THIS HEAT

England's Finest.

This Heat's self titled debut is a real winner, up there with the likes of FZ's avant works. This Heat is one of those late seventies, early eighties bands that got lumped into the punk scene much like Throbbing Gristle and Smegma, because of their 'punk' attitude. This album starts off with the intro song Test Card, which is a short electronic piece, which sounds similar to something TG would have done, and the album ends with a song entitled Test Card, which is more electronic noises, just longer. On this album, there isn't one single bad moment, from the slower ambient-ish songs Diet Of Worms and Music Like Escaping Gas, to the freakout of Rainforest, and then the Heldon-esque futuristic song 24 Track Loop, with it's proto-Industrial drums. It is also worth noting to all Prog heads out there that one Charles Hayward, of Gong and Quiet Sun is a prominent member of this band.

This Heat's debut is an excellent show of Avante-garde Prog, and is a must have for A-G Prog fans.

How this album has managed to be so thoroughly ignored by the community here at ProgArchives is astounding to me. It's the perfect storm of progressive brilliance: Fascinating musicianship, intelligent, beguiling lyrics and a unique sound that "Deceit" can claim to be its own and only its own.

To bottomline it, this album sounds a lot like how the cover looks: Like the music of a grotesque but ultimately friendly patchwork machine that wishes to show you the inner workings of his mind. Indeed, "Deceit" is something of a journey. "Paper Hats" is a fantastic example of this, starting out with a hypnotic groove that alternates vocals between mellow chanting and tortured wails, then dovetails without warning into an avant-jazz freakout before settling back into a segment that could almost be called post-rock, with a bit of a bouncier rhythm than most songs from said genre.

This is not to say that the band does not keep a consistent tone throughout the album, because if anything This Heat is most remarkable at keeping a consistently sinister vibe in their music while keeping things varied enough to make sure the album's 40 minute runtime fly by in a flash. Even though it's easy to see the style they've secured as their own- post punk with jazz affectations and a DIY industrial aesthetic-it's remarkable how the album manages to keep the listener on their toes. Clanking, druggy soundscapes break up the punchier post-punk numbers without ever feeling unwelcome, and as bizarre as it may seem, sandwiched between all this weirdness is a group of songs that wouldn't be unwelcome on nearly any dance floor. The spectacular rhythm section along with the ahead-of-its-time electronic sound manipulation make sure that not only are these songs enjoyable and captivating, but timeless as well. This is an album that could have just as easily come out in 2011 as 1981, which in itself is something of a minor miracle.

This Heat was a remarkably short lived band, but in the half decade they were around they managed to pump enough brilliance into one album to secure their place in music history for all of time. "Deceit" is a necessary album. Besides being at once thoroughly accessible and truly avant-garde, it's an album that synthesizes a hybrid of styles in a way that forms a unique work using complex musicianship and thought provoking ideas, which is the very pinnacle of what every good progressive record. Make no mistake however, this is not merely a "good" progressive record: It is a vital document that every band who wishes to create a unique piece of music must take note of.

I'll start this by saying This Heat are my favourite band ever. I hold a firm belief that they are also the most underrated. This is, in my opinion, one of the best albums of all time. I cannot understand people when they say things such as "forgettable", "it's been done better", "unmusical".

First of all, how can you forget something as amazingly out-there as this?

Next, what is that even supposed to mean? They invented or were highly influential on several musical genres (post-rock, drum and bass, industrial rock, dark ambient, noise rock, latter day-RIO, you name it).

Last of all, it's highly musical: listen to the crushing dissonance and microtonal interludes in "Horizontal Hold", the atonal shimmers leading into beautiful melodies in "Not Waving", the proto-post-rock slightly symphonic melodies and ritual ambient-style tribal drumming in "Twilight Furniture", extremely creepy industrial dark ambience in "Music Like Escaping Gas" (very fitting title, too!). I could go on for hours about how amazing this album is.

I would recommend this to anyone... but you never know. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm the only one who sees how amazing this is, and sees perfection in every second of this album. Maybe...

(review also published on RYM)

Whoa! This sound strikes me with remarkable earache! (Of course, as a good meaning)

Beyond my expectation...This Heat had broken the progressive rock world. At the beginning of the album, there's faint electric sound in my ear. Suddenly, exploded noise (I consider it's not so-called sound!) grasps my brain. What an avantgarde production! Into the noise, lazy and weak voice comes and then let me feel depressive...after that, attacking me are the scattered percussive components. Again and again they hit, blow and squeeze my heart. What a violent work! At the last part...exotic melody and drumming go streaming, then the faint electric sound, that came previously, fades out and disappears.

I cannot recommend the product to persons who like symphonic progressive rock. That's so natural. I'm sure the album brought a revolution for progressive rock music. As the revolutionary of Avant-prog, 4 stars I wanna give.

Rating: A+ (10.0)

A captivating guitar line comes floating out of your speakers, soon joined by soothing voices singing, "sleep, sleep, sleep, go to sleep." A hypnotic drum rhythm comes in to complete the perfect picture of a lullaby.

Thus begins your journey into This Heat's magnum opus, Deceit. A product of the burgeoning post-punk scene of the time, This Heat turned around and managed to both define and deconstruct the genre at the same time, all while remaining far too obscure for the level of intelligence they showed. Taking the pure energy of punk and mixing it with the grooves of Krautrock and the sophistication of progressive rock, This Heat created music of the likes never heard before (or since, for that matter), and they sounded amazing doing it. Propelled by Charles Hayward's hypnotic drumbeats and urgent, passionate, and versatile vocals, This Heat's music set the stage for much of post-rock and modern avant-prog.

But while their musical innovation is the defining factor of This Heat's legacy, it is the lyrical content of Deceit that lifts it from being an amazing album to being a legendary album. Never before or after have I heard a CD with such a stunning lyrical text. Thematically dealing with the threat of the atomic bomb (the band have said they wrote this CD due to their fear that they would all wake up dead one day), Deceit takes us through all the causes of the nuclear threat, all the possible triggers, providing a biting satire of the cold war world. They channel the anger of punk, but they infuse it with intelligence unseen in most of the music dealing with similar themes.

But, as it's specifically dealing with issues of the day, it must sound dated, right?

RIGHT?

Yes, that is a resounding lack of affirmation you are hearing. This is not dated in any way, for the very simple reason that the nuclear threat is still with us, as are many of the other issues discussed on Deceit. In fact, much of what drives this album is not only still around, but far more prominently around now than it was back in 1981 when Deceit was first released.

Most prominent among these is This Heat's stark condemnation of materialism and greed as the key triggers for a nuclear war. In "Sleep," we are lulled to sleep by various advertising slogans ("softness is a thing called comfort," "doesn't cost much to keep in touch"). In "SPQR," we are informed that "we are all Romans, unconscious collective," and we "organize by 'property is power.'" "Makeshift Swahili" is a brutal (musically and lyrically) attack on imperialism, as seen in such lines as "we give you firewater; you give us your land." There are other triggers, too, of course. "Shrink Wrap" condemns equally politicians and the media with the remarkably simple yet efficient refrain of "you lie, you lie, you lie," and "Paper Hats" mocks irresponsible government, ridiculing Great Britain's useless guide to surviving a nuclear attack, asking "what do we expect, paper hats, or maybe even roses-the sound of explosions." Rather than actually working to prevent nuclear war, the British government chooses to make a worthless gesture that will resonate well with the people. But not, clearly, with This Heat. In "Independence," This Heat even quote the United States Declaration of Independence to call for the people to kick out the governments creating the mess, as seen in their choice to end on the line, "whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it" ("these ends" being the protection of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness). On the other hand, This Heat make sure that the public does not escape blame, pointing the finger at us for isolating ourselves from human contact in the bittersweet "Triumph."

Providing the backbone for these barbed attacks is a subtle twist of a normally dull and cliché storyline, making it vibrant and full of life. The theme is, as you might guess from "Sleep," that of a dream where, at the end, you wake up to find it's only a dream. In this case, however, it is only a quasi-dream, a false reality we have set up for ourselves where drowning in creature comforts is desirable. Lost within this blanket of commercialism, we are oblivious to the problems it causes, and by the time we wake up, all we are left with is the bleak nothingness illustrated perfectly in the instrumental sound collage "Hi Baku Shyo" (Japanese for Suffer Bomb Disease). The entire piece reeks of a dreary silence, a total lack of life. We snap out heaven and find ourselves in hell.

While Deceit is easily the most legitimate angry CD I've heard (in the sense that they're not angry to sell their music, but because they're actually angry), it is the brief moments of colorful humor that make it so good, such as in "Makeshift Swahili," where This Heat describe the interaction between a colonizer and the colonized with a veiled insult that would make Shakespeare proud. "Makeshift she sings in her native German. You try to understand what she's trying to say. She says you're only as good as the words you understand, and you, you don't understand a word." In a similar vein is the line in "Cenotaph" where Charles Hayward intones, "the war to end all war, and the war that came after that."

All of these elements come to a head in the stunningly powerful "A New Kind of Water," the title of which may refer to the radioactive water (also known as heavy water) that results from nuclear explosions. Starting with the straightforward, "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die," "A New Kind of Water" portrays the final hours before the explosion as This Heat frantically and futily try to alert the world to the danger it's in. Unfortunately, however, they "don't know either, what is the answer." They feel gravely misled - "we were told to expect more, and now that we've got more, we want more" (there's commercialism popping up again). For the final three minutes, we are presented with one of the most moving songs I have ever heard. While still angry, a sense of defeatism has crept into the song. There is nothing that can be done. "The size of it all carries us along, more is better, it's what we want." "You know from experience that - creature comforts, a house that's warm - your body would choose all this, of course, it's innate, we're selfish." The final stanza admits, "this nuclear state is our demise," and advises (to no one in particular), "hide away Peter, fly away Paul, who can watch as the Earth burns, shatters, and dies?"

A desert island disc for sure.

One of the amazing feats with DJ John Peel was his ability to dislike most prog groups from the golden era, but he managed to like some of the more challenging RIO and experimental groups like Faust, Henry Cow or as concerned in this review, This Heat. I was never sure whether Peelie understood this kind of music or he just fell strongly for that type of obtuse experimentations or maybe just wanted to appear hip and incense any experimental groups. Not really considering this last option, the least we can say is that the chance he gave to This Heat over two broadcasts sessions in the course of 77, gave the band a much needed boost, even if their profile wouldn't really be making headlines

Among the more accessible (and also better, IMHO) tracks are: the second part of the opening Horizontal Hold, Fall Of Saigon. Of the two sessions, I think I prefer the spring session (first three tracks) to the second (October session), even if Makeshift is most impressive track of the disc, with a B-52's Planet Claire vocal line. You'd swear Fred Frith was the guitarist on this second session, too. Not really more essential, than, any more of their studio albums.

3.5 stars really!!!

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.

Simply one of the most outrageous and brilliant albums in the history of rock. Like Marmite you either love it or hate it, but there's really nothing quite like it. It's the missing link between Krautrock and post-punk experimentation, brutal in parts and mesmeric in others, and it clearly influenced many bands since. Now remastered its aural assault is shocking even 30 years later. An essential purchase for those with adventurous tastes!

Released in the mid-90's, this is a recording that dates of the debut album, even if it is more related to the second release of theirs. Just three lengthy tracks that will remind you more early Tangerine Dream (Zeit) or early Kraftwerk, rather than Faust's completely mad oeuvre. The title track is not yet recorded in their home studio, but next year's Metal is and the last Varispeed are and you can hear it; Obviously the trio was more at ease in their own wall, but this does not make their music anymore fascinating (I feel like saying interesting, but fear my friend Chris's wrath), even if the historical and experimental value of such a record made it a necessary release. If the first track is extremely atmospheric and a bit spacey (featuring mostly wind instruments from Charles Bullen, a self-confessed non-musician), the second one is extremely percussive (featuring metal percussions) being the realm of Charles Hayward, while the third (previously available on a 12" EP) goes back to a spacey sound and drones evolving way too slowly to hold much interest, unless the 15 mins were condensed into 4.

All three tracks are relatively uneventful, with terrible lengths and do not hold IMHO any of the fascinating aspects of those early 70's German groups. This album like all This Heat album is for RIO confirmed fans and this one is only for This Heat unconditionals. So I have a hard times recommending this to anyone else.

2.5 stars really!!!

Of all the groups you will find in our beloved ProgArchives, This Heat is along with Faust and Henry Cow, the hardest and most uncompromising ever. Don't look for "real" music here (that is songs with beats, lyrics and melodies), but more of a "musique concrete" or industrial rock that only has irregular rhythm patterns, repetitive sequences and highly unlikely sounds ever thought to make music. Am I exaggerating a bit? Well, maybe just a tad, forcing the character traits a wee bit in order to make my point solidly understood.

As much as RIO is already an extreme form of music, as much as This Heat's music is an extreme form of RIO, which unlike what some might think, does not showcase extreme musicianship (at least not in terms of virtuosity), but is extremely adventurous and experimental. While I hold this type of music (as well Faust's) in high regards, I must say that I was never tempted to own it, because there is a blatant problem of repeated listenings, which is simply not cutting it with me. This type of albums gets maybe two listens in a row every second decade (time was up; hence these TH reviews ;-) but hardly anymore. TH is one of those influential bands that record sales will never show.

Hard to really recommend this type of record on a wide-spectrum site, but let it be known that I have recommended This Heat to a few House Music freaks, which were dying for stuff like this.