Aaaaaand we’re back! We’ve picked ourselves up, performed a seemingly endless parade of heavy manual labor, gotten internet in our Asheville locale restored so we’re up to jump-starting this moribund blog now that we have a lunch hour again. Let me give a shoutout to all of the commenters, musicians, and regulars who reached out to see how we were doing under that was difficult circumstances to respond. We had a neighbor on our mountain road set up a public Starlink wi-fi network hooked to a generator that was across the street and that was the only way for weeks that I was able to communicate with the larger world.

I was thinking to myself last night [instead of sleeping] that among other things, Holy Crow…I’d have a blog to write today and what was it going to be about. Even in the best of times I am capable of losing the plot, never mind following the hard reset a third of North Carolina just underwent via Hurricane Helene. A hard reset so powerful that some whole communities and roads no longer exist. We were on a mountain and lucky with no flooding in our area, but as I whiled away the minutes instead of sleeping, some musical topics of relevance began to drift across my mental proscenium as potential fodder for this phoenix-like post concerning some major musical comfort food in the aftermath of a disaster.

John Foxx: Metamatic 45th Anniversary – UK – Grey Vinyl LP [2025]

1. Plaza
2. He’s A Liquid
3. Underpass
4. Metal Beat
5. No-One Driving
6. A New Kind Of Man
7. Blurred Girl
8. 030
9. Tidal Wave
10. Touch + Go

I’d like to say that I was on “Metamatic” in January of 1980 like white on rice, but I’d be lying. I had no awareness of John Foxx until a year later; owing to my success at finally obtaining a copy of Ultravox’s “Vienna” LP in December of 1980. Almost three months after seeking it. By January, I was moving to purchase other Ultravox albums, beginning with “Ultravox!” and with that came my first exposure to John Foxx.

My next steps were buying the “Visage” album as well as “Metamatic.” All by no later than the middle of February, 1981. All of these records were foundational for my new musical worldview, and come next January [pinch yourself if you feel really old] “Metamatic” will be chalking up its 45th year as a touchstone of dystopic, Ballardesque technopop. And what will be only the sixth copy of this Cold Wave landmark will be entering my Record Cell. The first five are as follows…

• 1980 UK LP
• 1993 UK CD [bonus tracks]
• 2001 UK CD remaster [diff bonus tracks]
• 2007 2xCD remaster
• 2018 3xCD boxed set remaster

I still harbor great regret for not buying the Record Store Day 2014 gatefold white vinyl copy which dropped during a period of much travel saving. Sigh. But that was one of the occasional Demon Records Foxx releases that somehow happen. This copy will be issued on Foxx’s own Metamatic Records on January 17th, 2025. A day short of exactly 45 years, but we still have to honor the Friday release schedule. The LP will be a cold grey slab of wax for maximum cueing difficulty with the classic ten tunes present. I got the email for this from the Foxx Bandcamp account on October 1st, and and while I was in the post-hurricane “internet cafe,” I immediately clicked the link on my phone and pre-ordered the release since what else could I do in the aftermath of hurricane? Especially since the copies pre-ordered from the Official John Foxx Webstore at Townsend Records will ship with a “Metamatic” print signed by Herr Foxx.

While I have an embarrassing number of signed Foxx releases, I’d be crazy to stop buying them now! Especially since it’s my goal to have one copy of each Metamatic number release on his label. I think I’m missing only a handful. Fortunately, the price is right with the LP going for £21.99/€26.99/$29.99. Not too pricey but wow, has the Pound rallied without me being aware? Now that a series of Tory car wrecks are no longer holding the reins of Britain’s government? Of course, the shipping will cost me but I’m sanguine about it. It’s John Foxx, for crying out loud! I’ve already bought but now it’s your turn. DJ hit that button!

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