Albania

Although this Scottish band qualifies as new wave, the style they cultivated would almost certainly have surfaced even without punk's arrival. Their output centered on danceable, lightly funky numbers carrying arch, eccentric lyrics. The inclusion of saxophone in the group invited ready comparisons to portions of Roxy Music's catalog; certain electro-blip rhythms recalled David Bowie's late-'70s recordings, and the clipped vocal approach carried a clear David Byrne influence. Still, Albania never matched the interest level of those artists. They released one album and several singles on the Chiswick label in the early '80s, then issued a dance single for Stiff in 1982 before disbanding.