DECEIT

Second album from this incredible trio, which does a mix of RIO and "musique concrète" (almost industrial) and is obviously one of the tougher groups present in this database to get into. If you can believe it, this album is easy, but only compared to the rest of their discography. The group actually use the song format on this album: there are obvious rhythms, and even semblance of melodies, although my guess is that as a "normal proghead" (one that listens to average prog in the sense of symphonic), if you were to try out this album, you'd probably call the loony bin to reserve a spot for this writer. But I wouldn't call this pop music either, but somehow, we are not that far away from Killing Joke and other more "obtuse" (in a good way) and experimental bands of the early 80's.

Clearly taking where Faust had left it (especially with Tapes), TH is using tapes for a good part of their music, a bit as nowadays many just sample sounds, but as opposed to their previous recording, vocals are very present in this album and again one thinks of KJ, but as you'll easily guess, TH is a much more aesthetic band. Hayward's drumming is still the centre of the sound, and may be the best instrumentalist of the group. Bullen (who was never a musician before this band) is making good progress, while both he and Hayward play some guitar and this clearly adds a dimension as evident on the Independence track, which is the highlight of this disc. Probably one of the better albums out of England that year, it certainly sounds its era, but compared to the new wave groups that were flooding the airwaves, TH buries them all.

Should you really want to investigate This Heat, this album is the place to start, but as I stopped with this album, I wouldn't know with further albums are in the same direction. This only thing I can tell you is that this is far from their previous recordings (this includes their debut, but the Repeat album made of recordings prior to their first album). In either case, this album is the one I prefer from this group.

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