In the more offbeat corners of German post-punk, 'Politik Für Junge Leute' by Nachdenkliche Wehrpflichtige stands out as a small but striking release with a lot of atmosphere packed into it.
The name Nachdenkliche Wehrpflichtige -“thoughtful conscripts”- already hints at the project’s perspective. The context is late Cold War West Germany, where compulsory military service and rising political tension shaped everyday life for young people. That background seeps into the record, giving it a quietly uneasy tone rather than anything overtly dramatic.
It came out on Zickzack, a label closely tied to experimental acts and the more unconventional edge of Neue Deutsche Welle. Zickzack releases often carried a raw, unpolished character, and this single fits right in with that ethos.
The sound is sparse and tense: clipped guitar figures, rigid rhythms, and vocals delivered in a detached, almost observational way. There’s little interest in melody for its own sake -everything feels functional, like it exists to underline a point rather than to entertain. The production leans toward a DIY aesthetic, adding to the sense of immediacy.
The tracks circle around the idea of politics being simplified and repackaged for a younger audience. There’s an undercurrent of irony in how it presents that dynamic, suggesting a disconnect between institutional messaging and lived experience. Instead of overt protest, the tone lands somewhere closer to skepticism and quiet resistance.
It occupies an interesting middle ground: not as abstract as some experimental contemporaries, but also far removed from the more accessible side of Neue Deutsche Welle. The result feels less like a conventional song and more like a snapshot of a particular mindset -watchful, critical, and shaped by its moment.
Label:
Zickzack – ZZ 8
Format:
Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Stereo
Country:
Germany
Released:
Aug 1980
Style:
Jazz-Rock, Avantgarde, New Wave, Art Punk, Neue Deutsche Welle
Tracklist:
A1 Hundert Mann 2:10
A2 Er Steht Im Tor (Wenn Es Sein Muss) 0:40
A3 Das Traumendspiel: Freunde Müsst Ihr Sein / Hrubesch 0:52
This is not an out-and-out masterpiece of an early Eighties Boston / coastal New England region compilation, but it has enough goodies on it to make it worthwhile. And, equally important, the collection itself makes for another key puzzle piece in the stitched-together panorama of the time and place. The Throbbing Lobster compilations would be an example of another.
In 1984, this was probably a big opportunity for most of the
artists listed, as none of the groups except Sorry, Salem 66 and The Flies had released their own recordings to date. Most of
the bands then achieved their breakthrough just under two years later.
In this respect, therefore, it is an album with almost groundbreaking
qualities. The recording quality is also very reminiscent of lo-fi
at times. However, if you like this kind of thing, you'll be very well
served here.
[SOURCE: RATE YOUR MUSIC]
Label:
Conflict Records – CON 001, Radiobeat Records – RB 003
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Compilation
Country:
US
Released:
1984
Style:
Alternative Rock, Punk, Avantgarde, Hardcore Punk, Post-Punk, Emocore
Recorded throughout 1983 @ Radiobeat Studios, Boston except tracks A9 & B1 recorded @ Downtown Recorders and tracks B2 & B4 recorded @ Baker St. Studio.
Mastered in January 1984 @ K-Disc, Hollywood.
Includes a single-page, double-sided 8.5"x11" info sheet. Some copies additionally include individual pages for all the bands, with the exception of Deep Wound, stapled together with the info sheet to form a 10-page booklet.
December 1980 saw the release of 'A Factory Quartet', a double album featuring tracks from The Durutti Column, Kevin Hewick, Blurt and The Royal Family And The Poor.
With a cover price of ‘five guineas’, the double LP offered a side per Factory artist.
Side One featured three tracks by The Durutti Column; Side 2 seven tracks by Kevin Hewick; Side Three, four tracks by Blurt; Side Four, three tracks by Royal Family and The Poor. The embossed sleeve featured a set of Polaroid photographs taken by Factory boss Tony Wilson.
A Factory Records hand-typed "newsletter and shareholder's analysis" told us about each artist: Royal Family and The Poor: "A remarkable S.I. influenced outfit from Liverpool who, with sing along numbers like "Vanneigem Mix", rose such comments as; "They show The Gang of Four to be the bubble gum band we always thought they were" - R. Boone".
Blurt; "Sax based dance band from Stroud - Jesus Christ Stroud! Fronted by former anarcho beat poet - reformed". The Durutti Column: "An extended piece being prepared by Vinny Reilly, Stephen Hopkins and Mr. Hannett". Kevin Hewick: "Kid comes from Leicester. Writes singles about hay-stacks
and finding needles, and apart from the FACT that he likes Sylvia Plath
and Clem Burke, he has a lot going for him. Interested in frail
specifics, yip, yip, yip".
The first thing ever released by Kevin Hawick was one side of
this double LP on Manchester's legendary Factory label. Kevin himself is
still a little scarred by the experience of Tony Wilson selecting the
tracks (all live recordings) and deciding to start Kevin's career with
the sound of him and a hippy heckler trading abuse. A uniquely honest and abrasive
exchange between performer and audience. More punk than anything a punk
group ever mustered that's for sure. As if fueled by this confrontation,
Kevin proceeds to sing his heart out in a manner that would've had Tim
Buckley raising a glass. [SOURCE: RATE YOUR MUSIC]
Label:
Factory – FACT 24
Format:
2 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation
Country:
UK
Released:
Dec 1980
Style:
New Wave, Post-Punk, Indie Rock, Avantgarde
Tracklist:
A1 The Durutti Column – For Mimi 4:42
A2 The Durutti Column – For Belgian Friends 5:35
A3 The Durutti Column – Self-portrait 4:52
B1 Kevin Hewick – Rubble 6:10
B2 Kevin Hewick – 1940 4:20
B3 Kevin Hewick – A Little Feeling 5:10
B4 Kevin Hewick – Forget 4:06
B5 Kevin Hewick – Morphia
2:37
B6 Kevin Hewick – The Enchanted Kiss 2:50
B7 Kevin Hewick – Haystack 3:02
C1 Blurt – Puppeteer 3:31
C2 Blurt – Dyslexia 7:42
C3 Blurt – Some Come 3:10
C4 Blurt – Benighted 4:45
D1 The Royal Family And The Poor – Dirge 1:17
D2 The Royal Family And The Poor – Vaneigem Mix 6:42
D3 The Royal Family And The Poor – Dirge 1:13
D4 The Royal Family And The Poor – Death Factory
6:33
D5 The Royal Family And The Poor – Dirge 1:03
D6 The Royal Family And The Poor – Rackets 6:56
Notes:
Track A1 to A3 engineered at Strawberry Studios, Stockport.
Track B1 to B3 were performed at Leeds University in May 1980 on the Sylvia Plath Comeback Tour, the rest at the Moonlight West Hampstead in April 1980.
Track C1 to C4 produced at home.
Job on track D1 to D6 carried out at Graveyard Prestwich and Strawberry, Stockport.
No copyright for the usual reasons
"Polaroid-style" gatefold sleeve and printed inner sleeves.
Track D2: TRFAP read extracts from Raoul Vaneigem's book "The Revolution Of Everyday Life" (see chapter VII.2 and 3), the last part is from Ken Knabb's "Some Clarifications", both uncredited.
The Durutti Column recordings on side A are also available on LC reissues.
The Blurt recordings on side C are also available on The Factory Recordings CD.
The Royal Family And The Poor recordings on side D are also available on 'The Project Phase 1 - The Temple Of The 13th Tribe'.
Albert Porta was born in Barcelona in 1946, who adopted the nickname Zush from 1968 until 2001, when he became known as Evru, as he currently calls himself. Self-taught, he defines himself as ArtCienMist, that is, artist, scientist and mystic. He has been drawing since he was very young, but his first contact with the art world was through René Metras, a French gallery owner, in 1962, who encouraged him to continue creating. He establishes contacts and works with artists such as Jordi Galí and Silvia Gubern, among others, with whom he later forms the Grup del Maduixer. It is in 1964 when his work is shown for the first time to the public in the collective exhibition "Presencias De Nuestro Tiempo" ("Presences Of Our Time") at the René Metras Gallery.
The year 1968 is established as a transcendental point in his artistic career, since he decides to create Evrugo Mental State, accompanied by his own communication code and change his name to Zush. During this period his work stands out for a psychedelic aesthetic created by means of phosphorescent pigments and a great formal anarchy, understanding his works as the construction of a personal mythology, something applicable to a great part of his creation. Thanks to several scholarships he studies Holography applied to Art at the M.I.T. in Boston, something that is reflected in his works from the mid 80's onwards, integrating technology. Exhibitions in renowned venues such as Documenta in Kassel in 1977, the Guggenheim in New York in 1980 or the Pompidou in Paris in 1989 stand out.
In 2001, during his retrospective organized by MACBA, Zush is renamed Evru. It is at this moment when the concept of ArtCienMist appears, which defines his new artistic figure. His long career to date has led to major museums dedicating retrospectives to him, such as the one presented in 2007 in different museums in China, such as the Today Art Museum in Beijing and the MoMA Duo Lun in Shanghai. In addition to having exhibited in many important museums, he has also received several awards. Examples are the Premio Nacional de Grabado in 1997, the Premio Laus in 1999, the Premi Ciutat de Barcelona in 2000 or the Premi ACCA de la Crítica d'Art in 2003.
In 1989 he releases the LP 'Evrugo Mental State' composed by the artist Tres from the commission of Zush himself in 1982. Tres (Three) was a multidisciplinary artist and sound researcher (Barcelona, 1956 - Premià de Dalt, 2016), named so himself by the day he was born and never revealed his real name. Very appreciated in the artistic community for his generous and positive attitude, he always remained faithful to his creative search, knowing that he moved in a minority and nothing commercial. Known for his ingenious works on silence, he would be part of the Klamm group during the eighties. Among its most important arguments stand out truths such as "in this society verbally incontinent, there are no spaces for silence". That is why he created spaces and situations that made possible to perceive it so that it was a path of interior search. In his artistic career he cultivated several disciplines such as painting, sculpture, performances and music. [SOURCE: FUNDACION SUÑOL]
Label: Grabaciones Accidentales – 4GA-0361
Format:
Vinyl, LP
Country: Spain
Released: 1989
Style: Alternative Rock, New Wave, Avantgarde, Art Rock, Experimental Rock
Tracklist:
A1 Evrugo Mental State National Introelectric Anthem 5:59
Clónicos is a Spanish experimental jazz-rock group that was active mainly between 1984 and 1994. Markus Breuss, a conservatory musician, formed the group in 1984 with Pelayo Arrizabalaga and soon after, Justo Bagüeste joined, taking as references artists/groups such as Cassiber, Material, Elliott Sharp, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgar Varese, Fred Frith, John Zorn and Art Ensemble of Chicago. Breuss was the group's leader and principal composer. During the ten years of the group's life, it incorporated several collaborators.
Clónicos was the first Spanish group to play at the prestigious mœrs festival (Germany). In 1991, together with Finis Africae and the Swiss painter Daniel Garbade, they presented the performance “Cláusulas” to celebrate the 700 years of the Swiss Confederation, in Madrid in 1991.
The music of Clónicos coincides in time with the groups of the so-called "Movida Madrileña", with which it has some contact (Víctor Polanski, leader of Polanski y el Ardor), but it is closer to the proposals of European and American avant-garde music (no-wave, free-rock, punk-jazz, etc.), with a combination of traditional percussion instruments, synthesizers and self-made instruments. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Best Christmas single ever, made by four stalwarts of the Berlin avant-wave scene: Tabea Blumenschein (Die Tödliche Doris, Liebesgier), Frieder Butzmann (Din A Testbild, Liebesgier, Nachdenkliche Wehrpflichtige, Wir Und Das Menschliche E.V.), Gudrun Gut (currently runs the Monika Enterprise and Moabit Musik labels, was an early member of Einstürzende Neubauten and founded Malaria!) and Bettina Köster (Liebesgier, Malaria!, Mania D., Mutabor!, Nachdenkliche Wehrpflichtige).
The pseudo-disco "Stille Nacht" (= "Silent Night") version is not quite a destruction, but a complete and utter deconstruction of Christmas songs. That old Irving Berlin classic, however, is turned into a slow, nightmarish, dissonant free jazz piece. Anyone who dearly hates this piece of fake Christmas sentimentality will be healed by listening to this version. [SOURCE: RATE YOUR MUSIC]
Label: Marat Records – 24
Format:
Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM
Country: Germany
Released: 1980
Style: New Wave, Avantgarde, Holiday,
Christmas Music, Minimal Synth, Experimental Rock
Part no wave, part post-punk, Mofungo was an off-kilter noise band that worked in atonalities, squalling sax, and unsettling vocals. Mofungo "evolved" (rather than just formed) from a group called Blinding Headache, which was essentially a running jam session that took place in a New York University dormitory. Blinding Headache morphed into Mofungo when Rick Brown left to join Information. Their first release, the 'Elementary Particles' EP, saw release in 1980 after the band had paid some dues by backing Nico. In 1981, the band released their first full-length album, 'End of the World'. Partially mixed by The dB's' Chris Stamey, the album caught the attention of critic Robert Christgau, who managed to talk them up enough to get them a single release in the U.K. on Rough Trade. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Label: Mofungo Music – none
Format:
Cassette, Album
Country: US
Released: 1981
Style: Avantgarde, Jazz-Rock, Art Rock, No Wave, Art Punk, Minimal Wave
Tracklist:
A1 End Of The World
A2 Scratch House
A3 El Salvador
A4 Just The Way
A5 War Song
A6 Little Giant
A7 Mo He Ganga
B1 Why Do You Spy?
B2 Boss Alligator
B3 Lately Human
B4 Jelloback Jack
B5 River Of Blood
B6 10-4, 10-4
B7 Monster Mascot
Notes:
A1-A4 First recording session - 4 track recording by Carol Parkinson in our practice space, March 1981.
A5-A7 Third recording session - 4 track recording by Carol Parkinson in our practice space, July 1981.
B1-B3 Second recording session at Dick Connette's studio by Carol Parkinson and Chris Nelson, June 1981.
B4-B5 Cassette recording, August 11, 1981.
B6 Noise Festival - 4 track recording by Ann DeMarinas at White Columns Gallery, June 1981.
Faith. No Man. was formed in late 1982 by Mike "The Man" Morris, Billy Gould, Wade Worthington and Mike Bordin. The band had already been around for nearly a year, and had released a demo tape, under the original name Sharp Young Men. The name Faith. No Man. was a shortened, punctuated version of "Faith In No Man". They recorded a two-song 7" single which was released in the spring of 1983. After the songs were recorded, but before the vinyl was released, keyboardist Wade Worthington left the band and was replaced by Roddy Bottum. In the late August/September 1983 Billy, Mike and Roddy quit the band as a strike out against Mike Morris, since he was the founding member of the band and could not be kicked out. The three of them then reformed as Faith. No More. (later punctuated as Faith No More, to accentuate the fact that "The Man" (Mike Morris) was "no more" part of the band. Faith No More played their first show in early October 1983.
Their only single sounds quite like the first Faith No More album. The all-pervading synth lines are already there, as the jerky, percussive drum'n'bass section and the stark and the mildly psychotic mood. On the mike Mike Morris reminds a little of Jello Biafra. Really not bad. Of course, the whole thing is even rougher than the earliest Faith No More stuff, but that ain't a bad thing. "Song of Liberty" is a real cool song with a lovely bass. [SOURCE: RATE YOUR MUSIC]
Label: Ministry Of Propaganda Records – FNM1
Format:
Vinyl, 7", 33 ⅓ RPM, 45 RPM
Country: US
Released: 1983
Style: New Wave, Avantgarde, Post-Punk, Goth Rock, Coldwave
This is not your father's harp. Zeena Parkins had been a valuable player on the downtown New York scene as well as an integral member of the fascinating band Skeleton Crew (with Tom Cora and Fred Frith) for several years before releasing this, her first album as a leader. The selections are a series of solos, duos, and trios with various likeminded musicians, including Cora, Wayne Horvitz, and turntablist Christian Marclay. The general approach is consistent with the grab-bag, postmodern stance in vogue at the time, roughly based in a rockish improv aesthetic and moving outward from there. Parkins' harp has an aggressive, sometimes stinging quality; in a sense, she plays it as though it's an electric guitar, making few concessions to its more delicate ancestry. Fans of Elliott Sharp's work from around the same period will find a likeminded stance here, with a similarly dark, percussive feel. She more than holds her own here, even dominating the affairs with forceful, imaginative playing. The pieces with Marclay work especially well, his vinyl selections blending seamlessly with her rich plucking. The duo with percussionist Samm Bennett is also very successful, coming within a few miles of sounding -almost- like some warped attempt at pop. The songs are all on the short side and one eventually has the desire to hear Parkins stretch out more and even to play in more structured surroundings. But on its own merits, 'Something Out There' is an enjoyable debut and gives a good early picture of this all too undervalued member of the contemporary improvising field. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Label: No Man's Land – NML 8712
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: Germany
Released: 1987
Style: Avantgarde, Free Improvisation, Avant-Prog
Tracklist:
A1 Firebrat
2:58
A2 Night Light
2:57
A3 Without Words
2:19
A4 Little Hip Haw 2:36
A5 Mother Tongue
2:08
A6 Cornered
3:32
A7 Southern Exposure
3:51
B1 Incident In A Department Store
3:00
B2 Flavor Of Green Tea Over Rice 3:54
B3 Left-Handed Walk
2:24
B4 The World As I Found It
3:03
B5 Fly Loo
2:09
B6 Sidereal Messenger
3:11
B7 Appointment In Samarkind
3:03
Notes:
Recorded and mixed February 1986 to January 1987 at Noise New York, except tracks A3 & B3 recorded live at Roulette.
Submastering at Synesthetics.
Otomo Yoshihide is a Japanese composer and multi-instrumentalist. He mainly plays guitar, turntables, and electronics. He first came to international prominence in the 1990s as the leader of the experimental rock group Ground Zero, and has since worked in a variety of contexts, ranging from free improvisation to noise, jazz, avant-garde and contemporary classical. He is also a pioneering figure in the EAI-scene, and is featured on important records on labels like Erstwhile Records. He has composed music for many films, television dramas, and commercials. In 2017, Otomo became the 2nd Guest Artistic Director of The Sapporo International Art Festival 2017.
With the exception of 2 tracks, this is an entirely solo album that sees Otomo experimenting with various odd instrumentation. The behemoth opening track, "Religion-4", is the first. Otomo plays the turntables, tapes, and radio on this piece. It's pretty much straight up noise music, you can hear wailing, beeping and harsh turntable scratches for the first few minutes and not many other discernable sounds, as it crashes and screeches its way throughout its early duration. Despite of the sound sources being use here you can only barely at moments make out what the hell you're hearing. A voice, a drum beat, junk noises, occasionally peek through the chaos only to disappear as fast as they entered. About 11 and a half minutes in is the most recognizable sample with loops of a monologue, which also marks things getting a bit less harsh, but still very noisy and nonsensical. Things come down in the last couple minutes of the track with the sampling becoming much more noticeable and less overwhelming, more sparse, before one final WOOOSH finishes off the track. This takes up the entire A-Side of the cassette and is an absolute trip to listen to, apocalyptic and destructive, but oddly meditative, also proving Otomo's mastership at the art of Turntable Music. A great jam that will surely please those who enjoyed Otomo's more noisy works.
Kicking off the B-Side, the "Guitar Solo Improvisation" is exactly what the name suggests. Otomo had a different technique compared to the custom made noise guitars of his work with Ground Zero or the noisy, pedal soaked arpeggios that mark his New Jazz records. Indeed, Otomo doesn't play with seemingly any effects whatsoever. Just a tight jam that emphasizes dissonance, atonality and seemingly random plucking above the noise and feedback of his latter day output. So demented in it's chaos that it would make even Derek Bailey blush. Definitely an extremely cool solo.
"Religion-3" returns with all the instruments featured on "Religion-4" but with the addition of a violin and vocals. It opens with radio tuning sounds that sound kinda like a geiger counter before the violin just gets absolutely destroyed, being abused so badly, it sounds like high pitched static. Otomo also does these weird gurgling vocals over it and there's random samples going on in the background while he breaks the poor thing. Very amusing in it's absolute cacophony and impressive that Otomo can juggle all these instruments at once.
"Sax Of A Kind + PB Radio '84", despite the name, actually does not contain any kind of saxophone. Weird name but alright. The shortest track by far, there's three credited guitarists (including Otomo) as well as a bassist, a drummer, and Otomo on "tape recordings". Also according to the liner notes, the tape recordings are sampled from a radio. Otomo sure loves his radios even when he is not playing them. This is basically just a recording of a (sadly normal) jazz cover intertwined with japanese spoken word radio. It is a cool cover and the radio does add a bit of Otomo wackiness to the otherwise normal sounding jazz.
"Religion-1" has the same instrumental lineup as "Religion-4", with the addition of a synthesizer. It's very noisy and high pitched all the way, with the radio providing an ear piercing backing for the aforementioned sci-fi noises. A curious little noise piece.
The most confusing track is probably "Religion-2", for which the only credited instruments are the tapes and "electric springs". There's basic tape loops in the background while the springs provide a metal scraping sound, kind of like the violin on "Religion-3" but with a lot more tremolo. If a violin and spring sound similar on an album then you know you have a master noise maker at hand.
The final track, "NS-500", is a full on free jazz jam that clocks in at 8 minutes, the longest on the B-side. The standard lineup of bass, drums, guitar and tenor saxophone are on display here, with the addition of Otomo playing with toys. The bass is easily the loudest thing in the mix, and it is some very solid playing indeed. The drumming is very energetic, constant rolls and fills throughout the whole thing, the guitar is for the most part random plucking similar to the earlier "Guitar Solo", and the saxophone is very Zorn-esque indeed, piercing highs and squeals that sound like a dying pig. The toys can occasionally be heard but for the most part are drowned out by the drums and noise. The closest comparison is the Ground Zero debut, but a lot noisier and with fewer instrumentation, and without the vocals of our beloved Yamatsuka Eye. Still, a great free jazz jam. For those that looked for more stuff akin to live Ground Zero however, this will definitely please your ears.
A very grainy album that shows us what the 80s sounded like with Otomo, combining a few jazz jams with straight up noise, this is probably the best we are going to get of that for a while. Until his early tapes get rereleased, this will stand as the finest document of a young and crazy Otomo who has yet to fully develop his techniques, but there is an undeniable charm to this whole tape that makes it more than a novelty and rather a very enjoyable listen. If you heard 'We Insist?', and wanted to hear what Otomo was doing years before any of that was recorded, give this album a go. It will not disappoint. [SOURCE: RATE YOUR MUSIC]
Totally off the wall album, and easily the most experimental release on Object Music. A collage of taped fragments encompassing folk, blues, jazz, field recordings and pure noise. Like a lo-fi 'Faust Tapes' minus the songs or the rock element, glued together with clunky cassette pause-button edits. An acquired taste, but excellent, bizarre stuff. [SOURCE: DISCOGS]
500 copies. Label press release stated: "A collage of improvisations full frequency claustrophobic sound."
Salvaged and edited at Graveyard Sounds, Prestwich, from rough tapes and cassettes.
No Safety was a New York based progressive rock band formed by harpist, pianist, and accordionist Zeena Parkins, formally of Skeleton Crew and News From Babel and featuring avant-rock great Tim Hodgkinson. The band also included guitarists Chris Cochrane and Doug Seidel, bassist Ann Rupel, and drummer Pippin Branett. They released this first album, 'This Lost Leg', in 1989 before being joined by DJ David Shea for their second album, 'Spill' in 1992. The band also released a split with The Flying Luttenbachers in 1994 before disbanding. With their intricate drum-heavy sound and catchy vocals they are a band not to be missed, with a sound most similar to that of the also great Dog Faced Hermans. [SOURCE: PROG ARCHIVES]
Label: RecRec Music – RecRec 25
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: Switzerland
Released: 1989
Style: Avantgarde, Post-Punk, Avant-Prog, Art Punk, Brutal Prog
Robert Randall and Frank Bendinelli's "Spaces" video art suite is based on recreating in video a set of well-known Australian modernist paintings by artists like Grace Cossington Smith, John Brack and Fred Williams. In each case, Robert and Frank brought a wry tongue-in-cheek approach to utilizing the then-still-new medium of video. Their agenda was to 'translate' the paintings by importing and transposing them into the realm of chromo-key, RGB and studio lighting.
The brief given Philip Brophy for the required music was to match these 'video paintings' with background music which could play continually without any fixed beginning or end. Philip's tracks are generally minimalist in vein, with strong traces of all key → ↑ → preferences: Muzak, disco and electronics. Robert and Frank were keen to reflect the → ↑ → aesthetic world and its punk/new-wave stylistics. The 6th video "Expressive Space" recreates in hyper-graphic mode Philip and Maria Kozic's house at the time: chock-full of Maria's artworks, her toy collection, and Philip's massive record collection -all of which were filmed and chromo-keyed into the final video. [SOURCE: PHILIPBROPHY.COM]
The No Wave era of NYC was a short, dark flash of energy that was extinguished almost as soon as it was noticed. It happened so goddamn fast that if you missed the imaginal cut-off for inclusion by a few weeks, you were forever written out of the picture. The Hi Sheriffs were just outside our temporal markers, despite the fact they'd played Tier 3, the Mudd Club and everywhere you'd think would matter. But look, they were as second gen No Wave as The Raybeats, Bush Tetras and 8 Eyed Spy. Shit moved fast. The fact that the Hi Sheriffs were devolved from The Girls did not mean shit. They were perhaps only weeks too late to make the No Wave cut (something they'd immediately wanted to hit after The Girls played Tier 3 with Basquiat's band, Gray). They were like a crazed version of DNA playing the blues. Even Lydia Lunch liked 'em. She did not record with them until later but even she knew she was beyond No Wave at the point of 8 Eyed Spy. It was a weirdly specific scene in many ways. But sonically, it bore lots of fruit. And one of the first, best and most blues-wailingest of its proponents was the Hi Sheriffs Of Blue. [SOURCE: BOOMKAT]
Skeptics were a New Zealand post-punk band from 1979 to 1990. They became notorious in 1987 for an unusually graphic music video entitled "AFFCO". Skeptics' first recording appeared in 1982 on 'The Furtive Four Three Piece Pack', a 12" compilation EP which also featured The Bongos, The Dabs and The Prime Movers. They toured New Zealand on the Furtive Records "Three Piece Pack" tour. The tour was to be followed by a five track EP, 'Pyronnists Selections' which was to be released on Propeller Records, Furtive's parent label, but the master tape was stolen from the Propeller office and the EP was never released.
In 1983, Skeptics released the EP 'Chowder Over Wisconsin', recorded live in a school library. From 1983-1984 they ran their own club, thanks to support from the City Council arts centre, in a former electrical warehouse in Palmerston North. They named the club Snailclamps after a chalk inscription they found in the warehouse, "C164 Snail Clamps". Initially the venue ran as an underage hangout but became a fully licensed venue not long after, until the band decided to pack up and relocate to Wellington. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
