Back in 1977 I don’t think I knew what rockabilly was, and I’d never heard Elvis Presley’s early Sun Sessions. Then along came a cool dude with impeccable punk credentials called Robert Gordon.

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This wasn’t The Members’ first release – Fear On The Streets introduced them on the Streets compilation – but it was their first single, released on Stiff Records in 1978.

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This stark, minimalist single is a landmark release in the birth of electronica and its commercial cousin synthpop. It’s the entire recorded output of The Normal, alter-ego of Daniel Miller – and the first release on his label Mute Records. (more…)

Before they made perfectly crafted pop-soul records, Scritti Politti were what was then called an “agitprop” band – though you would not immediately mark them down as left-wing firebrands from their music.

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Looking back from more than half a century later, it’s astonishing how rapidly the primitive pounding of punk evolved into the questing experimentalism of postpunk. PragVEC were one of the first to embrace the avant-garde.

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Of all the oddballs produced by punk (and there were many), one of the oddest was Kenneth Spiers – universally known as Spizz. He’s best known (if at all) for his habit of constantly changing the name of his band – always using ‘Spizz’ somewhere – over the course of his long career.

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The Mekons were one of the quintessential punk groups, coming out of art school in Leeds in 1976 – the same scene that spawned Gang Of Four and Delta 5. Where Were You? – a minimalist masterpiece of bare-bones punk rock – remains one of the defining songs of the era. (more…)

Cabaret Voltaire were England’s answer to Suicide, and a key component in the development of industrial and dance music.

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Not even hardcore punks from the Class of ’77 are likely to remember Kleenex – Switzerland’s solitary contribution to punk. Or their two singles on Rough Trade that went on to inspire the Riot Grrrl movement.

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Here’s a recording that never gets mentioned in lists of the best cover versions… but it probably should. It takes the Righteous Brothers song in an entirely new direction. (more…)