Post-Punk

The second album from San Diego’s Three Mile Pilot gets the occasional listen over the years since acquiring the record in the 90s. There’s some thoughts penned here on the band’s sound as well as the totally unique style of the band’s bass player, Zach Smith.

A buried, minimal synth gem from this short-lived Cornwall-based group from the 1980s. Like many groups doing DIY synth music at this time across the globe they offer a hidden flash of brilliance with this track.

Coming back onto my musical radar recently after a long gap, this epic, classical music influenced track of punk-influenced electronics is a standout for this UK group who released a run of albums on Mute Records.

Having had interactions with members of this band over the years — whether it’s being in the same tour van or in friendship — here’s look at an interesting track from an incredibly underrated post-industrial album Ugashia by the this group formed in London UK out another group, Noi Kabát.

The first album by English dream/jangle pop band Felt — and more specifically this track — has been an occasional hazy weekend favourite since discovering it well over 20 years ago.

This track from the band’s 1981 self-titled début (of which there’s two versions) offers a strong fusion of post-punk, Aussie pub rock, DIY percussion underpinned by rhythmic structuring more aligned with electronic dance music.

A look at this track from the 1991 Fugazi album Steady Diet Of Nothing, from a band that is for me one of the most important in terms of influence and direction in my musical history.

From the first album of three that he released on Mercury Records between 1981-1983, this track by iconoclastic, new wave guitarist Bill Nelson is a late-blooming yet crucial discovery for me.

A key track for me by this cult and obscure Scottish multi-disciplinary artist Pinkie Maclure from her 1985 album Unman, a release of fascinating experimental post-punk, drone and industrial tracks.

This track from the band’s newest 2024 album Wilting— featuring members of Arab On Radar, Doomsday Student, etc — offers a soundtrack to danceable psychosis, built on the back of their history of musical output.

With recent discovery made through the long running music blog Systems Of Romance, here’s a first take on this track by the French synth/post-punk group Réseau D’Ombres who were active in the mid to late 1980s.

During a recent visit to Vancouver that’s currently wrapping up, a nice haul of records was found, including a number of Canadian underground classics such as this early EP and its title track “Rotting Geraniums” by Moev.

With this influential 90s post-hardcore band Unwound back on the road again, I have dug back into the extensive catalogue of one of my favourite bands with the track “Envelope”.

Consisting of 90s punk guitarist Christina Billotte (Slant 6) and Kathi Wilcox (Bikini Kill), the band’s latest 2022 release Sanguine Truth gets another listen on a chill weekend morning.

The Vanishing‘s “Lovesick” from their second and final album Still Lifes Are Failing is a somewhat obscure yet prevailing dancefloor classic from San Francisco’s dark synth-punk scene of the early 2000s.

“Themes For Great Cities” by one of my faves from that era, Glasgow’s Simple Minds, opens 1981’s Sister Feelings Call… or Sons And Fascination?

World Of Rubber by UK post-punk duo Second Layer was lucky find from many years ago, and its closing track “Black Flowers” a moody fave.

The sole LP by the short-lived Beautiful Skin, an American electronic duo working with sounds preceding the minimal wave revival, from hardcore roots.

Released in 1981, the track “Dark Rooms” by the short-lived Chicago post-punk group DA! goes for slow moving dramatics with accompanying promo video.

November Group were a Boston-based, Europe-leaning post-punk group brought to my attention by a friend I met on tour many years ago.

With darker post-punk music being spoken more and more in many different languages, the band Eirin Peryglus is one of the few I know of sung in Welsh.