Album dossier / 1982

Rio

Duran Duran · New Wave/Synth-pop

Recorded at London's AIR Studios in late 1981 with producer Colin Thurston (fresh off Duran Duran's debut and Kajagoogoo's 'Too Shy'), the album was tracked mostly with real instruments -- guitarist Andy Taylor's parts were direct-injected through Eventide H910/H949 harmonizers rather than amps, and Thurston kept a harmonizer blended permanently onto Simon Le Bon's vocal across the whole record. The carnival atmosphere on the title track came from a new Yamaha synth Nick Rhodes was testing, layering in synthesized seagull and crowd sounds; the song's odd backwards intro rumble came from an outside tape nobody in the room could later identify. Bassist John Taylor has called his performance on 'Rio' -- inspired by Chic's Bernard Edwards -- 'a young man's bassline' he could never play the same way again. The album later reached #2 UK and, on 1983 US re-issue timed to MTV's embrace of the band's videos, #6 on the Billboard 200.