Some artists take time to find their best creative selves. In the case of Frank Tovey in the 1970s, that meant experimenting with performance art and music at university and then setting up a basic home studio when such options weren’t as easy to do. All of that meant by the time he started releasing music as Fad Gadget, as this excellent overview shows, he was already on a major artistic roll. Creepy without being off-putting, humorous without going for the easy joke, and combining electronic edge with a knack for finding unexpected hooks, on songs like “Ricky’s Hand,” “Lady Shave,” “Back to Nature” and much more, Tovey was almost without peer.

– Ned Raggett