These New Puritans - Numerology (AKA Numbers) (Angular/Domino, 2008)

Edgy, angular post-punk.

These New Puritans have yet to receive widespread acclaim but have turned in a couple of great albums so far. 'Numerology' is a slice of widescreen post-punk that fuses Gang Of Four martial shrillness with an epic chorus.

It opens with an ominous, restrained drumming before clipped guitars and percussive clattering joins in. The vocals are barked and the overall effect is one of veiled threat and menace. The chorus bursts across the soundfield with spirals of delayed guitar before paring back to the terse verse.

Download These New Puritans 'Numerology (AKA Numbers)' (Post Punk, mp3) (Divshare)

Tom Tom Club - (You Don't Ever Stop) Wordy Rappinghood (Island, 1981)

Lovely dubbed-out version.

Totally unclassifiable slice of alternative dancefloor joy. This b-side dub version let's the groove breathe, adding refractions of the keyboard squiggles, backing vocals and the chikka-chikka guitar to stunning effect.

Download Tom Tom Club '(You Don't Ever Stop) Wordy Rappinghood' (mp3) (Divshare)

Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (Drop Out Orchestra Rework) (2012)

Another tasty Drop Out Orchestra remix.

Talking Heads' 'Psycho Killer' given a gentle, rolling chilled House makeover.

Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (Old Grey Whistle Test, 1978)

Lumpy but thrilling live version.

Major props to Tina Weymouth whose primitive but perfectly-judged bass propels this live version of 'Psycho Killer' forwards before taking centre stage in a Krautrock jam of a coda which has to be heard.

A great Talking Heads song, of course, but where this version loses a little in terms of razor sharpness, it gains massively in terms of the interplay between the guitars and the aforementioned Can-tastic coda where the drums cut loose and David Byrne almost pops the top button on his polo shirt.

Download Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (Old Grey Whistle Test, 1978, Talking Heads mp3) (Divshare)

Grace Jones - Private Life (Dub Version) (Island, 1980)

Langorous. Echoplexed. Genius.

Very much enjoying the 'Compass Point Sessions' album at the moment. This gem of dubbed-out tension really stands out amongst some wonderful tracks.

Taut, damped guitar is juxtaposed against burbling synths, pattering rhythm, poised bass and ricochet-ing rimshots.

It's a prowling, febrile track that is at beautiful odds with Grace Jones' calm, controlled, dispassionate vocal. Classic.

Download Grace Jones - Private Life (Dub Version) (Island, 1980)

A Certain Ratio - Do The Du (Peel Session) (1979)

Early ACR stiff-funk.

Obviously, the proximity of Joy Division to A Certain Ratio in the Factory family suggests connections and comparisons. However, this really is like euphoric, loose-limbed take on Joy Division's post-punk.

'Do The Du' is lithe and sexy like a peephole overcoat, betraying the love of Northern Soul that would see them cover 'Shack Up'. However, it also has an angularity that places them in the post-punk egg of the musical Venn Diagram and leads us to the flat voweled funk of New Fast Automatic Daffodils.

This Peel Session version has a roughed-up edge and added looseness compared to the strictures of the album version. Twitch along.

Download A Certain Ratio - Do The Du (Peel Session) (1979)

Grace Jones - She's Lost Control (Long Version) (Joy Division Cover) (Island, 1980)

Sultry Joy Division gone dub action.
 
The pallid, skeletal angst of Joy Division's 'She's Lost Control' is given a blast of Vitamin D by Sly & Robbie on an unlikely Carribbean holiday and stretched out even further across this aptly named "Long Version".

Grace Jones' detached, aloof vocals are a perfect match for the detachment of Ian Curtis' lyric and the tune bumps along on a delicious dubby skank.

Download Grace Jones - She's Lost Control (Long Version) (Joy Division Cover, Dub, mp3) (Divshare)

Simple Minds - Film Theme (Virgin, 1979)

Early Simple Minds mood piece.

It has, of course, become something of a truism to big-up Simple Minds' early work and say how good they were before went to America and started doing the stadium rock thing.

However, when they were knocking out moody, austere little homages to David Bowie's 'Low' like this instrumental, it's hard to disagree.

Download Simple Minds - Film Theme (Post Punk, mp3) (Box.net)

Siouxsie & The Banshees - Happy House (Demo) (1980)

Harder, early version of one of Siouxsie and the Banshees' finest moments.

Spiralling guitar and thumping drums present and correct, just less spangle and polish than the version that ended up on the 'Kaleidoscope' album and as a single.

Edgy and direct, this is Siouxsie and the Banshees at their frantic, twitchy, bewitching best.

Download Siouxsie & The Banshees 'Happy House (Demo)' (indie, alternative, Goth, Post-Punk mp3) (Mediafire)

Talking Heads 'Once In A Lifetime (Same As It Never Was) (Liquid People Dub)' (White Label, 2001)

Classic Talking Heads re-rubbed for the discerning dancefloor.

This take on on of Talking Heads' finest moments builds on the perpetual motion of the original with heavy filtering on the vocals, a nice repetitive 'blip', a lithe deep house rhythm.

Top piece of remix business.

Download Talking Heads 'Once In A Lifetime (Same As It Never Was) (Liquid People Dub)' (post punk, alternative, remix, mp3) (Mediafire)

Siouxsie & The Banshees 'Cities In Dust (12" Extended Eruption Mix)' (Polydor, 1985)

Shimmering, swirling piece of prime Banshees. Extended.

Classic Banshees, from their great 'Tinderbox' album.

I was a bit late to see how original and important Siouxsie and the Banshees were in combining rhythm, melody and moodiness. I can hear their influence in everyone from The xx to The Horrors to Blouse.

Great stuff.

Download Siouxsie & The Banshees 'Cities In Dust (12" Extended Eruption Mix)' (post-punk mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Tortoise 'As You Said (Joy Division cover)' (Hut, 1995) (mp3)

Respectfully spartan and metronomic Joy Division tribute by the Tortoise 'lads'.

A lo-fi guitar opens with a puttering, drum machine marking out a steady pace before evolving into a more recognisably Tortoise-ish burble and glitch. It's the Tortoise of 'Djed' and Luke Vibert remixes rather than the melifluous, deep brown stuff. The vibe is kept instrumental and mysterious.

Post-Punk meets Post-Rock.

Download Tortoise 'As You Said' (mp3) (Mediafire)

Playgroup 'Make It Happen (Radio Edit)' (Source, 2000)

Edgy, sultry post-punk-infused dancefloor mayhem.

Despite making a solid gold classic album of edgy Hoxton punky funk, there was sadly to be only one proper album from Playgroup aka Output Records head-honch Trevor Jackson.

'Make It Happen' was the first taster from it, a sweaty but elegant, passionate but detached, sleek but dirty insistent groover. It's up there with the best records Jackson put out on Output - early LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture and Blackstrobe's 'Me and Madonna'.

Tasty.

Download Playgroup 'Make It Happen (Radio Edit)' (punk funk mp3) (Mediafire)

Green Man 2011: 2:54 'On A Wire' (House Anxiety, 2011)

Low-slung, edgy post-punk-ish stuff from East London duo.

'On A Wire' was 2:54's debut single earlier this year. They have the 'honour' of being the first in a series of posts celebrating this year's Green Man Festival which I'm looking forward to hitting this weekend. Fingers crossed for the weather.

'On A Wire' rumbles along on some low-slung bass and edgy-then-firey guitar. The twin vocals of sisters Hannah and Collette Thurlow set the song off moodily. B-side 'Cold Front' is less controlled, the chorus swooning and dramatic.

Ones to watch (Far Out stage, Saturday afternoon).

Download 2:54 'On A Wire' (alternative, indie mp3) (via The Fader)

Download 2:54 'Cold Front' (alternative, indie mp3) (Mediafire)

Codeine 'Atmosphere (Joy Division cover)' (Hut, 1995)

Stately, austere Post Rock cover of Joy Division's stately, austere Post Punk classic.

Codeine dealt in the slowest of the slow in Post Rock terms, releasing a handful of records in the early 1990s on Sub Pop. (NB. For me, the 'Barely Real' EP is a must-have.) Their songs oozed across the vinyl, catching you out with their almost hesitant poise.

The idea of Codeine covering one of Joy Division's most funereal moments makes you think that the track is going to reach a kind of absolute zero musical state, its atoms ceasing to oscillate. They don't play it like that though, instead it's a processional but respectful reading that stands alongside Low's version of 'Transmission' from the same cover album.

It's a much more skeletal version than the original's warm, comforting wash, finding a respectful but alternative angle which occasionally pauses, as if to reflect on the words' portents. Some bare, gently over-driven guitar wraps it up.

Download Codeine 'Atmosphere' (mp3) (Mediafire)

Friendly Fires 'Jump In The Pool (Live at Glastonbury)' (2011) (mp3 download)

One of the highlights of a glorious live set from the band that bring the Rio Carnival to the indie disco.

Friendly Fires' Glastonbury set mixed old favourites and new tracks from the 'Pala' album. Nine songs from the set available over on Archive: Live and Rare mp3s.

Download Friendly Fires 'Jump In The Pool' (mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Low 'Transmission (Joy Division Cover)' (Hut, 1995)

Low turn the aggression and energy of Joy Division's 'Transmission' into a reverent hymn to the power of radio.

Released on the 'Means To An End' compilation - which also featured contributions from Codeine, Tortoise, Moby and Girls Against Boys - Low apply their slow-pass filter which gives the song air and eerie resonance. This approach gives the bass, guitar and drums chance to breath and reflect. The bass and guitar, especially, can ring out through the air, a strangely appropriate tribute to the effect of broadcast sound.

Low's treatment is starkly different to the original but it works perfectly. Especially in the quiet hours of a Sunday morning.

Download Low 'Transmission' (mp3) (Mediafire)

!!! (Chk Chk Chk) 'Me and Guiliani Down by the School Yard (A True Story)' (Touch and Go/Warp, 2003) (mp3)

A monstrous piece of funked-up party madness from the impossibly named !!! (apparently to be pronounced as "Chk Chk Chk or any three hard sounds").

There's cowbell, there's a unrelentingly funky bassline, there's choppy guitar and there's an almost whispered vocal, setting up a juggernaut of post-punk-funk.

I guess it's fair to say that in the way !!! have obviously heard PIL or Pigbag or A Certain Ratio, Friendly Fires have definitely heard this 2003 classic. LCD Soundsystem were listening too.

The intensity is built and maintained over nine minutes through an angry pulsating chorus, a strung-out almost shoegazey section with shimmering delayed guitar, a tight, tight breakdown before hitting an outro of just drums and accapella vocals. It's structured like a club track, building, breaking down, building again, breaking down and then going mental.

Available to buy - you know, with money - on their Warp debut UK album 'Louden Up Now'.


Download !!! (Chk Chk Chk) 'Me and Guiliani Down by the School Yard (A True Story)' (mp3) (Mediafire)

The Rakes '22 Grand Job (7" Single Version)' (V2, 2005) (mp3)

Genius post-punky jerky-pop for wage slaves everywhere.

One hundred and seven seconds is all it took for The Rakes to introduce me to their world and lead me on to the equally brilliant 'Capture/Release' album. It's all straightahead drums, clanging basslines, earworm guitar riffs and wonderful sardonic tales of Alan Donohoe's mundane 9-to-5 life before indie pop stardom.

Download The Rakes '22 Grand Job (Single Version)' (mp3) (Mediafire)

Shellac 'The Guy Who Invented Fire (Live at All Tomorrow's Parties, 2002)'

Does music get much more aggressive than this? Louder, yes, faster, yes, but more aggressive, I don't think so. Shellac are masters of lucid, focused fury and this is a marvelous example of their work.

This live version of 'The Guy Who Invented Fire' was recorded at All Tomorrow's Parties in 2002. They curated the festival that year, playing three times over the course of the weekend and inducting me and my fellow post-rockers into the wonders of ATP and a whole heap of great bands. Shellac also managed to find enough money in the budget to give everyone who attended a set of three CDs featuring tracks by all the bands playing that weekend. A very nice touch.

On 'The Guy Who Invented Fire' Steve Albini's guitar is like razorwire, Bob Weston's bass is seismic and Todd Trainer's drums are monumental. Fuck knows what the song's about though.

Awesome.

Download Shellac 'The Guy Who Invented Fire (Live at ATP 2002' (mp3) (Box)