The songs behind the synths: Korg MS-20

Kicking things off with a big hitter from the iconic French duo. Originally released as a single, the track was later included on their debut album Homework, and uses the synth for its main riff.

There had been some speculation online about whether it’s truly an MS-20 because the duo never mentioned it in an interview, or used it in their live performances, but it was concluded the original sequence was made with the machine then sampled for performances.

Not many artists squeezed more out of the MS-20 than legendary EBM group D.A.F. At the time, along with the SD-10, band member Robert Görl said that these were the most affordable synths available to them – “the synth for the people” as he’s quoted saying.

On their third album Alles ist gut, released in 1981, the band employed the MS-20 throughout, alongside the Arp Odyssey and the SQ-10.

Perhaps one of the more famous contemporary examples of the MS-20 at play. Jon Hopkins has heavily relied on his MS-20 for many of his albums, particularly on Immunity.

From bass to lead synths and riffs, he gets the most out of the machine, especially on this track which almost exclusively uses the MS-20, except for a choir sample using Jon’s processed voice.

The MS-20 is peppered throughout tracks on AMOK, the 2013 LP from Thom Yorke’s side project Atoms For Peace, released on XL Recordings.

It features on the title track and several others, including one of our personal favourites ‘Default’, which you can see in action in this live video of the band performing the track in LA.

A highly innovative and influential track from the German Neue Deutsche Welle band. Their output may have been limited back in 1981 but it heavily featured the MS-20 in all its glory, thanks to member Chrislo Haas, who was also part of D.A.F., Minus Delta t and Der Plan.

‘Los Niños Del Parque’ is their most famous song and is a slice of proto techno that went on to influence many other bands and genres.

We could have gone with ‘Flat Beat’, the bass line is one of the most perfect examples of the MS-20 at work, but instead we’ve opted for the titular track on the French electro producer’s 1999 LP. The synth was used throughout the entirety of the album, in contrast to his later works when digital gear became more favoured.

Apparently, from what we’ve read about Mr. Oizo’s use of the MS-20 online, before recording he’d tape a key on it and leave it going for hours to warm up the circuits, making the front panel too hot to touch.

Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin’s Air project got a lot of use out of the MS-20, particularly on Moon Safari, their most acclaimed LP, which came out back in 1997.

You can hear it in action on opener ‘La Femme D’Argent’ from about four minutes into the track.

On Flock of Seagulls’ most notable track, originally released in 1982, the new wave band used the MS-20 to create the bass line. It’s been used in some of their other tracks for musical touches like noises, sounds and effects.

Apparently, founder, vocalist and musician Mike Score had a love for the MS family of synths: his favourite for bass sounds was the MS-20’s little brother, MS-10.

On OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark)’s ‘Bunker Soldiers’, the opening track on the Wirrel-hailing band’s debut album, the bass line is all thanks to the MS-20.

It appears elsewhere throughout the album, which was released back in 1980, a couple of years after the MS-20 was launched. The track itself has become one of the group’s most loved songs as well as one of their most performed live.

The MS-20’s finger prints are over a lot of Ladytron’s most acclaimed tracks, but this one is an old favourite.

The synth was a favourite of the electro pop band’s keys player and vocalist Mira Aroyo, who could often be seen behind the machine on stage, when playing live with the group during their heyday back in the mid-late noughties.