THIS HEAT

An historically important album that received virtually no notice or attention at the time of its release, this post-punk classic found musicians Charles Hayward and Charles Bullen collaborating with friend (and untrained-musician) Gareth Williams to create this album in the confines of their own former-manufacturing plant-converted-to-recording studio. The musicians say that at the time they were making this album they had a firm belief that they were going to die. The tired, angry, angst-filled "post-punk" spirit informs each and every one of these cynical, disconsolate creations. Very critical of social political forms, trends, and events of the time.

1. "Sleep" (2:15) (4.5/5)

2. "Paper Hats" (6:03) amazing bass with crazed Eno/Heads/Belew-like vocal. (9.25/10)

3. "Triumph" (2:56) (9/10)

4. "SPQR" (3:29) group chanting about being Roman over dynamic drums and frenetic rhythm guitar strumming. (8.75/10)

5. "Cenotaph" (4:40) here the band sound like a cross between 1970s BRIAN ENO, TALKING HEADS, GANG OF FOUR, and Bill Laswell's MATERIAL--though perhaps on the bored side due to the affect expressed in the vocal performances. (8.875/10)

6. "Shrink Wrap" (1:41) some traditional tribal African rhythms and chants form the foundation for this. A bit like some of the British bands on Peter Gabriel's first issue of music from his WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) festivals (like XTC). (4.375/5)

7. "Radio Prague" (2:22) with the in-and-out cuts into the voice tracks the band is perhaps trying to convey how sequestered this (at the time) Communist country was (perceived) existing behind the Iron Curtain. (No rating cuz it is no song.)

8. "Makeshift Swahili" (4:05) more pseudo African rhythms and sounds with English words being screamed over the top open this song. After about 1:50, there is a shift into more British musical form (and then another at 2:30 into more punk-like form). Interesting. And creative. (8.75/10)

9. "Independence" (3:43) an interesting form of expression for the choral reading of American Declaration of Independence. Why the music is so plodding and the affect of vocalists so disinterested and tired is curious. (Perhaps they're meant to sound drunk--singing in a pub as one would a sea shanty.) Clever if bewildering. (8.875/10)

10. "A New Kind Of Water" (4:58) bass drum three-beat heart beat with cymbal play, repeated single stroke bass and guitar chord and weird drunken chanting over the top until the two-minute mark when the music gels into something more akin to a rock 'n' roll song. This is obviously a lyrics-driven song; too bad I don't comprehend lyrics. (8.75/10)

11. "Hi Baku Shyo (Suffer Bomb Disease)" (4:04) creepy-weird monster voice noises beneath which an accordion plays an occasional arpeggio or two. Yes, the human vocalizations could be construed as a person dying some horrifically painful death (with flies buzzing around to eat the decaying flesh) as per someone who'd been bombed, napalmed, or even exposed to radioactive fallout, but, really: is this necessary. (8.66667/10)

Total Time: 40:16

This is my first exposure to the existence of this band much less their sound and discography. My impression is that this is an album that sounds totally like another Brian Eno project--maybe with his own musician friends from the 1970s or with members of Talking Heads' expanded format (e.g. Adrian Belew), very oriented to rhythm and lyric not necessarily melody (though chant is a modality often used herein). I really liked this listening experience: the creators have very similar complaints and worries that I've had over the course of my lifetime. Plus, I really appreciate the passionate forms of expression the trio use to make their pleas known. A very powerful, haunting experience. (I haven't been able to get the moods and ideas out of my head since hearing it.) Though musically this may not be a collection of truly masterful songs, as a piece of art expression the truest emotions of the human experience this is spectacular and much appreciated.

After listening to this album for the second and third times I began getting an appreciation for how creative, dedicated, and influential this band was. I feel as if I have a better read on where "post-punk" bands like black midi and Black Country, New Road are coming from.

B/four stars; some incredibly inventive ideas and expressions occasionally marred by lack of musical familiarity or crudity.

The John Peel sessions on this album were actually recorded In 1977, but only released 19 years later. In 1977, punk became big as a move against the establishment, whereas progressive rock was an established force showing signs of complacency, with some bands already moving themselves toward the commercial mainstream. Early progressive rock (for example, Zappa, Pink Floyd, the early Krauts, King Crimson, and even ELP, in some sense) itself had some punky edge to it that became gradually weaker over time and with larger commercial success. By 1977 truly some refreshment was needed.

What This Heat do on these sessions is properly punk (if you take the spirit not the execution) and properly progressive and experimental. "Rock" it is... at times. 1977 is in fact astonishingly early for a more edgy rebirth of music in the progressive/experimental/psychedelic tradition, and truly astonishing this album is.

What you don't find in punk and even rarely in progressive rock (to some extent it's in the more outlandish recordings of Can, Faust, or Pink Floyd) is the key role of experimental sound exploration with a nod to contemporary avantgarde music, but much rougher and grittier than what came out of the academic music context at the time; still regarding inventiveness it's up with the best. This is contrasted with some sharp rhythmic parts and even the odd song-like structure (you could call it pre-post-punk, predating other sophisticated musicians developing away from punk but in a punk spirit by several years), always at danger to be swallowed by chaos. Rock music survives, with a good number of interruptions, until the end of track 5, and for the last three (shorter) tracks we go to somewhere altogether unstructured and more adventurous, where the band uses a remarkable range of sounds - surely this is the opposite from an album that sounds the same from beginning to end (some more of Charles Hayward's work takes the same direction, starting off in a somewhat more civilised and familiar place and then ultimately going completely off rails).

Personally I'm fine with both their avantgarde rock and their more sound experimentation based side (be warned by the way about how outlandish even their "rock" side is), and both are presented here on a very high level. In fact these are two sessions, the first one featuring three tracks that are also on their debut album, the second one having one track overlap with "Deceit" but otherwise material that hasn't appeared anywhere else. I like those albums, too, but I find the recordings here more fresh and lively, with a healthy dose of improvisation. Nothing against the probably more elaborated studio versions, but there's more chemistry going on here. The generally fine recording quality surely helps. Some more words about the "chemistry"... this is not random noise and you hear clearly how the musicians know what there are doing and how they "click" together. Charles Hayward is a drummer in the first place. He has some virtuosity but also can do straight hypnotic stuff; actually for a drummer he is surprisingly often happy not to drum, which is because he apparently loves bringing in tapes and sound alchemy just as much. He has a quite unique voice that evokes the idea of a meditative distant commenter, if rather rarely used. Charles Bullen's guitar can be quite abrasive, and Gareth Williams can play mind boggling bass parts, but more often all three of them work together creating their sound jungles from tape loops and things that should probably not be called musical instruments (or instruments played in a way they were not meant to be played), sometimes supported by drone-like keyboards.

Over their lifetime This Heat were a critics' favourite but didn't sell much, and it is clear why. This is not music for everyone, if you have too strong preconceptions about how music should sound, you better beware. But to fans of experimental music with an edge, this is a timeless and groundbreaking document. Truly excellent, challenging stuff worth 5 stars without reservation. I also recommend this as entry point to the work of This Heat and later work particularly by Hayward (Camberwell Now and solo work).

"This Heat" is another one of those bands that tends to go largely ignored, was pretty much completely ignored when they were a band, yet still ended up having a huge impact on a sub-genre that ended up growing from their influence. Their second album "Deceit" was unheard of in 1981 when it was released, and would continue to be unheard of for quite some time, however, it is now regarded as a classic album of the post-punk era.

The album takes on some quite dire subjects such as nuclear war and imperialism. The album, according to Charles Hayward who plays bass, keyboards and drums for the band, said that "We had a firm belief we were going to die and the record was made on those terms...to express this sort of fear, angst, which the group was all about, really.". The music is a combination of new improvisations and songs that were played in concert, and this was all mixed together, which created an album that goes from textured and atmospheric to extremely noisy and harsh.

"Sleep" starts things off with an almost prehistoric and industrial sounding track, which contains vocals from all of the members of the band, sometime singing alone and other times singing lines together, with one distinctive low, gravelly voice and another falsetto voice along with a "normal" sounding voice. The music stays soft, but when "Paper Hats" starts, there is a brighter tone to the jangly instruments, but a more morose sounding vocal that eventually turns to a manic sounding vocal with harsh and industrial style sounds. The music can change instantly, and it does, especially in vocal stylings. The music definitely takes on a very avant-prog sound, which wasn't done very often back when this was released. The sound is way ahead of its time. After 2 minutes, it gets really noisy and chaotic, then suddenly changes to a bass heavy staccato sound in an instant, and this sound continues for the next 4 minutes until it finally just kind of falls apart. Even so, the music on this album is a lot more melodic than the debut album, but you can still expect the unexpected at all times.

The bizarre gets even more bizarre on "Triumph" which sounds like a march made from various random instruments and percussive items. A loose vocal hangs precariously on the minimal yet chaotic sound. "S,P.Q.R." is more structured sounding with fast strumming, thumping drums and tinkling cymbals with the odd vocal harmonics that are based on texture more than chords. This track has been covered by a few bands since then, including the excellent band "Sleepytime Gorilla Museum". "Cenotaph" continues with the more structured sound, but is quite metallic sounding based on the chiming guitar chord that keeps repeating and the grinding effects that go on under the textured harmonics.

"Shrink Wrap" is a short track featuring some crazy looping techniques and layering effects, percussion and vocals into a hodgepodge of sounds, but driven along by a rhythmic feel. "Radio Prague" is more minimal with a rapid clicking sound, glitchy indiscernible spoken vocals (almost like scanning past radio talk stations quickly) and other percussive noises. "Makeshift Swahili" follows directly off of this as it organizes everything into a droning sound, staccato, percussive guitar strings and shouting vocals. The instruments provide the melody, but there is no real melodic tune in the vocals until the track gets half-way along, but at which time the instruments meld together and then become quite unpredictable and heavy, all the while, the drone continues in the background. The sound suddenly goes lo-fi somewhere along the way and before it can get totally chaotic, it fades out, yet not completely.

"Independence" has a bit of a happier tone to it, with whistles, tonal percussion and such. Over the top of this we get the voices speaking in a sing-song way reading off a part of The Declaration of Independence. It sounds like a liberty parade from hell. "A New Kind of Water" uses a simple, tension building guitar line and combines this with a chorus of layered, thickly textured vocals. The instruments build up a bit, and take on that industrial feel, with repetitive strumming and quirky drumming while the bass moves to support the vocal melody. The last track is "Hi Baku Shyo (Suffer Bomb Disease)". This one is full of strange effects, processed howling, soft screeching and a repeating minimal passage that sounds like a toy accordion. It is all quite minimal sounding, but very eerie and sparse, a study in sounds and noises.

As I said previously, this music was way ahead of it's time, completed when there was nothing much out there like this at all. The funny thing is, is that you can play it now and it would still feel relevant. If you picked any other album from the 80s at random, your chances of getting an album like this would be quite low. It is a definite classic, and many artists have talked about its influence on them, especially those bands that are more experimental and avant-garde style. For lovers of the quirky, odd styles of avant prog, this album is a must have.

There aren't too many bands in modern history who are cited for single handedly planting as many seeds from which many genres and sub-genres arose throughout the years and decades that followed, but the English band THIS HEAT is almost universally accepted for having done so. This band was formed in 1976 London by three multi-instrumentalists who were feeling the change in the music scene as it shifted from the progressive rock world of the early 70s to a more punk oriented one that followed. And although not a punk band per se, this trio was at the forefront of this changing of the guards and co-existed with bands like the Sex Pistols during the same time frame. Whereas the punk rockers opted for simplifying their musical approach to garage rock simplicity that allowed for instant accessibility and connection, THIS HEAT on the other hand proved to take things to much more challenging levels and instead of rejecting the prog rock that came before, found ways to bridge it with similar elements of punk and take the strange union to even more experimental heights through shrewd tape loop and electronic manipulations.

The band arose when Gareth Williams (keyboards, guitar, bass, tapes, vocals) met Charles Hayward (keyboards, tapes, vocals and ex-drummer for Quiet Sun) and Charles Bullen (guitar, clarinet, viola, tapes, vocals) while working in a London record shop and made their acquaintances through their mutual admiration of music. After Williams proved himself to be a brilliant lyricist and insane bassist and keyboardist, the trio began to rehearse their strange new experiments which were inspired by various Krautrock bands like Can and Faust, the angular avant-prog of Henry Cow as well as musique concrète which inspired inventive tape-loop experimentation that found the band fascinated with random erroneously produced sounds that they were generating through their inexperience. The band also fostered a great admiration for the reggae and ska producer Lee "Scratch" Perry whose innovative scratching, recording and tape manipulation magic became legend in the reggae and dub universe.

The band presciently predicted the punk rock scene taking off with the decline of prog rock and provided a parallel universe type of counter-punk that utilized the similar guitar sounds however their true punk power would peak only on their second album "Deceit." These results became a focus on an eerily cold and detached yet politically charged style that not only predicted the subsequent post-punk explosion that was just around the corner but also provided the fertile sonic explorations that would lay the ground for dark industrial that bands like Einstürzende Neubauten who would make it their own in the 80s. Add to that the bizarre noise rock that emanated from their brash explorative nature into bizarre new sonicscapes, THIS HEAT provided a blueprint for noise rock bands such as Sonic Youth as well as a prototype framework for what would become post-rock via the likes of Glenn Branca and ultimately to the explosion of the style that Talk Talk would nurture into the 90s. All this fertile creativity didn't go unnoticed for too long and after a mere demo tape being sent to the great John Peel, this contact found them releasing their eponymously titled debut album, affectionately and colloquially referred to as "Blue And Yellow" in 1979 after three busy years of recording.

Through the run of THIS HEAT's debut album is a surprisingly diverse and accomplished range of sounds replete with post-punk and industrial sounds that find themselves in the company of reggae syncopations, Krautrock motorik rhythmic marches, early post-rock compositional styles that emphasize a slow gradual ascent to a climactic crescendo and alien sounding almost Heldon-esque electronic sounds which sputter about and then transmogrify into something completely different. The sheer amount of different spooky and grueling noise effects on board is completely off the charts with eerie phantasmic Twilight zone oscillations dueling it out with freaked out electronic manipulations. This is the stuff nightmares are made of in much the same way that the contemporary avant-prog band Univers Zero was conjuring up in the world of the chamber rock ensemble. "Music Like Escaping Gas" for example sounds like the darkened moody experimentalism from "Heresie."

THIS HEAT was the collaboration of three hard working music nerds who spent countless hours in the studio perfecting their experimental craft, a studio created from a former meat locker from a closed factory, the perfect venue to channel the cold, lifeless spirits that the music exudes in full mindf.u.ckery. While this debut as well as every THIS HEAT album that was released during their initial run proved to be a little too far ahead for the public to comprehend, predictably sold very poorly but the band managed to attract a loyal cult following. As the decades ensued not he other hand, the band proved to be a major influence for a huge number of musicians and bands including but hardly limited to Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Animal Collective, Massive Attack, Public Image Ltd, Radiohead, Swans, Shellac, Lightning Bolt and the aforementioned bands that found a nice home in the industrial aisles at the music market. THIS HEAT have since been deemed musical geniuses far ahead of their time with music so unique that it still sounds as fresh today as it must've all those years ago. If this was the only album they made i'd give this 5 stars but as good as it is, "Deceit" is so much better. But close to perfection this one is. Very, very close.

4.5 but rounded down

I like what it says in the bio here that these three guys had short hair and wore second hand suits as they played live in the late seventies. They were a British act led by drummer Charles Hayward formerly of QUIET SUN, but the music here is far different from that band. Many felt that they were carrying on where FAUST left off at the time, and one of the bands who were huge fans back then of THIS HEAT were HENRY COW. Clarinet, viola and the usual instruments are featured here with all three guys using tapes so it's hard to tell at times what I'm hearing but as usual I'll try to describe what I think I hear.

"Testcard" starts and ends the album and it's just what the title says. "Horizontal Hold" has this heavy beat, an almost industrial rhythm that starts and stops. I like the speedy guitar strumming or is that viola being strummed after 2 minutes. Angular guitar follows with keyboards, a beat and more. A beat with electronics follows then intricate sounds start to come and go. Such a cool sounding track. "Not Waving" opens with organ-like sounds as viola joins in and it builds. Sounds drone until 2 minutes in when it settles right down. The clarinet kicks in before the vocals arrive, both continue and the vocals are avant sounding. Such an experimental backdrop to the vocals here. It's haunting late to end it. "Water" sounds nothing like you'd expect but instead we get random cow bell-like sounds and percussion throughout. The sound builds after 2 minutes as it turns quite powerful.

"Twilight Furniture" is a top three song for me. This is a more traditional song with a catchy beat as the guitar comes and goes. Vocals after a minute and they will also come and go. It settles late with viola. "24 Track Loop" is just that as sounds drone and an electronic-like beat takes over. More drones follow before an uptempo beat joins in. Clarinet is added before 4 minutes then it all settles back to end it. "Diet Of Worms" is grating with those high pitched sounds throughout. "Music Like Escaping Gas" is a top three track as sounds hum and start to build. Picked guitar after a minute then a throat is cleared before 2 minutes(haha) as windy sounds and vocals join in. It's just insane after 3 minutes. Great track! "Rainforest" has loud banging to start along with cymbals and atmosphere. It settles back some as a rhythm kicks in before 2 1/2 minutes to the end as it blends into "Fall Of Saigon" my final top three. Multi-vocals join in and they actually sound normal. They stop after 2 1/2 minutes. Check out the avant guitar expressions. Nice. The guitar speeds up late ripping it up big time.

Man this is a classic Avant album but I feel their followup "Deceit" is even better. A solid 4 stars.

This Heat began recording this self-titled debut album in 1976, the year British punk exploded, and finished it in 1978, with post-punk well underway. Musically, it is as original, revolutionary and hostile as punk and as experimental as the most avant-garde post-punk; the closest point of comparison I can think of would be Public Image Ltd. at their most Krautrock-influenced moments on Metal Box, perhaps with certain influences creeping in from the likes of Henry Cow or Faust. I think the subsequent Deceit has the edge on this, but this complements the work on that album nicely and anyone interested in This Heat will sooner or later want to hear both.

Sandwiched between their two better known full albums which have only continued to gain respect and admiration over the ensuing decades, THIS HEAT released HEALTH AND EFFICIENCY as a two track EP. Sounding nothing like the two main albums, this little gem is well worth hearing as it is totally original and sounds like it paved the way for lots of indie rock and electronica to follow. The album is available as a stand alone release but is also included in the mega-boxed set 'Out Of Cold Storage' which also includes the two main albums, the archival 'Repeat' and 'Live 80/81.'

The title track which is stated in the liner notes as being dedicated to sunshine, starts out with some post-rock jangly guitars but has a rather old time rock' n roll feel to it with lyrics. The mix of the male vocals and female vocals remind me a lot of bands like Stereolab. This EP was clearly an inspiration for all those indie rock bands such as Sonic Youth that sprang up in the 90s to the present time. This sound abruptly changes gear when the clock strikes 2:11 into the track and becomes a monotonous industrial funky bass clap with strange atmospheric embellishments breaking the spell every few measures. This continues for a full 8:12 and keeps building more and more sounds, voices around the no wave type riff that is kind of funky, punky and drony simultaneously. Towards the last couple of minutes we get bombastic drumming and a highly distorted dissonant ending that fades into oblivion.

The second track 'Graphic / Varispeed' is an 11:22 long drone that buzzes on and on with pitch changes at random moments and doppler effect type atmospherics occurring from time to time. What should be a very hypnotic and uninteresting track surprisingly has enough subtle variations in the tones, pitches and tempo of a single sustained note to keep me entertained for its duration. While this originally was released on vinyl, this track was meant to be played at various speeds on a turntable. It was an invitation for the listener to experiment with 16, 33 1/3, 45 or 78 rpm. This track reminds me of some of what Coil would continue but also reminds a bit of some of the most out there ambient of 70s including Brian Eno. Definitely a recommended short but sweet album that matches the extremely bizarre album cover.

In the dank depths of an old, abandoned cold storage room in punk and Thatcher era Brixton, a band who cared not for the mantra of the English punks - that prog = bad - once again blended RIO and post-punk into a lost treasure of both genres. Their theme: nuclear war. From what is remembered as a bleak and dour time, we hear the band's own mantra - sleep sleep sleep go to sleep - before our three genius madmen guide us forcefully by the arm through visions of a nuclear wasteland, the first album's semi-ruins bombed to oblivion, dragging us past unspeakable horrors with their freakish but masterful music. What little hints of new wave and pure krautrock they once had vanish, with a pure mix of what everyone at the time thought were mortal and permanent enemies of music triumphing, and cackling at their folly. The guitar on this record is perfect for the themes, moods, and styles the band exhibits; it is just unstoppable. The keys and tapes round out the main sound, and ensure that the album feels like armageddon and its aftermath. The drums stick out as well, and a lot of the time it feels as high in the mix as "Tago Mago"'s kick drums were... a doubly wonderful inspiration. Even with the krautrock musical influences gone, the band must've had Can's opus, their own crazed rumination on the mushroom head, on the mind when they made this, now far away from the era of detente Can played from. The lyrics are perfect for the political points the band wanted to be sure to hammer, and meld with the music. Everything, then, is just right. A masterpiece of pronk, this is a chilling journey from a band who looked on with fellow billions over the precipice of midnight.

A band caught somewhere between avant-prog, post-punk, and even the more experimental and darker side of early new wave, This Heat dropped two LPs that broke genre barriers with all the creative spark of a band from this millennium and with the chops to make them twin masterpieces. Progheads, punks, and industrial people all alike will find themselves challenged by the dour, angry, complex, and style-busting music contained within. The mix ends up creating a strange, dark, but excellent sound that guides you through the wreckage of humanity. Each track explores a different take on their overall style, often featuring unique instruments and instrumentation. "Deceit" is the greater album, but their self titled still remains a several times over impressive piece of genre and subculture defying avant garde music.

4.5 stars. THIS HEAT are an incredible Avant band out of the UK, and this is their second studio album released in 1981. The biggest surprise for me was that the drummer and leader is none other than Charles Hayward who was the drummer for QUIET SUN's "Mainstream" album. The cover art is classic as well but what about the music? Well I was reminded of FAUST more than any other band with those industrial sounding rhythms and how experimental this can get with all the tape loops(all 3 members use tapes). Still this has structured songs throughout the album but it is left of center in a big way. The lyrics are very political and at times angry reminding me of ART BEARS and HENRY COW.

"Sleep" is a short track just over 2 minutes that comes across as a demented lullaby for the insane. A mechanical rhythm here as reserved vocals sing about sleep. "Paper Hats" is cool with the guitar and a beat as the mono-toned vocals come in. He does scream blue murder(haha) at times. This is catchy though and the tempo picks up after 2 minutes before it settles to this really good sound before 3 minutes to the end. "Triumph" is experimental with accordion to start then we get clarinet? leading the way with intricate percussion sounds helping out. Vocals replace the clarinet 2 minutes in. The vocals do sound odd here. "SPQR" has an uptempo beat with over-lapping guitar like the way The Edge does it from U2. Vocals join in this deliberate sounding tune. "Cenotaph" is almost like a dirje and the subject matter is Remembrance Day. Vocals before a minute and they are a little different. It ends in an experimental way.

"Shrink Wrap" sounds like it was pieced together, it's an interesting track with some humerous vocals and words. Another mechanical rhythm here. "Radio Prague" has fast paced pulsating sounds with experimental noises and words. "Makeshift Swahili" is one of my favourites. Atmosphere as this cool sounding guitar comes in. Check out the demented vocals. Wow! An insane but incredible song. It changes around 2 minutes to a more normal sounding section then it picks up. Intense. "Independance" has the American Declaration of Independance being recited over an intricate instrumental display. An eastern feel comes in at times. "A New Kind Of Water" is another favourite of mine. A beat with guitar and more as the vocals join in. It kicks in to a fuller sound around a minute. What a great sound before 2 1/2 minutes with vocals. I love this section that goes on and on until the end. The final track is an experimental piece with church bells and various strange noises. Man this truly deserves the hype i've read from Avant fans around the globe. A must for you Rio/Avant fans.