HEALTH AND EFFICIENCY

In between their tight-as-a-clenched-fist debut and the even more intense Deceit, This Heat released a 12" single featuring some almost straightforward rock music. Taking its name from the long running UK naturist publication (which gave many an English lad his first glimpse of the undraped female form), this is an off kilter rocker which matches Faust's classic It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl as a piece of avant bootboy stomp. The opening 2 line refrain gives way to a lumbering section driven by proto industrial rhythms, the coda being a deconstruction of the original riff which features Henry Cow's piano played through a fuzzbox. Essential stuff, the essence of This Heat distilled into eight and a half minutes of joyous noise.

The b side (back in them days there was such a thing as b sides) was a total contrast, an oddly unsettling electronic drone that (as the title implied) could be played at any speed. This piece could be the birth of illbient; although slow and apparently tranquil, it's an oddly unsettling noise that mutates abruptly from time to time. This is a side of This Heat that was rarely in evidence during their lifetime, but which can be sampled further on the excellent album Repeat.

Now available as part of the box set, this is well worth tracking down as a stand alone release if you can find it. Magical stuff, although for some unaccountable reason it was never featured on Top of the Pops.

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