. Introduced with just one heavily processed word – “Engines!” – Arthurs does his best talking robot impression (“Ain’t got no emotion”) over a jerky, off-centre bassline and some impressionistic guitar figures. The vocal layering is inspired, as Arthurs’ machine teeters on the brink of breakdown, malfunction and madness, producer Martin Rushent’s careful coaxing of electronic textures a trial run for his work with Pete Shelley and the Human League. Arthurs also moved into production, racking up credits for 999, Soft Boys and Celia & the Mutations (a barely incognito Stranglers).