SOFT CELL

 

Hot on the heels of Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, SOFT CELL were already deep in the well documented throes of consumption by the time The Art Of Falling Apart was released in 1983. An incredibly adult synth pop record - a parade of upbeat dancefloor bangers with Almond's sweet lilt delivering legitimately dark tracks like "Loving You, Hating Me," "Forever The Same" and "Numbers," an incredibly introspective assault on consumption and promiscuity. Listening to this record in real time (or in the years after its release when I was a young teen discovering and devouring UK synth and new wave) it was just another collection of songs....I am a middle aged man now and my ears, head and heart are different. The Art Of Falling Apart is a mature and real collection of songs anchored by a tortured two verse title track. Makes me want to dance like I'm too young to drive and can't identify with any of this. Don't dismiss SOFT CELL, they're (far) more than a kitschy cover tune. 

THE ART OF FALLING APART

=============================
I'm skilled at the art of falling apart

It's the holding together, together forever

Trying all of the vices is what's doing the damage 

All the good things are bad things 

And I'm paying the prices

CASING

 

Raw, bombastic, devastating, grinding industrial sludge madness from London. 

Damn this shit is good. 

PATTERNS OF DETERIORATION

OSCAR WILDE

 

Been sitting on this one for a minute because I pledged to read the 1890 novel before I posted the 1980 book-on-tape. But alas.....here's the novel in audio form, perhaps we can all enjoy together. Enjoy the tale of a young and beautiful man who chose to trade his soul for continued youth and beauty while his sins and his years were cast upon a portrait. A bizarre concept (especially considering the time) and Wilde's only novel....I really wish I could share an educated and/or intelligent analysis here, unfortunately I can only say that I recognize its importance. 

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
Read By: Peter Egan

G.B.H.

 

Maybe this isbn't the time (or place) to discuss GRIEVOUS BODILY HARM and their place in the world of UK punk, and maybe this isn't the time (or place) to talk about how even though 1986's Midnight Madness And Beyond... it kinda sounds like a sellout record (especially in retrospect - listen to "Horror Story" for fuck's sake) but it still fukkn jams. UK82 mingling with early NYHC and MOTÖRHEAD doesn't really seem like a bad thing....does it? Say what you will about Combat (and Combat Core) (and there's plenty to say), but they're the reason HELSTAR, MERCYFUL FATE, AGNOSTIC FRONT, LUDICHRIST, ENGLISH DOGS and other hordes made their way into bargain bins at middle American shopping malls in the '80s, even dragging VENOM and CIRLCE jerks with them. And for that, I think Combat. You want the best G.B.H. record? Go listen to City Babies Attacked By Rats, but I heard this one first thanks to those capitalist commercial record selling motherfuckers. You wanna fukkn slam your way through a (probably) miserable Thursday? Well......here's Midnight Madness (and Beyond....).

MIDNIGHT MADNESS AND BEYOND...

SPACE INVADED // JAMES BOND

 

The first time I even thought about paying attention to soundtracks was when I was listening to a Zorn interview - shortly after I got that nudge I was consuming Morricone like it was candy but thirty-plus years later I fully accept that I have (still) not even scratched the surface. So this....well, this is just another nudge. The BBC: Space Invaded side is a gorgeous escape and the James Bond side is exactly what you might expect from a tape scavenged from a Fresno, California storage unit with a hand-written label that reads "James Bond Greatest Hits." So I guess...sometimes you get what you want and you just might get what you need.  

BBC: SPACE INVADED // JAMES BOND: GREATEST HITS

WIRE

 

• I first heard WIRE around the time of the mid-era Ahead and I was super into it. I didn't know anything about their origins and/or influence, just as I couldn't begin to comprehend their context or influence - it was just a really cool and danceable new wave record that sounded somehow....different.  

• I saw WIRE only once, roughly thirty years after A Bell Is A Cup...Until It Is Struck was released. They played at Slim's in SF and I was pleasantly floored at how much they did not give a fukk at all about their hits or the songs that most attendees likely wanted to hear. I think they mostly played stuff from Nocturnal Koreans and Send but I can't really be sure, I just know that people were filing out and I was enthralled.  
• I am low-key obsessed with solo Bruce Gilbert material, particularly Insiding and The Shivering Man, this information is interesting perhaps only to me and does not in any way relate to Document And Eye Witness by WIRE. I also was a big fan of HE SAID when Hail was released. I still am. 
• These recordings are incredible, capturing the band at the very onset of not giving a fukk. I read somewhere that this Rough Trade release represented the end of "the first era" of WIRE but I almost feel like this was WIRE intentionally killing external perceptions of that era. Listen to what they did to 12XU and think about a band wanting to defy and destroy convention in real time. This wasn't "art punk," this was "punk" in its purest form. Sound without rules. 
• This 1981 release compiles songs performed and recorded in 1979 and 1980. Songs performed and recorded by a band who were clearly exhausted by punk conventions just a few years after punk's inception. I think all rational and reasonable listeners of punk are grateful for their disdain and /or disillusion because how fukkn boring would it be if we just listened to DAMNED and UK SUBS all the time, you know?
• DAMNED and UK SUBS are both great bands....WIRE is, was and will always be more interesting than either. 

DOCUMENT AND EYE WITNESS

ME AGAINST IT ALL

 

So this tape was floating around in boxes and on shelves for a bunch of years before I listened to it. I could never remember exactly how or where I got it, but the handwriting on the spine was distinct and instantly recognizable as Max Ward's and that obviously meant that the tape had some weight. Probably a band who hoped to be a part of the 625 roster, or possibly an under the radar Japanese hardcore band who slipped Max an advance copy of a recording. I was savoring this one, and I looked forward to dropping him a line to get the history of the tape after I listened to it...which I would do eventually. Well, "eventually" happened just the other day and I have something exciting to report: It wasn't Max's handwriting. So here are six songs of turn of the century pop punk from England. There are a couple of ska parts too. 

ME AGAINST IT ALL

PLASTIGLOMERATE

 

Ever wanted to be serenaded by some genius from England with layers of noise and voice and sonic manipulation? Ever wanted to hear sounds your familiar with manifest as chaos? Ever wanted to hear what chaos sounds like? If yes, then I give you PLASTIGLOMERATE. Is it harsh noise? Yes. Is it also something else and/or something special? Also yes. You know what's a trip though? After this tape led me down a rabbit hole, I think this absolute crusher might be my least favorite PLASTIGLOMERATE release. Go figure.

XINXIN NIL

VISCOUNT

 

Yo - I was not expecting this shit. Not at all. This VISCOUNT tape was mixed in with some raw grind and primitive DBeat tapes because I'm disorganised and at first glance I figured it was maybe more of the same (which would have been fine) - I was wrong as fukk. VISCOUNT is the brainchild of Lucy from HYGIENE and PRIMETIME and though this is their first (and thus far only) release, it shows a vision completely realized and presented with confidence. Retro '80s dark wave energy (of course), and then throw in a bit of SHOP ASSISTANTS, TRVST, TJO....WAX IDOLS even. If goth twee is a genre then VISCOUNT bears their banner. If good music is to your liking then this tape will stop you dead in your tracks. 

10 PAST 10

ENGLISH SKIN AND PUNK // DC HARDCORE

                               

Here's the deal: If someone had given me this tape in 1985 then my life would have been different. Maybe? But that didn't happen, so I have this life. I didn't have "Barbed Wire" in my life in 1985, just like I didn't have (this) "Action Man" in my life in 1986. Instead I had "The Biggest Lie," "In Sight" and "Whatever" and I am certainly not complaining.....but as I take a breath to think about how this tape would have (might have?) hit my teenage self....? Damn. I had a copy of the P.E.A.C.E. comp, but it was from my friend Eric's older brother and the bands were listed alphabetically so it was really just a mess. Shit was important even though it was a confusion that lasted well into my 20s. This tape though? The shit is all right here - in your face. Flex Your Head and A Country Fit For Heroes are both mandatory comps that are both somehow more important when collected with a few era appropriate DC bangers (MINOR THREAT, MEATMEN, THE FIX) and UK essentials (DAMNED, SCEPTICS, AMEBIX). Make mix tapes for your friends, that's really the entire point of this post. Also, punk rules. I guess it would have been super cool if someone had given me this tape in 1986, but mostly I'm happy that I blasted it today, in 2025. UK and DC essentials, just as the scrawls suggest. The shit is important. Punk is important. 

HARDCORE BANDS // ENGLISH SKIN AND PUNK BANDS

D.I.Y. CONSPIRACY VOL.2

 

Sometimes with the comps I don't know if it's better to just go: "here. it's a comp. the tracks generally fall into ____ genre. enjoy?" or if I should dissect the shit track by track. It's even harder with collections that aren't genre specific because the dissection can get really pedantic and I feel like I'm gonna lose you...and I don't want to lose you. So anyway....here's a compilation. I've posted a few of these Covid-era collections previously and I'm pleased to say that reaching for a 'new' volume still gives me those good shivvers because I know I'm about to bump a bunch of tracks I've never heard from bands Ive never heard of. This second volume is more about the catchy almost-garage shits, and listeners would be forgiven if they mentioned SOVIETTES and./or REATARDS when referring to bands like GULG BEACH and LA VASE, but then there are some rippers on the flip from GHETTO GOSPEL and SKARA and there are some primitive blackened punk/metal shits from UDDA so maybe there isn't any kind of theme at all. Maybe the intent was just to collect a bunch of good ass bands from all over this flat-ass planet and present them in one place for you to listen to. If so? Success.

DIY CONSPIRACY VOL.2

THE VALLEY RECALLS

 

I snagged this at Savers in San Jose last week; honestly I mostly grabbed it because there were a shitheap of cassettes but nothing at called to me, not even faintly. There had to be something. So I combed through the mail order cassettevangelists and Grandma's schmaltz again determined to find a reason to spend 74¢ even it was spent on crap. Suffice to say that it wasn't crap. Maybe I just needed to look again, so the universe could help me find a reason to stop looking. When you first put it on, The Valley Recalls kinda disappears; but then you stop - and so many other things appear in the sounds.  So comb again if you need to.....that's the lesson.

RAGA BHOOPALI

THE DAMNED

I've always tried to be pretty open about my relationship with the classics. With the traditional starter bands. Part of it was geography and general exposure, but really I just started down some different rabbit holes in a pre-internet world and I knew about punk for a good five years before I really had anyone to bounce ideas and discoveries off of or network with - and by the time I met those people, many had moved on from punk and were more interested in the burgeoning grunge and college indie scene/s. They wanted to talk about the new SPACEMEN 3 record, not the Legless Bull EP they hadn't pulled out since they were a teenager. As a result, I missed some shit along the way - but I really missed the UK standards. Aside from the SEX PISTOLS album my cousin bought me on a visit in '86 I didn't know shit about UK SUBS, SHAM 69, EDDIE & THE HOT RODS, CRASS (or any anarcho punk for that matter), 999, CHELSEA....none of it. I copped the first Punk And Disorderly on a trip to Tulsa because it had mohawks on it, but I wouldn't find out until years later that DISORDER and BLITZ and VICE SQUAD were connected to larger scenes (and had volumes of material that would have blown my mind). I don't think that kind of 'discovery" (or lack of discovery) is even possible in a post-internet punk reality, but the relics of The Breadcrumb Era are still lurking, and I still get excited when I come across one...like this. 

THE DAMNED - PEEL SESSIONS (1976/77) // LIVE 1977

These tapes changed the game for the creators and the recipients and I feel like I'm discovering THE DAMNED all over again as an average middle aged man when I listen. Tracks from the Dodgy Demo, live from the London Roundhouse and both CBGB's sets in April 1977, plus Peel Sessions recording in November 1976  and May 1977. This band was absolutely screaming...but most of you already knew that. I was just a little late to the party, and that's okay. 

COMMUNITY

 

You know what this sounds like? This sounds like a band of adults who have been listening to punk for a long time, adults who are totally fine with letting the punk they have listened to influence the punk that they play. Heavy on the '90s DIY (you're gonna hear Ebullition bands in these vocals for sure) with a solid ear towards bands you might associate with Static Shock and Cut The Cord...talking about the current(ish) DIY hardcore that doesn't stomp and squirm just for the sake of it, you know? The opening chords of "Community" are beyond perfect - they remind me of a moment yesterday when I realized that the beginning  of "Teenage Riot" may or may not bear a striking resemblance to the beginning of "Hell's Bells" and I say that to make it clear that the opening chords of "Community" are actually that perfect, you know? This is harsh, honest, gruff, real modern DIY hardcore punk. Maybe it's a stretch calling a tape released in 2016 "modern," but this shit feels (and sounds) like yesterday so I'm gonna go with it.

COMMUNITY

HATEFILLED KIDS

 

It doesn't get much more primitive than HATEFILLED KIDS.
It doesn't need to be fancy, it just needs to be real. 

FUCK PUNK ROCK RIP POCKETS SNATCH JEWELS

REZILLOS

No bloviating or blustering today. Instead, a REZILLOS Peel Session recorded in 1978....you know what it is and you know it's good. You might even be able to here it somewhere else, but I don't know why you would. That rhymes.

REZILLOS - PEEL SESSION 1978

DAMNED + WAYNE KRAMER + MAGIC MICHAEL + STORMCROWS

Cast your mind back to a few short days ago when I plopped a hodge-podge of VIBRATORS cuts from various mix tapes in your lap and just kinda left it steaming. Well, it wasn't just VIBRATORS on those tapes, and without a clear vision for the rest of the shit on those tapes I'm just gonna do the same thing again. Because I want to, and because the tracks are killers...
    • Two song Dodgy Demo from THE DAMNED, primal '78 versions of "Love Song" and "Burglar" that will remind you what perfection sounds like. 
    • Two more from a 1987 STORMCROWS session. I know nothing about the band, but these hit like dirty almost goth punk with notes of CRAMPS and GALLON DRUNK. The recording is completely off putting, which is absolutely part of the appeal.
    • I've told you the story about Wayne Kramer's drummer passing out in our kitchen in 1996, right? Dude was also the session drummer on Toni Basil's international pop hit and kept complaining about how he was only paid $150 to play on the song....but I digress. I wonder what Kramer's position was in the eyes of the early 1980s - legend for sure, or at least legendary. But whether or not people cared about his music is a different question, and cuts like "Talking Something" really puts that question into context. This seven song session from 1983/84 hits like a recording from someone who would have been opening for Don Henley or Corey Hart or some shit, a far cry from kicking out jams and preaching. 
    • And finally the A side of MAGIC MICHAEL's only single from 1980. A hopelessly essential slammer from 1980 that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as JILTED JOHN and ALBERTO Y LOS TRIOS PARANOIAS. Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies are the nucleus of the backing band here so the quality isn't a surprise, but even bearing that in mind, this song is indescribably good.

DODGY DEMO

VIBRATORS

File VIBRATORS along with the scores of starter bands that I never really dug into - and I wonder if the proliferation of access to literally everything means that new/er generations of punk listeners are more (or less) likely to completely skip over the starters. If you can click-click-stream-click your way to CAMERA SILENS and DEEF and COLERA and DEVIATED INSTINCT then maybe you end up skipping over the classics the same way that punk listeners in the '80s may have eschewed LOVERBOY and NIGHT RANGER. Also, maybe that's a shitty analogy, but the point is that VIBRATORS were one of the first, they’ve been consistently cranking out records for 45 years…I don't think I could name you a single song aside from “Automatic Lover.” So when several sessions started popping up on live tapes I've been ripping the past few days I figured maybe it was a sign and I paid attention...not surprisingly, the shit is good. I collected a few of those sessions here:

Peel Session • January 1977 (choice cut: "Pogo Dancing")
1976 Demos (choice cut: "Young Lust")

1977 Demos (choice cut: "Public Enemy #1" - this session has been given a proper release and is widely available)

Like a lot of first wave UK punk the direct connection to bluesy rock 'n roll is front and center, but there's a real nice dark almost psychedelic bent to a few tracks here...but punk listeners already know this. Gonna go click-click-stream-click and crank Pure Mania on my way to work today...and appreciate the fact that I will be listening to punk music for the first time until my last breath.

VIBRATORS

HAROLD TURGIS

 

I waxed on about HAROLD TURGIS a few months ago, and here's the second of three tapes I received in a very timely package from England. These sounds arrived when I was in need of some grounding, some unscheduled quietude, and The Sentinels and Satellite both provide exactly that while also offering (temporary) (safe) escapes through sound. Turgis creates sound in an apparent vacuum, paying attention to the sounds themselves more than the environments that conjure them...and as much as I was hesitant to listen to Satellite because my experience with The Sentinels was so perfect, this experience was (also) exactly what I needed. You're worth it. 

SATELLITE: 1997-2021

ZYGOTE

 

No introduction necessary....right? Two blokes from AMEBIX and two from SMARTPILS, that should be enough if you don't already know. There's the collection on Skuld that was the introduction for most folks (including me), and the LP on MCR that was a little harder to track down (before the internet), but this tape was elusive as fuck...so I reissued it in the early TE days. No one sounded like ZYGOTE then, and no one has sense...and I swear these two recordings hit me harder today than they did when I first heard them.

ZYGOTE