Late 70s/1980s UK-based industrial band: Conceived 1978 by Steve Swales and Colin J. Woods, and named out of amusement with their then drummer's poor grasp of school chemistry, they began as punks deconstructing punk rock, using minimal instrumentation (and technique).

From 1980 onwards their sound moved away from even rock irony and toward industrial electronics, in fact they were almost certainly the first industrial or electronic group to be active in their native Ulster. By this time, the rhythm section had been replaced by machines and Ben Allen (a early magazine reviewer "who actually got it") and Karen Aitken were added to the line-up, with the long departed Woods returning in 1981. The group’s first cassette release was 1980's Drop the Bomb which was distributed by Rough Trade amongst others. It featured broken Woolworth's guitar trash spectaculars mixed in with sine wave oscillators, synthesizer and drum machine. The later part of the album is increasingly electronic, though still at odds with the lighter emerging electro-pop / New Romantic scene.

1982's All Trees presented a wide variety of styles, and could perhaps be described as industrial Psychedelia, but with elements of disco and even mutated pop mixed in. A large part of the album was realised using the EDP Wasp, a cheap (for the times) British synthesizer with a distinctive grungy sound.
The final album was 1984’s #3, which was really a solo effort by Swales. Using mainly “classic” Roland analogue equipment, including the one-day-to-be famous TB303, it comes close to House music and in places, Acid... four years early. Overall, it presented a more disciplined and structured sound, and also marked the end of the groups more productive years.

After #3, Swales’ intention was to leave the Allotropes himself, the plan being that it would be a group with no members - all output being computer generated. Unfortunately, as this was still the mid 1980's the computer in question was a hopelessly underpowered Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Although the occasional track was produced (manually), by 1990 the Allotropes were on an indefinite hiatus.
A collection of tracks and remixes was released on CD as Buckminsterfullerene (1998) as a best-of compilation and to celebrate 20 years since the group formation, including two new short pieces by Woods and Swales. With their 30th anniversary due in 2008 the possibility of new material being issued remains.
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