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LP+CD
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SPITTLE 091LP
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Spittle Records present a reissue of The Work's Slow Crimes, originally released in 1982. From the heart of the late '70s/early '80s British underground scene, an extraordinary album at the very edge between art-rock and punk. The Work were a full electric band featuring Tim Hodgkinson, his very first project after the seminal experience of Henry Cow, and three younger maverick figures from the London underground scene. Guitarist Bill Gilonis (The Lowest Note, News from Babel, The Hat Shoes), bassist Mick Hobbs (Officer!, Half Japanese), and drummer Rick Wilson (Family Fodder). The Work embodies the crucial step between two unrepeatable decades in music. An unprecedented mixture of rock complexity and punk attitude. Unapologetically raw and direct, Slow Crimes, The Work's first album originally released in 1982, stands as one of the most essential and uncompromising pieces of vinyl in the field of experimental rock. This edition comes in printed inner sleeve with unpublished pictures and various memorabilia; Includes CD containing the album along with four extra tracks, three of which are from The Work's first and only 7", including the anthemic "I Hate America".
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LP + 7"
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MEGA 026LP
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First vinyl reissue of 1982's Slow Crimes by The Work. Reissued on CD with bonus tracks by Megaphone in 1991, Slow Crimes is a little-known treasure of transformative magnitude. The Work were formed in 1979 by saxophonist Tim Hodgkinson (following the dissolution of Henry Cow), guitarist Bill Gilonis, bassist Mick Hobbs, and drummer Rick Wilson, although Slow Crimes showcases each member on a variety of instruments. Also featured is Catherine Jauniaux on guest vocals throughout the album. The Work's inaugural LP release, Slow Crimes is so rabidly articulate that it presides over and resides in a world very much unto itself. While falling within the loosest guidelines of "post-punk," the term is a misnomer, for the textural intricacies and distinct deliberacy throughout Slow Crimes bespeak both an utterly unique collective identity and a startling fluency with its own language. It takes the vibrant urgency of punk rock and catalyzes it into a continually fascinating mosaic. This reissue includes a bonus 7" with concurrent compilation tracks "Anxious About Meaning" and "One Swallow."
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CD
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ADHOC 022CD
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"Any album by The Work is difficult to categorize, or to pigeon-hole. The band's output has been labelled everything from 'post-punk' to 'acid jazz', and yet any sort of classification just doesn't seem to do the music justice. The approach seems to exhibit the complexity of progressive rock, whilst throwing that aesthetic to the dogs, in lieu of assimilating the energy and power of early punk. The Work were among the first few post-Henry Cow bands to purposefully break their own mould in an attempt to conquer new ground, thus creating music that seems more comfortable resting on a bed of nails than precious laurels. See was the final The Work album to be issued during the band's lifetime. It showcased some of the very best material of their later years, and a penchant to move into a different, more mature setting. The electronic experimentation here perfectly meshes with post-punk appeals and terrorist-like energy, giving the listener plenty of reasons to be drawn-in to their psychotic world of extremes. Each instrument plays perfectly off of the others to send everything, 'somewhere else', whilst somehow holding together perfectly amidst some fiendish, 'white knuckler' time relations. Though the vocals on this album were more 'sung' than 'shrieked' (as evidenced on their earliest recordings), the instrumental parts, especially the drumming, keep the group in line with its radically apparent love for showcasing a primal approach. This has been out-of-print for a number of years, so it's great to have it back again."
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CD
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ADHOC 036CD
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"The 4th World is the band's long-lost, never before issued, very last album, from 1994. Succeeding See by some two years, it shares that album's aesthetics and approach -- an economy of means, and superior song-writing/playing -- even when compared to their earlier albums. One wouldn't guess it was recorded live at a gig in Breisgau, because the sound is, quite honestly, superlative, and is even better than any of their studio albums. The original, mono recordings (by Volkmar Miedtke) were meticulously reprocessed into stereo years later by Udi Koomran, and the sound has really been, 'opened up'. The playing itself is also powerful and thoughtful. Especially important is the fact that only two of the twenty songs on this disc were released on previous albums, thus making The Work's entire catalog finally complete, and now wholly in print."
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CD
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ADHOC 014CD
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"This new edition of Rubber Cage is Ad Hoc Records' definitive digital reissue of The Work's third full-length release. These are powerful recordings of the band's most densely composed material, musically akin to another of their classics, Slow Crimes, but honed into even more mature fashion. (The band had broken up after a tour of Japan in 1982, and reformed for this record 7 years later. In the interim, each of the musicians' talents and compositional abilities had grown by leaps and bounds). This album was a new beginning for The Work, and set them off in a slightly different direction than they had previously employed: much of the energy of this music came from the sheer 'tenseness' of the compositions; they didn't need to bludgeon the ears to get the point across. Besides collecting what could arguably be their most finely crafted songs, this disk best displays the group's unusual sense of individual soloing: the singularly-plucked cello during 'Dangerfish,' and the free-form piano of 'Jay,' both seem to be the intrinsic opposite of the musical settings they embellish. Capturing such disparate approaches sets up a dichotomy of styling throughout this exceedingly intense album, offering startling (and usually brutal) results."
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CD
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ADHOC 015CD
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"This disc is Ad Hoc Records' definitive digital release of the first album by the English underground band, The Work. Originally issued on vinyl in 1982, this music, along with that of compatriots This Heat and Unrest Work & Play, set the stage for a unique type of new British Invasion; one that seemed to absorb the complexity and slickness of progressive rock, whilst throwing its aesthetics to the dogs, in lieu of the energy and power of early punk. The Work were amongst the first few to purposefully break their own mold in an attempt to break new ground, concomitantly creating music that seems more comfortable resting on a bed of nails than precious laurels. The brutal tone and sonic approach of that first recording held over into the Slow Crimes sessions, recorded the next year. The drums are primal, and hold the entire band together in a polyrhythmic way that was, at the time, unheard-of in punk music. The vocals are offered unapologetically, sometimes in semi-screams of anguish and insolence. The guitars & bass chug along, daring the listener to tap their foot in time to regain one's bearings. Over it all is the collective penchant to add experimental noise, to further a state of shock. The group worked tirelessly within these guidelines on the road for 2 years before disbanding, only to reform some seven years later, releasing two additional and equally excellent albums."
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CD
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ADHOC 013CD
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"By 1982 drummer Rick Wilson had left The Work to study Katakali in India, and bassist Mick Hobbs followed shortly afterwards over disagreements about what the group should be playing. The remainder of the band then asked Amos (bass) and Chris Cutler (drums) to join them for a tour of Japan that had already been scheduled before the breakup. Together with sound engineer Chris Gray, the group flew there in June to play three concerts in Tokyo and one in Osaka. The recording that became Live in Japan was taken at the Osaka concert, the only one on the tour that was recorded. A Japan-only release followed (on Recommended Records Japan), which has been out of print for over 20 years and is virtually impossible to find anywhere. This disc re-issues the concert for the first time, adding the extremely rare, red flexi-disc, live version of the classic, 'I Hate America,' as a bonus track. This is a different and extremely in-your-face version of The Work, made more so by the original processing of the (cassette) recording, which brought everything to the front of the mix, accentuating every hit and roar." Performers: Tim Hodgkinson, Amos, Bill Gilonis, Chris Cutler.
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