Jon Savage’s Post-Punk C-90
Post Punk has become one of those hindsight terms that all too narrowly defines what actually occurred in the period at issue: 1977-81. There is no doubt that High Punk was incredibly liberating to rock obsessives, avant-gardists and the standard pop mix of the inspired, the visionary, the banal and the bandwagon jumper but true diversity began when it waned. Although the term is now used to describe a kind of strangulated Punk Funk, Post Punk actually meant that you could do anything you wanted to and Do It Yourself, if only for one 45 or one handmade cassette.
The late 70′s were therefore marked by an extraordinary outpouring of music: whether it be No Wave, Electronic, Industrial, Punk Funk, Punk Disco, Anarcho-Punk, or Mutant Psychedelia, never mind New Wave, Two Tone, Power Pop, the Mod Revival, Disco, Boogie and Pop. This diversity was predicated on the energy of Punk and its willingness to break conventions; it was made structurally possible by many UK and US independent labels which, alongside supportive fans and writers, made it possible to experiment and gain an audience.
In those years, everything was up for grabs: gender and sexual identities, media practice, the audience/ performer relationship, even the nature of consumer capitalism and its social organisation. At the same time, much of Post Punk – reacting to the monetarist social engineering of the New Right – practised a kind of New Austerity. With Punk darkness internalised into a vague but very definite sense of dread, Post Punk could be grim – until you noticed the funk/ disco rhythms (the return of the body) and allowed yourself to admit a psychological complexity that now does not exist in popular culture.
This CD/ Cassette can be heard as a companion volume to the excellent Rough Trade Shops compilation, “Post Punk 01″ (Mute Records). It takes a slightly more tortuous route, but each cut has its own unarguable internal logic. Apologies to those who didn’t make the edit, including the Residents, This Heat, Rema Rema, Robert Rental and Thomas Leer, Young Marble Giants, Josef K, Kleenex/ LiLiPUT, impLOG, Manicured Noise and Section 25 among many others. You want a world full of weirdos? You got’ em.
SIDE 1
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Pere Ubu, Street Waves
(released Hearthan single late 1976; UK release on “The Modern Dance” LP, (Blank/ Polygram), spring 1978)
Filtering over as an import just as Punk was stagnating in autumn 1977, Pere Ubu’s third single offerred clear contrails to the future: rocking very hard and earthy at the same time as Allen Ravenstine’s synthesiser, blowing like the wintry wind off Lake Erie, opened up a new kind of urban space. Post-industrial decay could be liberating. You could surf through the gaps, a lesson not ignored by Mancunians in general and Joy Division in particular.
(Currently available, Datapanik in the Year Zero (Geffen 5xCD box) -
The Screamers, Peer Pressure
(Recorded April 1977 but never released)
These kingpins of the early LA punk scene hit on a high concept – synthesisers with chunky live drums and punk/ Performance Art vocals – that was way ahead of its time. ‘Peer Pressure” is an early classic, a 70′s update of the Seeds’ “Pushin’ Too Hard” with abrasive synth throbs and pointed lyrics about that perennial teen problem. Inspirational verse: ‘Everywhere I look/ I get pressure from my peers/ Some of them are straight/ And some of them are queer’.
(Currently available: not. Could somebody please act?) -
Devo, Sloppy (live)
(Recorded at the Mabuhay in San Francisco, August 1977)
Before Devo had a UK record out, the word of mouth on them was incredible: endorsements from Iggy Pop and David Bowie, and a live tape that for energy and passion shreds anything else they ever did. ‘Sloppy” features Mark Mothersbaugh barking like a dog, while the guitars punch out a post-psychedelic riff so killer that, according to the Sleepers’ guitarist, Michael Belfer, seeing them was ‘like being on acid, but in a good sense’.
(Currently available: not. Could somebody please act?) -
Chrome, Chromosome Damage
(Released on Siren Records lp “Alien Soundtracks” 1977)
Another example of the weirdos that rushed out of the closet into the space opened up by Punk. San Francisco’s Chrome were strictly science fiction, with great montage graphics and a well-integrated mix of garage rock and spooky synthesiser drones. “Chromosome Damage” cuts up these two separate elements into a driving piece of motorik that would not have been out of place on “Neu! 75″.
(Currently available: -
Suicide, Ghost Rider
(Released on “Suicide”, Red Star 1977)
Another great example of night-drive-transmat for those restless city surfers so well niched by Iggy on “The Passenger”. The opening track on Suicide’s classic first album, “Ghost Rider” sets out their stall: Alan Vega’s rockabilly-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown vocals meshing with Martin Rev’s breathy synthesiser loops. Casually confrontational moment: ‘America, America is killing its youth’.
(Currently available on Blast First CD) -
The Normal, T.V.O.D
(Released on Mute single 1978)
The flip of the Ballardian “Warm Leatherette” (later covered by disco diva Grace Jones), “T.V.O.D.” takes the premise of media addiction/ saturation so well visualised in “The Man Who Fell To Earth” to its logical conclusion. ‘I don’t need a TV screen’, intones Daniel Miller, ‘I just stick the aerial into my skin’, and then backs it up with super-tuff electronica, TV samples, and a final burst of white noise.
(Currently available: -
Throbbing Gristle, United
(Released as Industrial single spring 1978)
A major switch from the murky electronics of debut album “Second Annual Report”, “United” was the first of many TG exper-iments in electro-disco and remains the finest, if only for the generosity of its sentiment (the psychic fusion of lovers) and Genesis P-Orridge’s Syd Barrett croon. Psychedelia for a new age.
(Currently available, “The Second Annual Report”, Mute/The Grey Area) -
Eno & Snatch, R.A.F
(Released on Polydor single 1978: b-side of “King’s Lead Hat”)
Backing Eno’s anagrammatic tribute to Talking Heads, “R.A.F.” meshes monstrous funk bass with a German broadcast about Baader/ Meinhof and a brilliant mise-en-scene by Judy Nylon and Patti Palladin. There they are in the hi-jacked plane, moaning about the discomfort and worrying about how they’ll look in the liberation photos. Existential angst on repeat: ‘do you think anyone’s worried about you?’
(Currently available on, “Brian Eno: Vocal” 3xCD box) -
The Slits, F.M.
(Recorded for John Peel session April 1978)
“FM” captures the balance of ambition and competence – ie shooting for something just out of your reach – that made much of Post Punk so exciting. Palmolive’s massive, tribal drums and Viv Albertine’s angular guitar riff sets up super-sharp lyrics (written by Palmolive) about media penetration of the subconscious: ‘Frequent mutilation/ Transmits over the air/ Serving for the purpose/ Of those who want you to fear’.
(Currently available, “The Peel Sessions” CD (Strange Fruit)) -
Gang Of Four, Love Like Anthrax
(Released on Fast Products single 1978)
“Anthrax” is at once an exciting piece of rock music – with a big funk bassline, tubthumping drums and heavily treated, super LOUD guitar –and a deconstruction of same. Taking a leaf from “Murder Mystery”, the voices of Andy Gill and Jon King simultaneously tell two stories: one carrying the verse/ chorus (‘the things I’m doing aren’t good for my health’), the other offering a detailed commentary on the group’s production techniques. The Post Punk sound in full force.
(Currently available on, “FAST PRODUCT: rigour, discipline and disgust”, EMI CD) -
Subway Sect, Chain Smoking
(Recorded for John Peel Session 1978)
More bad health stuff from the Mk 1 Sect, with their trademark walloping drums, dustbin-lid guitars, and Vic Godard’s Bolan quaver. Defiant in his outsider status, Godard intones a proto-slacker ethic – ‘what’s the use of will, concentration’ – that would see the group disappear with only a handful of songs to their name. Somewhere, a whole 1978 album lies gathering dust, one of the period’s great lost artefacts.
(Currently available on: Motion Records CD ?) -
Siouxsie And The Banshees, Nicotine Stains
(Released on Polydor lp “The Scream” 1978)
The Ballardian sweep of the Banshees’ first album defined the autumn of 1978 and this celebration of bad habits is its most powerful rocker. This being post punk, the band’s drive is given air by the drop-out that highlights Steve Severin’s pumping bass, John McKay’s swerving guitar and Kenny Morris’ Glitter Band-on-speed drums. With the maitresse on top: just listen to Siouxsie spit ‘I’m so USELESS’, and shiver.
(Currently available on Polydor CD) -
Metal Urbain, Hysterie Connective
(Released on Radar single autumn 45)
Another high concept that works: Stooges fuzz guitar with a rhythm machine, abrasive synthesiser squeals and a vocalist as sarcastic as only the French can be. The follow-up to “Paris Maquis” (Rough Trade’s first single), “Hysterie Connective” is this forgotten group’s finest hour: a relentless rocker that castigates all the usual suspects (the media, non-punks, y’know) with the punchline: ‘c’est trop drole’.
(Currently available: -
The Sleepers, Flying
(Released on Win Records EP 1978)
Thanks to the music industry’s total lack of interest in West Coast punk, the Sleepers hardly made it into the recording studio, leaving this EP, and one later 45 and album to their name. Featuring Ricky Williams’ narcoleptic vocals and Michael Belfer’s abrasively psyche-delic guitar tones, “Flying” captures the fizzing neural spasms of this super-intense, mediumistic group: the US equivalent of Joy Division.
(Currently available, “Seventh World” CD, Tim Kerr Records) -
The Urinals, I’m A Bug
(Released on “Another EP”, Happy Squid Records 1979)
Early kings of Lo-Fi, the Urinals used the Do It Yourself economy to release three killer 45′s. Clattering drums on the edge of ineptitude and the most basic ascending guitar riff announce a raving vocal from the human fly. And do you know what? He’s digging it: ‘I’m a bug/ DDT/ In my breakfast/ Along with tea – yeah!’. Plus, in accordance with an accelerated age, it’s all over in 1’13″.
(Currently available on, “negative capability….check it out!” Amphetamine Reptile CD)
SIDE TWO
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The Prefects, Faults
(Recorded for John Peel Session January 1979)
Birmingham’s finest, the Prefects left only two radio sessions as evidence of their fertile mixture of sarcasm, abrasive textures and rock deconstruction. Like the Velvet-drone “Going Through The Motions”, the extremely brief (1’16″) “Faults” concerns itself with the limitations of the performer/ audience relationship: ‘You don’t wanna hear what went wrong/ Just want to dance to the rock’n roll song’.
(Currently not available: Nightingales compilation?) -
Mars, 3E
(Released Ze 12″ single 1979)
The 1978 release of the Eno produced “No New York” LP introduced the world to the post-CBGB’s generation: the crystalline fragments of early Television mixed with funk, free jazz and downtown art music. Mars epitomised the gender mix of this short-lived movement. Like their eldritch “Helen Forsdale”, “3E” makes little sense outside its relentless, overtoned drive – clanging like a fire engine – but that’s more than enough.
(Currently available: -
The Pop Group, 3’38″
(Released Radar 12″ single 1979)
Their first single, “Beyond Good and Evil”, remains the best harnessing of these teenage Rimbauds’ explosive energy, with a lush Mark Stewart vocal. On this b-side however, Dennis Bovell marshals a totally propulsive dub symphony out of stinging guitars, backwards tapes, constant drums, and massive echo – a manifesto in sound, conducted with a relish and discipline that they would soon lose.
(Currently available: -
A Certain Ratio, All Night Party
(Released on Factory single 1979)
A record so singular that it still sounds bizarre, “All Night Party” sets thrashing guitars against monster bass and a deadpan vocal reporting the violence of everyday life: ‘I work all day/ I drink all night/ My life is just an angry blur’. Despite recording without any percussion, A Certain Ratio (named after the Eno song) hint at the rhythmic obsession that would see them hire drummer Donald Johnson and begin the long journey into dance/ rock fusion.
(Currently available: -
Wire, A Question Of Degree
(Released on Harvest single 1979)
The late 1977 “Pink Flag” was one of the earliest records to trail the post-punk mood but this fairly late non-album single makes the cut for its no-quarter drive, tunefulness, and cousin-of-“Poptones” lyrics, crooned by Colin Newman with exactly the right degree of outraged surprise: ‘I didn’t want a problem/ I didn’t simply fall out/ I was thrown at great speed/ From a passing car’.
(Currently available: -
Talking Heads, Electricity
(Released on Sire album “Fear of Music” 1979)
Now only half-remembered, Talking Heads were very influential in their Eno-produced phase. If “More Songs About Buildings and Food” successfully integrated dance rhythms with CBGB’s attitude, their third album “Fear of Music” – which made many year-end ‘best of’ lists – refined both into a kind of purity. Originally entitled “Drugs”, “Electricity” abstracts punk and funk into a masterpiece of edgy ambience. Key line: ‘nobody knows what they’re talking about’.
(Currently available: Sire Records CD) -
The Human League, Dignity Of Labour Pt 3
(Released as Fast Records 12″ “The Dignity of Labour” 1979)
“Being Boiled” gets all the attention, but their second release – now forgotten – contained four slices of ground-breaking electronica: melodic pulses and loops that made the perfect soundtrack for motoring through the night. The late seventies were a great time for synthetic music, and this early slice of propulsive ambience offers a possible direction that would not be fully explored for 15 years.
(Currently available on, “FAST PRODUCT: rigour, discipline and disgust”, EMI CD) -
Cabaret Voltaire, Partially Submerged
(Released on Rough Trade album “The Voice of America” 1980)
Like the above, this would now be considered as ambient or illbient: a clarinet loop treated, time-stretched and overlaid with found bird sound etc into a pure instrumental – one of CV’s last total experiments in sound. Early analogue synths had a warmth which allied to their grunginess made for a listening experience both harsh and comforting: like Snake Pass in winter, seen from a warm car.
(Currently available on, “The Voice of America” Mute/ Grey Area CD) -
Joy Division, These Days
(Released as the B-side of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” Factory Records spring 1980)
Bookended by a bubbling synthesiser loop, this live favourite epitomises the internal tension that made Joy Division so great, between Ian Curtis’ guilt-torn, bruised lyrics, Martin Hannett’s ambient production, and the sheer disco-derived pleasure of the group’s late incarnation. With its uncanny valediction – ‘we’ll drift through it all, it’s the modern age/ take care of it all now, these debts are paid’ – “These Days” hints at a future brutally curtailed.
(Currently available on, “Heart and Soul” box set, London Records) -
The Flying Lizards, Hands 2 Take
(Released on Virgin Records lp “The Fourth Wall” 1981)
After his de/reconstruction of the old beat warhorse “Money” – top five in 1979 – David Cunningham regrouped the Flying Lizards for a second album, “The Fourth Wall”, that fused the avant-garde, electronic ambience, and world music into a lost classic. “Hands 2 Take” features Michael Nyman and nine other musicians soundtracking Patti Palladin in fearsome, wise-cracking form: ‘sitting down, not standing/ Is a common dwarf disguise’.
(Currently available only on Japanese CD: could someone please act?) -
Public Image Limited, Home Is Where The Heart Is
(Released on B-side of “Flowers of Romance”, Virgin 12″ 1981)
Like Joy Division’s “Autosuggestion” and impLOG’s “Holland Tunnel Dive” (both over six minutes), this epic psychodrama invited you to submerge in sound. Built around a positively architectural bass line from Jah Wobble (his last performance with the group) “Home…” is both psychedelic (with dub drums and heavily treated guitar) and confrontational, as John Lydon – in one of his most expressive vocals – self-combusts in suburbia. PiL would never be as great again.
(Currently available on Virgin CD, “Flowers of Romance”). -
Orange Juice, Poor Old Soul Pt2
(Released on Postcard Records 45, 1981)
Suddenly, the curtains are thrown open. Stealing the Subway Sect/Slits Post Punk chant ‘no more rock’n roll for you’ – Orange Juice transcend the genre with their Chic bounce, camp cheek, and critique of cynicism: ‘I’m tattered and torn/ So tired to see you how sick you’ve grown’. It’s 1981, and New Pop is waiting in the wings.
(Currently available ?)