This Heat – This Heat

Description

They went beyond punk before punk had properly startedthe entire album is acontrolled explosion of ideas. Nearly fifty years on, This Heats debut is somethingthe world has still not completely caught up with. – Simon Reynolds

Over the years, there have been bands to play as aggressively, or even asstrangely, but very few have been able to rise from their collective influences andhistories to create music so singularly distinctive and inspiring. Pitchfork 9/10

This Heat sounded like the future then … and still do now. – Dan Snaith(Caribou)

Although widely considered to be Post-Punks finest, This Heat actually began
performing and recording their music in 1976, the early days of Londons punk era.Within their two albums and an EP they perfected a strange and volatile new strainof avant-garde rock that time has proved to be massively influential, a blueprint formuch that would follow: post-rock, math rock, homemade musique concrte,experimental electronica.

Numerous critics have recognised the band’s influence on the music of SonicYouth, Glenn Branca, Steven Wilson, Public Image Ltd., Radiohead, Swans,Shellac, Young Knives, Black Dice, Lightning Bolt and numerous otherexperimental and post-rock bands. Disbanding in 1982 they have left an undeniablelegacy that has only continued to grow in stature and relevance.

The album This Heat, also known to fans and critics as the Blue and Yellow, wastheir eponymous debut release, recorded in sessions between February 1976 andSeptember 1978 in a variety of studios including their own Cold Storage, aconverted cold storage room in the Acme Studios complex. Innovating throughout,they combined loops and tape manipulation (producing for example the proto-drumand bass 24 Track Loop) with live performance and haunting vocals to a complex,dissonant whole. The band recorded everything they ever did including gigs andtracks such as Water were entirely improvised in the studio.

Having recently passed the 50 year anniversary of their first gig, and the recordingof material that appears on their debut album, the groups surviving membersCharles Bullen and Charles Hayward, true to their DIY roots, have set up an imprintto release their recordings for their growing fan base that is increasingly recognisingtheir influential place in music history.

Tracklist

1. Testcard
2. Horizontal Hold
3. Not Waving
4. Water
5. TwilightFurniture
6. 24 Track Loop
7. Diet of Worms
8. Music Like Escaping Gas
9.Rainforest
10. The Fall of Saigon
11. Testcard (Locked Groove)