I'm on a hunt for "new wave" instrumental compositions, but am constantly confused and uncertain. What actually constitutes an "instrumental" track? The answer seems obvious - a track with no vocals or, broadly, voices. But is it so simple?
Have to state right away, I don't speak here of "voxless" versions of songs that were proliferating during the 1980s. Those are a different kettle of fish for me, I'm first and foremost interested in stand-alone compositions. So far I've come across quite a few variations of a formula. Here goes:
First seems to be a primarily instrumental track, but with vocals (or vocoder) chanting its title - sometimes once or twice, sometimes repeatedly. Examples are The B-52's "53 miles West of Venus" and ABC's "Chicago" respectively.
Second is mainly about mix - it has a loud instrumental track but also vocals (speaking) which are mixed low and are barely audible. You hear that something's being said or sung but have to hear closely to make it out (not always successfully). Examples are Night Moves's "Nightdrive" or Icehouse's "Paradise lost".
Third is a vocoder speak or noises (or voice electronically altered in general) during parts or across the track. This is not the singing as we know it and often it's not very intelligible - but still can be counted. Example - "Water clock secrets" by Torch Song.
Fourth is the use of sampled phrases or even the whole chunks of speech off the radio, TV etc. Those are not from the artist himself. Examples are Colourbox's "Fast dump" and Bill Nelson's "Hard facts from the fiction department" respectively. That's the most problematic for me - it's not singing, obviously, but the track doesn't seem to qualify as an instrumental too.
Fifth is the use of vocal noises - screams, grunts, cries etc. Those are very common for The Art of Noise, for example, or Yello. The variation here is a wordless singing over the musical bed (i.g. Siouxsie's "Clockface").
Sixth is the use of "found vocals", i.e. ethnic singing or somesuch (mainly for atmospheric effect).
So, quite a few deviations from the norm that are still often labeled as "instrumental". And the question is, what do you consider an instrumental track? Can any of the above (or all of those) be considered truly instrumental tracks? What do you think?