File download is hosted on Megaupload
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(This stream is a 1-hour sampler of the full box set. Full streams and download below.)
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A month ago, I published the ‘1979: Post-Punk‘ box set, itself a follow-up to the ‘1981′ set, with only a thirteen year gap between their completion. This next follow up has happened a little faster, largely because unlike its predecessors which represented years and decades of listening, this new set tells the story of a whirlwind love affair with sounds I didn’t even know existed until very recently. In the track list booklet for the set, I’ve written a little essay on the surprise and yet the totally logical idea that post-punk could/should be a living tradition rather than a brief moment. I won’t recapitulate it here, but suffice it to say: I started out pretty much totally skeptical, and I’ve ended up convinced not only could it happen, but it is happening, and all over the world. This set pulls from the work of artists who I feel are not just getting some of the sounds of post-punk “right,” but who are really engaging it as an ethos and capturing its spirit. Their movement seems to have started in earnest a decade or so ago, but is currently picking up momentum year by year.
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I’ll keep it brief and try to let the music persuade you as it did me, but I want to thank the people (including friends and Musicophiliacs) who pointed me to many of their favorite artists of this new new wave. Most especially, I want to direct you to the man who so boldly uses the term “post-punk” sans qualifiers to refer to this current music and backs it up with the music, Dave Cantrell. Mr. Cantrell’s radio show Songs From Under the Floorboard on XRAY.fm and his Out From the Shadows music festival in Portland, Oregon have been preaching the word of this music passionately for years, and his long-running Stereo Embers ‘NEXT’ series was invaluable in getting me started down the road from skepticism to optimism. As I say in the booklet essay, it’s not so much that there are current artists fully matching the greats of ’78-’82–in my opinion, there are no Talking Heads, Slits, Family Fodders, This Heats, Wires, etc. at least not quite yet–but that this young cohort is engaging the exuberance and fecundity of post-punk across many rising talents with a profusion that rivals their predecessors. And they’re doing the women of the ‘Young Lady’s Post-Punk Handbook‘ proud, in that women are even more front-and-center than before, leading and contributing to the substantial majority of what I think is the best of what’s happening.
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This set is far from exhaustive, being the product of a blind dive into the deep end–and I welcome any and all “you should’ve included _____” admonishments! It also probably under-represents certain strands of the revitalization–the more gothic, the minimal-synth oriented, the Joy Division-devoted–because I’ve found those sounds typically less persuasive to me as having escaped mere orbit and homage. I prefer the weirder and the artier and the poppier, but if you’re an acolyte of Ian Curtis, there’s even more for you to discover. On the whole, these artists strike me as being unafraid of influence and standing on the shoulders of giants–culture is made up of living, evolving traditions, after all–and yet they are also unafraid of going their own ways and in the true post-punk spirit absorbing myriad influences with adventurous confidence. So whatever concerns you may have about the pitfalls of “revivals” generally–and I certainly share some of that skepticism–I implore you to listen with and open mind and your influence-trainspotting binoculars set aside, and I believe you will be handsomely rewarded.
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At seven mixes, 130 artists, and over eight hours, full tracklists here would be overkill, though you can download the booklet separately from the full download if you’d like. The artists list includes:
A Projection · Ablebody · Agent Side Grinder · Anika · Ashrae Fax · Ausmuteants · Aviaries · Band Aparte · Behavior · Beach Fossils · Beak · Bent · Black Marble · Blau Blau · Blood Sound · Blood Sport · Bobsleigh Baby · Carola Bony · Bootblacks · Cellular Chaos · CFCF · Chromatics · Cold Beat · Cold Cave · Cold Waste · Corners · Corridor · Cowtown · Crumbs · The Dance Asthmatics · Daphni · Death & Vanilla · Dirt Dress · Dirty Ghosts · Disappears · Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein · Drab Majesty · Eagulls · Eat Skull · Electrelane · Electricity In Our Homes · Erase Errata · Esses · Estrambote · The Estranged · Explode Into Colors · Exploded View · Factory Floor · Fear Of Men · Forests · Foster Body · Freak Heat Waves · Frustration · Fujiya & Miyagi · Gesture · Glintshake · Gold Cross · Golden Teacher · Grass Is Green · Grass Widow · Joana Guerra · Hdspns · Holograms · The Knife · Koban · The Kurws · The Lanskies · Lithics · LCD Soundsystem · Lunch · M!R!M · Massicot · Mazing Vids · Melt Yourself Down · Mere Women · Mermaidens · Micachu & The Shapes · Minuit Machine · Mode Moderne · Moss Lime · My Disco · Naked Lights · New Blood · New Fries · The New Sound of Numbers · No Zu · Normal Love · Omni · Opposite Sex · Otzi · Ought · The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart · Parquet Courts · Peaking Lights · Plastic People · Pow! · Preening · Preoccupations · Priests · Primitive Motion · Primitive Parts · Prinzhorn Dance School · Protomartyr · Ravioli Me Away · Frankie Rose · Sacred Paws · Savages · Shadowlands · Shopping · Sneaks · The Soft Moon · Surplus 1980 · Taiwan Housing Project · Talk Normal · Terrible Truths · Terry · Total Control · Total Victory · Trash Kit · Tunabunny · Unur · Uranium Club · Var · Varsovia · Vats · Viet Cong · Virginia Wing · Vivian Girls · Winkie · Wint · The World · Yvette · The Zygotes
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More even than usual, I ask that you seriously put your money where your ears are, and purchase all that you can of these musicians’ work. Almost all of them are active in one form or another, so you can even go see their shows! But they need our support to allow the talent they’re already exhibiting to flourish in ways we can’t yet imagine. Almost all are on Bandcamp where you can send a lot of your money their way as I have, and a good number still produce records, CDs and cassettes (maybe their one slip into total period-nostalgia) if like me you are still filling your homes with artifacts. You can stream the series (and 40+ other mixes) at Musicophilia’s Mixcloud page or below, and download the full set at the link below. I hope you’ll enjoy the music, and pass this post along to anyone who loves this music, or is about to.
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Download just the Tracklists & Artwork | Download the ‘Post-Punk: 2007/2017’ Box Set (923MB)
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