The Top Ten: "Greatest Post-Punk Bands You Never Had Heard"

Interest in post-punk seems to ebb and flow in roughly decade-long cycles since its initial heyday of 1978-84. A fair number of bands emerged in 2001-04 that were influenced by the likes of Joy Division, The Chameleons and Comsat Angels, particularly Interpol and The Editors.

 I borrowed that audacious tag-line, because there’s actually a number of contenders for that title, “greatest post-punk band you never heard.” I’m too young to have experienced the originals first-hand. While I may have heard a few cuts by Joy Division, Bauhaus and The Cure as early as 1981 on a college radio station, I didn’t get into post-punk until 1985. By then I’d read about some of the bands in Creem and Trouser Press, and gotten some dubbed tapes of Joy Division, Bauhaus, The Cure and Echo & the Bunnymen. In college I focused on post-punk for my Fester’s Bucket O’ Nasties radio show

There was still a handful of bands I hadn’t heard of. Seven of these thirteen bands were completely overlooked by Ira Robbins in all the versions of the Trouser Press Record Guide, were never mentioned by Jack Rabid that I know of, and with one exception, weren’t even included in Simon Reynolds’ encyclopedic Rip It Up And Start Again: Post-Punk 1978-1984. I could easily feature more, but these reflect the mood I’ve been in for a nocturnal, driving and intense sound, the original incarnations of “dark wave.”

01. Modern Eon

Modern Eon - Fiction Tales (Dindisc, 1981)Hailing from Liverpool like Echo & the Bunnymen, Wah! and Teardrop Explodes, Modern Eon put out a handful of singles and just one album. But that album, the percussive, foreboding Fiction Tales (Dindisc, 1981) is really something. At a time when their peers, including The Sound and Comsat Angels, were at the peak of their powers, Modern Eon’s album measures up very well. The band did not achieve any sort of popularity due to some bad luck with drummer Cliff Hewitt breaking his wrist just before they were to record a Peel Session. Rather than persevere and record their second album, they gave up and Tim Lever ended up with Dead Or Alive.

Modern Eon 

02. Breathless

Breathless - Chasing Promises (Tenor Vossa, 1989)Despite the fact that singer/keyboardist Dominic Appleton appeared on This Mortal Coil’s Filigree And Shadow (1986) and Blood (1991), Breathless are truly obscure. I have been actively looking for anything post-punk related in magazines and forums for at least 27 years, and I just learned about them in 2012, again through the I Love Music forums. Unless you were British and in the scene, or one of the handful of post-punk obsessives I probably know, you probably hadn’t heard of them either. It seems the reason is that they released all seven of their albums themselves on their Tenor Vossa label. Running your own label isn’t always a bad choice if you do it right, like Dischord or Merge.

Breathless

03. Opposition

Opposition - Breaking The Silence (Double Vision/Red Sun, 1981)Opposition are responsible for yet another lost classic from 1981, Breaking The Silence (Double Vision/Red Sun). Formed in London’s southern suburbs in 1978 (demos from that year were reissued by Right Back Records as Lost Songs in 2005), Opposition could easily be credited for being the architects of the shimmering guitar sounds later employed by The Chameleons, had anyone actually noticed them. A listen to “Breaking The Silence” and “Very Little Glory” will leave no doubts that they were trailblazers, and the later cuts like “In My Eyes” display their angry power.

04. And Also The Trees

And Also The Trees - Virus Meadow (Reflex, 1986)While the majority of post-punk bands invoke the grim, grey industrial environments of cities, And Also The Trees, as their name suggests, focus on a more pastoral approach while still maintaining a dark intensity. Formed in Worcestershire in 1979, the band took a little longer to develop, releasing their self-titled debut in 1984. Despite touring with The Cure in 1981 and Lol Tolhurst producing their album and taking off from elements of Joy Division and The Chameleons, they remained unknown. Perhaps they were too gentle for the punkers and too post-punk for the goths, but to anyone who appreciates this style will find a mind-blowingly consistent body of work that spans four decades.

05. Sad Lovers and Giants

Sad Lovers and Giants - Feeding The Flame (Cherry Red/Midnight Music, 1983)Watford, Hertfordshire’s Sad Lovers and Giants seem to be the go-to band to namedrop when referring to under-appreciated post-punkers, cited as a primary example by the Post-Punk Magazine Kickstarter campaign discussed above. They actually had been on my radar for many years, having gotten a relatively enthusiastic write-up in The Trouser Press Guide. I didn’t unearth any recordings for my radio show in 87-92, but I was one of the first in line to buy the E-Mail From Eternity: The Best of Sad Lovers and Giants compilation in 1999. It’s a great introduction, but is just a gateway to the inevitable realization that their entire albums are essential documents of the era, and were finally reissued in 2009

06. For Against

For Against - December (Chameleon/Words On Music, 1988)The sole American band in this list, For Against come from the unlikely location of Lincoln, Nebraska. Formed in 1985, they proved to be attentive students of the Martin Hannett school of production (Joy Division, Buzzcocks, Durutti Column, Magazine, A Certain Ratio, Psychedelic Furs, Crispy Ambulance, The Names), along with The Cure. Echelons (Words On Music, 1987) was an excellent debut, and a rare example of a US band that was doing post-punk better than most Brits at the time. December (Chameleon/Words On Music, 1988) was even better, getting piles of praise and rave reviews by the likes of Jack Rabid in The Big Takeover along with the Trouser Press Guide.

For Against

07. Lowlife

Lowlife - Permanent Sleep (Nightshift/LTM, 1986)We finally get to the band described in the PR for the upcoming movie, Eternity Road: The Story of Lowlife as “the greatest band you never heard.” But there is no shame in this #7 spot, as it’s certainly a close, perhaps arbitrary call on my part between the other great bands listed above. Formed in Scotland by ex-Cocteau Twins bassist Will Heggie and vocalist Craig Lorentson, Lowlife quickly produced the Rain EP (Nightshift, 1985) which displayed some residual influence of the Cocteau Twins, along with New Order and The Chameleons.

Lowlife

08. The Passage

The Passage - Degenerates (LTM, 1982)The Passage is the only band in this list covered in Simon Reynolds’ Rip It Up And Start Again: Post-Punk 1978-1984 probably because they took a more aggressively avant-garde approach to post-punk as art rock along the lines of Reynolds’ thesis that post-punk was more innovative than even the 60s psychedelic era. They don’t disappoint, taking influences from fellow Manchester bands Joy Division (who initially opened shows for The Passage back in 1978) and The Fall and incorporating the full-on art damaged post-industrial electronica of Cabaret Voltaire.

The Passage

09. Crispy Ambulance

Crispy Ambulance - The Plateau Phase (LTM, 1982)It’s easy to understand why Crispy Ambulance remained unknown. Despite early associations with Factory Records and Joy Division (vocalist Alan Hempsall once substituted for Ian Curtis at a gig and Martin Hannett produced an EP), they don’t have any hooks to hang your hat on, instead focusing on prog and kosmische influenced soundscapes and guitar textures, and some of the bass ‘n’ treble sounds of Public Image Ltd.

Crispy Ambulance

10. Asylum Party

Asylum Party - Borderline (Lively Art, 1989)Probably the most obscure band in this list, Asylum Party are a French band, and Borderline (Lively Art, 1989) may or may not be their first of two albums. It’s hard to know, as there is no entry on Allmusic, only brief posts about them on a few blogs. I’m working on accessing Mère (Lively Art, 1990). One blogger rated Borderline in the top ten best post-punk albums over the likes of The Chameleons, The Sound, Gang Of Four, Lowlife, Echo & the Bunnymen, Magazine, The Cure and The Smiths.

Asylum Party