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slightly sentimental...If you want to  hear the soundtrack of my early 80's .... interesting compilation with good liner notes for every track and  a special mention for my hometown band 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' & "My Spine Is The bassline " by Shriekback".....  if you like dancable postpunk you should check this one out....(if there is some interest I can upload it)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Alucard, how are you my friend?

This was the hey-day of my youth [as well as Chris' I think?], so much of it I've heard - used to go see James White at CBGBs all the time, adored the NY no-wave scene..Nonetheless, some stuff hear I haven't heard, so thanks for the heads up!

 

Hope you're well -

Best,

Claire

 

Very well said, as usual Chris. :) I read this on the Tuxedomoon list, and thought it rather apropos:

 

">   The term postpunk loosely designates a lot of
> music, most of which was described at the time as
> punk or new wave. Generally, it has the edge and
> aggression of punk, and grew out of the general DIY
> spirit of the age, but is more complex or
> experimental and bears the stamp of an avant garde
> or progressive influence.

Post-punk, as Neil observes, was a media label
designed to umbrella many different and competing
musical styles under a convenient rubric that situated
its historical position as happening after/because of
punk. Like all labels, it's lazy and often misapplied,
again as Neil notes, to the likes of Pere Ubu,
Residents etc. whose early work predates punk.

As a movement, punk was bound to flare briefly and
then die. Living the lifestyle for any length of time
was a pretty unpleasant experience for all but the
real die-hard nihilists or masochists. Once it began
to catch on, the temptation to become assimilated into
the machine was often, perhaps usually, too great.
And, once 'punks' began to make 'music', some became
proficient on their instruments and began to make
music outside of punk's limitations. The synthesizer,
new thing on the block, was a lot easier to master
than the guitar and opened up a more experimental,
less commercial approach in keeping with a
'punk'/DIY/self-sufficient ethos. Some bands used
synths to complement their guitars, others threw away
their guitars and began to learn sound engineering.

Several luminaries of the period went through art
school and took art/film culture into their music
(Almond & Ball met at Leeds University and Foxx has
been a professional graphic designer since Ultravox!
days). Some were influenced by prog or European music
(Magazine's inspired noodling, Lydon's constant
namedropping of Can in his PIL days, OMD's Andy
McCluskey urging fans to buy Kraftwerk and Neu!), or
worked with musician/producers like Howlett, Hillage,
Bill Nelson etc. Some were aiming for Greater Things
or Weirder Things - Billy Idol's rock career; bandmate
Tony James' leap/plunge from Generation X to
much-vilified glampunks Sigue Sigue Sputnik.

As Tyrell tells Roy Batty in Blade Runner, "the light
that burns twice as brightly burns half as long". Punk
opened the door to a new way of making music and,
despite its own inbuilt termination date, a new way of
relating to music that simplified and demystified it.
Punk was a stepping-stone for many and varied reasons,
but a stepping-stone nonetheless; a short-lived
conduit to getting noticed that was generally
discarded once the job was done.

I'd agree that the term itself is just another label -
it would be hard to argue that the Sex Pistols
embodied the tabloid-enraging 'f**k you' attitude
better than almost anyone, yet their sound smacks more
of metal/heavy rock than, say, the thin scratchy
guitars of The Adverts or The Lurkers or a million
others. But whatever punk was, as Alain says, it
liberated a lot of us in a way that makes it
impossible to forget and, probably, impossible to
recapture.

Best,
JC

 

...and yes it was a great period......the freshness and uncomplicated side of the music ... the 'everything goes' character...a lot of the post punk bands are progressive in terms of experimentation....and the clubby dancing side.... I remermber a great Rip Rig And Panic concert with Neneh Cherry  in an old factory....also the  only time I played in a band..(tons of noise are still waiting to be released one day)

 

 

 

BTW a good read about this period is a book by Simon Reynolds that Chris recommended me...