Back in the mists of time -- in the days when The Faint were happily soiling their diapers, Momus was dealing with the angst of puberty and the members of Depeche Mode had just discovered some groovy new toys called synthesizers -- there was Fad Gadget. Frank Tovey was unclassifiable when unclassifiability wasn't cool, penning eccentric, keyboard-intensive tunes at a time when "synth-pop" still seemed like a contradiction in terms. He was post-new-wave before the new wave even started, his quirky, nasal vocals and sneering delivery marking him as the next evolutionary stage of the outsider-vocalist. His influence on modern music has been so enduring that bands today are inspired by bands that were inspired by bands he inspired.

The Best of..., predictably, collects singles and B-sides from Tovey's four-year stint as Fad Gadget. It also includes a second disc of remixes, designed to frustrate rabid fans who had assumed, perhaps naïvely, that their Fad Gadget collections were complete once they tracked down all the original albums and the 1986 singles collection.

Right off the bat, you'll be impressed. "Back to Nature", recorded in 1979, is older than many of today's hottest bands -- but it still sounds current. Thanks to the current obsession with "retro" keyboard sounds (and a healthy bit of luck), "Back to Nature" is a robust piece of work, its multi-layered keyboard melody hinting at a far more complex and abrasive aesthetic than the work of Tovey's electronic peers. You'll hear a healthy measure of punkish disdain in his vocals, and a vibrant humor in the "animal" noises that pepper the song, eventually devolving into atonal keyboard bleats. Then there's the infamous "Ricky's Hand", co-written with Mute head/Normal leader Daniel Miller, in which Tovey augments the fast-paced proto-new-wave melody with a power drill (listed in the credits, with admirable detail, as a Black and Decker V.8 double speed electric drill) -- not such a big deal in our post-Einsturzende Neubaten world, perhaps, but a definite shock in 1980. It's interesting to note that while most punk bands used power tools as a colorful and destructive distraction or a source of interesting white noise, Tovey applied his Black and Decker in service of the song's rhythm, ending each chorus line with a carefully timed burst from the drill. It must have been quite a challenge to get it right, back in those pre-sampling days.

There are lots of treats here: the cabaret swagger of "Fireside Favourite", the sinuous funk rhythm and erudite lyrics of "Make Room", the freakish, agitated Throbbing Gristle antics of "Lady Shave", the twanky keyboards, processed goth chorus and Duran Duran bass line of "King of the Flies", the thoroughly modern-sounding, percussion-intensive "For Whom the Bells Toll"... There's something delightful about every song here; Tovey mixes synth-pop, punk rock and genre-defying weirdness with heroic aplomb. As you listen, make a list of the artists who've borrowed some element of Fad Gadget's sound. Make certain you have plenty of paper before you start, as it's going to be a long list.

To the record label's credit, the second disc isn't a batch of contemporary hatchet jobs; we don't have to hear what Ladytron or DJ Shadow or Alex Patterson can do to Tovey's songs. With the exception of a pair of year-old mixes -- one of them by Tovey himself -- these are tracks from the heyday of twelve-inch singles, and most of them are quite enjoyable (if ultimately no more necessary than any other remix). If you already own all of Fad Gadget's singles, don't buy this disc for the two or three tracks you don't have; you've done enough for Tovey's cause.

With the holidays right around the corner, The Best of Fad Gadget would make a perfect gift -- either for that friend of yours who remembers something from the eighties other than Modern English, or for the younger brother/sister/cousin/nephew/niece who honestly believes that The Faint were the first punk rock band to pick up a keyboard. Go on -- set the record straight!