A COAT Plow A Singular Furrow Of Idiosyncratic Pop With Self-Titled Debut Album

Posted on October 2, 2025 by postpunkmonk
A COAT honestly represent themselves here with this image

I’d not heard of the band A COAT before, but when word of them came over the transom, I had the spare minute to sample the wares on Bandcamp and I was immediately smitten by the poise and wit of vocalist one Johnny Brownbow. Landing, as he did, within putting distance of Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy in his arch delivery. The music itself was another story entirely, though one well worth telling. A COAT were Brownbow on vocals, guitar, and Casio with Kurt Jurgens on various machines and guitar. Kurt’s dog poppy also vocalizes. And as much as I was drawn to the excellent lyrics, the music surrounding those pearls was decidedly idiosyncratic and highly compelling. Let’s dive in, shall we?

Bandcamp | UK | DL/CD | 2024

A COAT: A COAT – UK – DL/CD [2025]

  1. The Binoculars Of Hate 4:01
  2. I’m Not Paul McGrath 5:26
  3. The Telescope Of Love 2:48
  4. Sugar Puffs 3:19
  5. Brownbow’s Hyperbole 2:24
  6. Noor Inayat Khan 1:57
  7. Thicker Than Me 3:04
  8. Abortion! 4:31
  9. Formby’s Admonishment 3:50
  10. Hats Off To Sloths 4:14
  11. Satchel 4:32
  12. Eddie Edwards Reminisces and Lies about the Cheltenham Music Scene Circa 1988 2:02

The first two bars of “The Binoculars Of Hate” were enough to sell me on investigating the whole album. The lazy guitar vying with the rudimentary beatbox was beyond casual but when the TB-303 squelches began to manifest, I was paying rapt attention to the results! The low-fi, shambolic groove was like nothing else I’d ever heard with no resistance at all to plowing a singular musical furrow that everyone else had completely overlooked. The juxtaposition of Acid House tropes on such incredibly low BPM music was astonishing. And once the music bed had hooked my ears, but hard… I next paid attention to the biting lyrics which were more acidic than the bass! In a nutshell, the song was from the point of view of a Brexit-loving fan of Nigel Farage; scanning the coastline for immigrants attempting to invade Mother England!

“Let me read my notebook jottings, folks
2 rafts, 5 women, 8 kids and 16 blokes.
I’m doing for Queen and country
what the navy refuses to do

The Binoculars Of Hate

The oscillating synths of “I’m Not Paul McGrath” laid a foundation for Brownbow to lend his plaintive voice to this tale of alcohol and regret. The minor key synths permeating this one gave off the whiff of The Residents to these ears, but lyrically, the Eyeball Brothers had nothing on the self-deprecating humor oozing out of this tune like slime from a snail. The singer compared himself negatively to many famous drinkers in the verses yet the chorus here was simply “I’ve got to give my liver a rest.” And the 303 showed up again here giving me hope that it would flavor all of these songs with its unique spice. Speaking of spice, the “guitar frippery” of Viscount Leo Whetter added a passable Fripptone to the solo on the song’s climax.

“I’m no Hasselhoff
Too much whisky just makes me cough
The acid reflux goes down the wrong way
I’ll have another one anyway”

I’m Not Paul McGrath

“Brownbow’s Hyperbole” immediately caught my ear with the opening couplet of “Late Night Movies by The Doctors Of Madness, is the greatest album ever made.” I could not help but to be drawn into the lyric making just the sort of esoteric and knowing musical judgement that is guaranteed to capture the attention of This Monk. Also, I was personally chagrined that after several decades, I still only have “Figments of Emancipation” and have yet to hear the classic “Late Night Movies – All Night Brainstorms!!” Best of all, the largely acoustic song continued down this path to various similar pronouncements as Brownbow turned his lyrical scalpel inward on his propensity to gush hyperbolically.

The groaning synths of “Thicker Than Me” that buzzed and roiled like a pained animal had obviously spurred on Kurt Jurgen’s dog Poppy to howl and bark along in the song’s intro. Hence their credit here. The largely atonal track was content to represent that reactionary mindset that easily found fault with everything and everyone as the vibe, and even theme to an extent here, mirrored PiL’s “Go Back” from “Flowers Of Romance.”

I was drawn to the Discofunk of “Abortion!” wherein the music bed was at its slickest of surfaces, but beneath the surface the lyrics painted a very different picture. Full of allusions to American Red State issues that suggested that no matter what is affecting the population, they could always be manipulated by a hot-button issue wielded ruthlessly…I think! If I could only get past the infectious choral refrain of “what do you think…what do you think NAME-HERE” followed by a-bor-tion, abortion, abortion.” Or the acid guitar licks of Will Hutch; so incongruous in their setting here. The drop to a bar of pure rhythm guitar licks also worked flawlessly as a hook.

The urgent technpop of “Hats Off To Sloths” proffered a specious, mythical origin tale of sloths as recited by Naicher Mann. This was the sort of song that no one else would think to write but A COAT were made of sterner stuff. And laughed off any naysaying to get on with the task. The acoustic jug band blues of “Satchel” was an ode to a dog, or possibly the ideal of a dog. One could hardly imagine a more rustic and bucolic track; coming as it did, on the heels of the high-tech acme of the album with the previous “Hats Off To Sloths.” This fearlessness was just another reason why this album was earning my respect and love even from the first play. After six or seven plays, I had to wonder “why am I bother listening to anything other than A COAT?”

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The album was actually released last year but I say better late, than never! The lyrical POV that Brownbow brought to the material was unique and idiosyncratic to the max. And then the arrangements took that extreme posture as a jumping off point into the void! There was something to Brownbow that had me thinking of cult fave Tim Benton of )… and wouldn’t you know it… they were mates with Benton having mastered this album!

Digging deeper, I found that Brownbow was a nom du disque of Richard Batchelor of the band Ricky Spontane. And further, I saw that I have some Baxendale recordings with Batchelor in my mile-long want list! So I was peripherally aware of Batchelor years before hearing the compelling results of his songwriting as on this supa-fine A COAT album. But all of this has meaning and context. And now I have another songwriter to dig deep on, based on the compelling evidence as revealed on “A COAT.” The DL will set you back £7.50 with CDs available [with bonus drawings by the artiste] for £9.44. Fans of a singular and quixotic artistic vision need look no further than A COAT for a compelling and satisfying listen. DJ hit that button!

Post-Punk Monk buy button

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Posted in Immaterial Music, Record Review | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Figures On A Beach Resurface 34 Years Later With Lost Demo Of “Play”

Posted on October 1, 2025 by postpunkmonk
Figures On A Beach 1987
You might see this Monktone image of Figures On A Beach elsewhere…

It was some time on September 19th when stealing a glance [all I can muster lately] at the trouser Press Forum that I was alerted to the fact that there was a “new” Figures On A Beach single available for the first time in decades on Bandcamp. I went there immediately and bought the single as a download. We have a Pro-FOAB policy here at PPM following years of undue indifference. We like their unashamedly New Wave take on Pop Rock of a definite Duran slant.

In the time of this blog, we’ve gone about purchasing FOAB releases for the Record Cell and this new single was no different…except that being a DL, I didn’t have to find the money for a mail order buy like I normally do with this band. It was immediate gratification. And immediate gratification was where the band’s head was at when they recorded this in 1991.

Their time on Sire Records had come and gone by 1991, and their page on Bandcamp has singer Anthony Kaczynski setting the stage with the band unsure of how to fit into an increasingly Grungy landscape where Dance Rock with guitars and synths was seen as yesterday’s news. The band recorded four demos to shop to different labels but came up empty handed and went with the option of disbanding.

Kacyzinski was driving to The Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina earlier this year when he played the demo of “Play” to his friend Garret Vandermolen. Vandermolen ran a label called The Sound Cove and thought that “Play” needed to reach more ears, so after restoring the master tape and remastering the song, it got released on September 19th. I bought it the next day and was so preoccupied with life events coming fast and furious that I didn’t remember I had it until last weekend! Let’s all listen and report back with our findings!

The Sound Cave | US | DL | 2025

Figures On A Beach: Play – US – DL [2025]

  1. Play 4:04

Rik Rolski’s aggressive bass throb keeping time like a synth loop was the first thing out of the gate. Sharp, clean guitar chords with almost no sustain, mixed primarily to the left channel made a perky foundation for Kaczynski to glide into the song and unleash his vocal. Chris Ewen’s tremolo, monosynth keys adding counterpoint to the guitars in a playful fashion. After the first verse, the kick drums upped the energy to take the rest of the song to a higher energy level that pulled Kaczynski along for the ride. The instrumental middle eight almost channeled Elvis Costello and The Attractions “Radio Radio” for a couple of bars before the climactic verse of the song takes it up to the next octave.

Then Mr. Ewen threw us a curve ball with a perpendicular, atonal synth solo for a few bars that I did not see coming before the big wrap up from Kaczynski. It’s a different sound than I am familiar with from the band as I still don’t have their sophomore album. A little punchier and quirkier than I was used to as the bend sought ways out from the mid-80s cul-de-sac that they had launched their major label career from. Kaczynski and Ewen are still bandmates today in Magnetic Fields and the latter also forms half of Stephin Merritt’s side gig band Future Bible Heroes. But hearing this makes me wonder what would happen if Figures On A Beach would attempt to reform and make music nearly 40 years later. Dare they? At the least Kaczynski hints that the rest of that 1991 demo may be forthcoming. In the interim, we can listen to a song rescued from the tape locker and the mists of time. DJ hit that button!

Post-Punk Monk buy button

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Posted in Immaterial Music, Surviving The 90s | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Sextile and Automatic Touch Down At Grey Eagle Asheville [9-29-25] And Rock The House

Posted on September 30, 2025 by postpunkmonk
Brady Keehn + Melissa Scaduto of Sextile
Sextile were like a flashback to 35 year old Nitzer Ebb shows we had enjoyed

Last night was a little different for me. Last Thursday, I received the email from The Grey Eagle, my main live local venue. As usual, I scanned the wealth of Americana/Jam Band listings to stop on photos of artists who looked like they could be my sort of thing. The bill for September 29th was Sextile and Automatic, from Los Angeles. I’m not exactly hungry for live music in this particularly fecund wave of concerts this season for me, but this was a local show I could arrive at in just 15 minutes. So the thought was to strike while the iron was hot, even though we just saw Judas Priest the last weekend…but that was a 2:30 drive each way. Just saying.

I first investigated each band’s Wikipedia pages; both were described as Post-Punk. So… case virtually closed. A jaunt to Automatic’s Bandcamp page to sample their new album released the next day [last Friday and I was in. I felt that Automatic were good enough to buy a ticket for even if they were opening for Tina Turner [a private joke]. As for Sextile, they were described as Electroclash influenced and I marveled at that trend finally hitting Asheville after 28 years. I had not bought heavily into Electroclash at the time but certainly approved of it on principle. They were also signed to the excellent Sacred Bones Records label. I’d seen a few of the acts on their roster in Asheville over the years: Boy Harsher, Soft Moon [R.I.P.], Zola Jesus and that suggests a very high standard, so they were in good company. So I bought my ticket on Sunday. eTix platform; minimal charges, thanks!

Both bands were from Los Angeles, but I won’t hold that against them. Since they were friendly and adjacent there was cross pollination between them on disc. The new Sextile album, “Yes, Please” [possibly the most Pet Shop Boys title imaginable] featured Izzy Glaudin of Automatic co-writing three of the tracks and even singing lead on one of them; “Hospital.” This tour seemed like a natural for the pair as they were venturing out with each other for company and mutual support. After dinner last night I drove over to the club and secured nearby free parking. One of the perks of Grey Eagle shows. I ventured in, scanned the flyers for anything else that might be interesting [there may be a few] and popped the plugs in to partake.

AUTOMATIC PLEASURES

Automatic offered a low key, late night vibe

The show was very well attended. Not the sometimes typical Asheville pearls before swine. A healthy crowd were there for Automatic and I even spotted what seemed like a T-shirt or two in evidence. Automatic are a trio of women but for the tour their usual drummer, Lola Dompé [daughter of Kevin Haskins, PPM fact fans] was sitting out and had been replaced by another; a man, in fact. Halle Saxon played bass and singing and playing synths was Izzy Glaudini. Her racks held one of the Moog Phatty series [unsure which one] and what was definitely a Sequential Circuits Prophet Rev 2. Excellent choices for a minimal rig with maximum reach. They began their with a beguiling sound that was heavy on the live bass and drums with zesty synth seasoning where necessary. Ms. Glaudini was singing with a tone that I really enjoyed; striking close to the Tina Weymouth zone while the moody, at times dreamy music sounded nothing like Tom Tom Club. Instead the vibe was much closer to Joy Division, with motorik drumming and sustained synth patches filling in the space in the sound the rhythm left.

automatic at grey eagle asheville
Halle Saxon also played synth bass near the end of their set

The mix was excellent this evening as I could understand everything she was singing with clarity despite the Earasers® firmly embedded. All of the constituent parts of the music were there to enjoy. No bass fracking was happening either. Were I not partially deaf, I might have taken the plugs out entirely as this was a joyful and non-aggressive sound. The songs tumbled richly into the appreciative crowd one after another as they were all succinct little gems well under the four minute mark in every case. Brevity being the soul of wit as The Poet proffered [and The Monk agrees]. I was so pleased that I had learned about this show with a few days to spare. At one point Ms. Glaudini told the crowd that she would be joining Sextile onstage afterward as I had hoped! Then as their set reached its end, Ms. Saxon abandoned her bass and moved stage right for the Phatty as they played their last few numbers. Leaving this listener with a warm afterglow.

TACTILE SEXTILE

Sextile at grgey eagle asheville
Sextile [L-R]: Melissa Scaduto and Brady Keehn

The musicians and crew broke down the set and the synth rig at the back of the stage was obviously for Sextile’s gig. As were the guitars at the rear of the stage. The between set music actually included, be still my beating heart, Cabaret Voltaire! I think the first time I’ve ever heard that band outside of my own home! [was it “Kickback” I had heard?] Proof positive, as if I needed it, that I lived in the Southeast of the United States. A pair of e-drums were brought on stage for some organic beats. After about 15 minutes the duo of Brady Keehn and Melissa Scaduto walked onstage and got down to business. At first with Ms. Scaduto on synths and Keehn on vocals and guitar but they would be trading off all evening to keep things stimulating.

Did I say stimulating? There would be no shortage of that factor during their high energy set, which contrasted with the laidback vibe of their friends Automatic most capably. No, this was a set where the entire audience would be pogoing along as they dipped into a melange of “Punk Techno” as it’s been described along with frissons of hard minimal EBM by way of DAF [and by extension, Nitzer Ebb]. In fact, the vibe in their set was strongly redolent of Nitzer Ebb concerts I’d seen 35 years ago! The biggest difference being the infectious joy that Ms. Scaduto brought to the stage. The hammering beats were not a downer or any kind of punishment. They were a tribal gateway to euphoria instead.

sextile at grey eagle asheville
There was lots of hair whipping in the visceral Sextile set

Mr. Keehn would at times inject berserk rhythm guitar, played pick-meltingly fast into the largely programmed beats and bass bombs for some necessary undercurrents of chaos into their tightly gridded, techno-adjacent music. But this was Club music being performed in a club. One packed with bouncing bodies and it soon became apparent that I would be having a shower before bed this evening! The two times that Brady sprayed the audience with a cup of cold ice water from the stage was less an affront than a thoughtful gesture. And yes, it looked cool, too.

I had seen up front when perusing the band’s Bandcamp page that their new album had a cover of Renegade Soundwave’s “Women Respond To Bass” but in fact, Sextile have written a radically different song using the title alone as a jumping off spot! The Francophile Deep House of RSW being traded off for a much higher BPM, booming sub-bass, and machine gun bursts of frantic cowbell instead. The mix also pushed large portions of the set [including vocals] into a Dubspace that only aided the vibe in reaching towards nirvana.

izzy glaudini with Sextile in asheville
Izzy Glaudini with Sextile in Asheville on the song “Hospital” which she also sings on the current Sextile album, “Yes, Please”

As the set pulsated like a piston throughout its run time, the appearance of Izzy Glaudini for her turn at the mic added a necessary pause in the set of short, sharp, salvos of intense dance floor dynamite for a breather before the final leg. The song she wrote with the band, “Hospital,” met Automatic more than halfway. It had none of the hard clubbing intensity of the Sextile set thus far and functioned fully as an Automatic song. Then afterward, Brady and Melissa took turns in pushing the envelope a little bit further towards ecstatic overdrive in its final leg. The new song “Resist” climaxed the set and seemed to be cut from the cloth that the suit of 2025 requires. Ms. Scaduto brought a flag onstage with the motto “no one is free until everyone is free.” A plea for the solidarity we’ll need if we’re ever to extricate ourselves from the mess we’re in. Then the set ended with a bang followed by the lights within a minute because this was not Rock Music. At that point a traditional encore would have been untenable.

sextile with solidarity flag
Sextile leave us with a message of hope

Rating: 5 out of 5.

I do find it refreshing to see new [to me] acts with little or no deep diving for a bracing taste of something fresh. As the show was very well-attended, obviously the audience don’t share my penchant for a secure firewall to keep out bad art. While it protects me from some things [Ed Sheeran, Tayor Swift, et. al.] I sometimes wonder if I should have a more permeable membrane so as not to miss out of delightful phenomena like Automatic and Sextile. Who knows. Maybe these bands were using Tik Tok to reach the packed house? That would leave me out. I did notice that the show was promoted by Worthwhile Sounds; an agency I recognize from shows I’ve attended locally in the past, so maybe they have a mailing list I can sign up for to make sure that I don’t miss out moving forward?

Anyone reading this won’t necessarily have to miss out either. While their tour together has been on the road for eight dates thus far crossing across America’s top half, there’s still ten more dates ahead of them. Tonight they are playing at Third Man Records in The Blue Room for any Nashvillians with this evening free. And next month Automatic cross the pond for their European tour with all dates below. I bought both bands’ new albums at the merch table and have already revisited both bands already this morning on the commute to work. Sextile were a high energy throwback to EBM intensity filtered through subsequent club styles and not a typical part of the Monastic music diet, but sometimes I just need those hard beats. Automatic are a bus I hope to be riding for some time.

SEXTILE | AUTOMATIC US TOUR 2025

  • Tue, SEP 30 | The Blue Room | Nashville, TN
  • Wed, OCT 1 | The Masquerade | Atlanta, GA
  • Fri, OCT 3 | The Studio at the Factory | Dallas, TX
  • Sat, OCT 4 | White Oak Music Hall | Houston, TX
  • Sun, OCT 5 | Mohawk Austin | Austin, TX
  • Mon, OCT 6 | Lowbrow Palace | El Paso, TX
  • Wed, OCT 8 | Crescent Ballroom | Phoenix, AZ
  • Thu, OCT 9 | Swan Dive | Las Vegas, NV
  • Fri, OCT 10 | The Observatory North Park | San Diego, CA
  • Sat, OCT 11 | The Novo | Los Angeles, CA

AUTOMATIC EUROPEAN TOUR 2025

  • Wed, NOV 12 | Daltons | Brighton, United Kingdom
  • Thu, NOV 13 | The Lexington | London, United Kingdom
  • Sat, NOV 15 | Puschenfest 2025 | Berlin, Germany
  • Mon, NOV 17 | Bumann & SOHN | Köln, Germany
  • Tue, NOV 18 | Paradisio | Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • Wed, NOV 19 | BAM | Metz, France
  • Thu, NOV 20 | Petit Bain | Paris, France
  • Fri, NOV 21 | La Sirene | La Rochelle, France
  • Mon, NOV 24 | ARCI Bellezza | Milano, Italy
  • Tue, NOV 25 | Bike Jesus | Hlavní Město Praha, Czechia
  • Thu, NOV 27 | Milla Club | Munich, Germany

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Posted in Concert Review, Tourdates | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Ultravox Release Blank + Jones so80s Reconstruction Remix of “Love’s Great Adventure”

Posted on September 29, 2025 by postpunkmonk
That looks like a 7″ single at left but it’s a CD

Following the expansive 11 disc reissue program Chrysalis Catalogue undertook for the “Lament” album by Ultravox, It’s astonishing that anything was left over but October 17th sees the release of a new EP of “Love’s Great Adventure” with several loose remixes that were held back from the BSOG, Blu-Ray, Steven Wilson 2.0 remix 2xCD, and the #9 disc of extra remixes! Fortunately, the A-side is a Blank + Jones so80s Reconstruction of “Love’s Great Adventure.”

This is another case where Blank + Jones have been given access to the masters to remix in their penchant for a very “authentic” sounding remix that would be appropriate to the era the song was released in…only different to any extant 12″ versions. I have the Blank + Jones so80s ZTT project and it’s a real treat to hear their chops resulting in post-modern remixes that sound “vintage.” Blank + Jones mixed “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes” on the “Extended Re-Mix” disc [#3] of the “Lament” BSOG of last year and I’m happier to hear the attention given this time to the last great Ultravox single from their Imperial Period.

“Love’s Great Adventure” was the unexpected, upbeat track added to their 1984 “The Collection” greatest hits Christmas release. Built on the bones of Ure + Cross’s unused second attempt at a Levis ad soundtrack that went m.i.a. when they got tired of dealing with the ad agency and walked away with the track in progress. The band had also seen record buyer surveys at Chrysalis that showed that fans felt that they were po-faced and stiff to a fault and this exuberant track was the band’s reaction to that finding. The 1984 12″ merely uses most of the backing track sans vocals for a very conservative instrumental intro buildup before the single with vocals was edited in for a tight 5:40 12″ mix. That 1980 12″ version approach in 1984 was past its sell-by date. So I’m glad that that Blank + Jones will be doing something a little more “adventurous” with the song this time. The EP will contain four tracks. All of which are new to our ears.

ultravox love's great adventure EP
Chrysalis Records | UK | CD/10″ | 2025

Ultravox: Love’s Great Adventure Blank + Jones so80s Reconstruction – UK – 10″/CD [2025]

  1. Love’s Great Adventure [Blank + Jones so80s Reconstruction] 5:07
  2. All Stood Still [12” Extended Re-Mix Extra] 7.06
  3. Love’s Great Adventure [Steven Wilson Instrumental Mix] 3.09
  4. Hymn [Alternative Instrumental Outtake] 6.02

There’s no word on the provenance on the “All Stood Still” new 7:06 mix but it will be much different to the tentative original 1981 12″ mix which had a 30 second instrumental buildup and little else different. The Steven Wilson “LGA” instrumental remix was made for the “Lament” BSOG but not used. More intriguing is the “Hymn” Alternative Instrumental Outtake. It was originally recorded in late 1982 as part of a re-recording session for the band’s appearance on Top Of The Pops. Which is the interesting story there.

The British Musician’s union held forth that performances of songs on BBC television required the band to record a new backing track and to sing live over it for such appearances. For all I know, the band got union scale payment for doing this. But in practice, the TOTP producers played the single and the bands famously mimed. Which the TV producers vastly preferred. It looks like this version of “Hymn” was what transpired in the studio when the band had to go through the motions of recording a new backing track. Color me intrigued.

They are even cutting a new video for the song using unused footage from the 1984 shooting. Which can only help. At least Chrysalis Catalogue is giving us a choice on formats. The EP is available on 10″ and CD. Ultravox have previously done the 10″/CD thing memorably with the “Moments From Eden” release in 2010. But the window of going all-in on Ultravox has closed for me. Particularly as I’m selling off the Ultravox releases I’ve bought over the years and not enjoyed. There’s no point for me any more to “have it all.”

Both formats have a die-cut card sleeve with the label art on the disc itself completing the cover design. The CD is a “record like” black polycarbonate disc with pressed “grooves” on the label side similar to what Culture Factory do with their CD releases. The official Ultravox store calls these “limited edition” releases… pretty much like any other physical product today! If you’ve an interest, act now or likely pay more in the aftermarket later.

I’ve committed for the CD and once more The Fathead’s pig-ignorant tariff/trade war policy cost me over the price of the disc [$15.50] in duties and shipping. And my only option is to call it out like I just did. I looked into other domestic distributors but came up empty handed. Until third parties obtain the discs, it appears that the official Ultravox webstore is the only place to preorder this. And that’s the Global store. The US store only has pair of “Lament” issues so choose accordingly. $13.99 for the CD and $21.99 for the 10″ EP. Both for $32.99. Interestingly enough, the prices include taxes. But not the shipping/duty charges! DJ’s hit that button!

Post-Punk Monk buy button

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Posted in Core Collection, New Romantic, Scots Rock, Want List | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Nostalgia Deathstar Tackle The Large Problem On Incisive And Defiant Album “They Kill The Flame” [pt. 2]

Posted on September 26, 2025 by postpunkmonk

[continued from last post…]

An innocent at the gates…

I had previously encountered “The Ground Belongs To Me” on the “Mutant Electro: Generation Blitz Volume 4” compilation that came out earlier this year but the heavy Discofunk rework that Sons Of Ken remixed had done the song no favors for those who wanted to know what it was actually about. The potent lyrics there were subsumed in popping basses and scratching that all but obliterated the song’s message. Here on the Nostalgia Deathstar album proper, the music bed was kinetic and full of shimmering synths and tightly syncopated eighth notes that were decidedly lower key than on the remix. Here we could make out the lyrics, and they were a dank portrait of unchecked and entitled avarice as the point of view in the song imagined earth, sea, and air under the control of a single agency. I loved the “la-la-la-las” that closed out the song; a callback to the similar climax on Heaven 17’s “Geisha Boys + Temple Girls.”

“The ground belongs to me
And so does the sea
And all of this will be yours
Within reason… of course
The ground belongs to me
And so does the sea
But I knew the reason why
It’s because I own the sky”

The Ground Belongs To Me

The notion of the war on facts themselves was at the heart of “Pneumotic.” It was a tightly arpeggiated track decrying the manner in which lies and deliberate misinformation from the tongues of “influencers” and specious experts using the electronic tools at their disposal to challenge the validity of education and truth itself. There ended the intense, first half of the album full of buzzing, stochastic energy discharge.

The transition to the second half [Martin James of the group intended the album to play like “Bowie’s “Low” and it absolutely will on LP] was shepherded by the loaded conceit of “ART v STEM” wherein the quantifiable “hard” sciences which are easy to translate into economic gain were seen as dominant in the current educational market where humanities are derided as valueless. Their only value in that they enrich individuals for multifaceted roles in society which are no longer valued in an environment where specialization; the emulation of a machine by biological entities, is seen as the prima value of a person. The was a musical transition via an electronic prayer borne aloft on gentle, sustained synth chords and a melodic rondo abetted in the conclusion by the first obvious guitars to be found on this album. While Mr. James recited the dense lyrics in a hushed whisper.

“The Sooner You Begin” opened with a rhythm free first minute where the synthesizers loomed large on the horizon like a dawn’s rays piercing the veil of night. Then at the first minute, the methodical rhythm track began cycling around the song as Martin unleashed articulate invective against the trend for increased power flowing to the managerial side of education as it finds itself hobbled further and further by the use of increased structure limitations and the dampening of academic freedoms under a bureaucratic hegemony. The lyrical content here was so overpowering that the track’s long, nearly seven minute running time was viewed as a shock by me on my third or fourth playback of the album. There had been a constant flow of ideas here. Also noteworthy was how James was singing and reciting the lyrics in his own voice instead of assuming a role, as most of the songs up to this point had proceeded. This helped to cast the song as the shellshocked flip side to the more inflammatory “Human Resources” on the first half of the album.

“I’m sick of this narcissistic management
I’m sick of your pathological temperament
I’m sick of your top-down dictatorship
Is this another toxic relationship?
I’m tired of living in this masquerade
I’m tired of living through these dying days
I’m tired of this financial meritocracy
Is the end of western liberal democracy?”

The Sooner You Begin

The chittering insect rhythms of “Helioseismic” were shot through with ethereal choral patches as James crooned the lyric enumerating the lies used to sell the commodity of education to a consumer base lacking the cognitive tools to ascertain their veracity. The gentle machine rhythms served to effectively move the song forward in a deceptively laid-back fashion as once more the lyric was not taking any prisoners. And the vibe here was unmistakably redolent of one of my very favorite unsung Bowie songs; “Untitled No. 1” from the “Buddha Of Suburbia” soundtrack. That it also took an expansive 6:30 to play out was ideal for my smitten ears.

The tightly riffing rhythm guitars gave an almost INXS feel to the new version of the 2023 Nostalgia Deathstar single “Oath Of Allegiance [No Kings]” here as the fantasy lyrics posited a singularly selfless monarch dedicated to the dismantling of the monarchy itself. The climax of the song seemed to have been inspired by the left wing Synth Funk classic, “[We Don’t Need This] Fascist Groove Thang” thought the vibe couldn’t be more different, as this was also the album taking a rare step into actual Rock music for once.

The concluding “ZU [Night Of The Claustrozombies]” closed the album with a revisit to the intensity of its opening. This time with far more soundbites from Professors Tara Brabazon and Steve Redhead among the vocals and lyrics from Mr. James this time filling the song. The vibe was more downcast and less aggressive, though the tempo was just as agitated and frantic. The words decrying the anti-intellectual forces putting the pinch on society and taking command of all the reins of society didn’t exactly fill me with hope and confidence in these, the end times, though the end quote from Dr. Brabazon tries gamely to sound a warning that we still have a chance.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

This album was an amazing deep dive into concepts and concerns of mine that have dogged my heels for the last 35 years; over half of my life as I’ve moved from being decidedly apolitical to absolutely left wing. Because I’ve been paying attention to the man behind the curtain. I’ve watched the war on education progress from polite maneuvers into a life or death struggle to insure a wider population without the tools to properly analyze the data they are being presented with on a daily basis. Coupled with an all-out assault on the very notion of education; inspired by America’s intrinsic deep-seated anti-intellectual streak that’s vast miles wide. It’s thrilling to hear a group responding to my existential sociopolitical concerns with this combination of intellectual depth and intensity. Especially in this year where America decisively became an Authoritarian nation whose Executive power is used as a blunt weapon by to eliminate all of the advances in egalitarianism and anti-poverty infrastructure that were made in the 20th century as a correct response to the excesses of the Gilded Age and the Great Depression.

This is the album I’ve been waiting for the entire 21st century. I’ve gotten glimpses, here and there, but nothing that seemed to rise up to the threat levels I was seeing escalate beyond my wildest negative imaginings. Until now. Nostalgia Deathstar aren’t just talking the talk, they are walking the walk and are the Post-Punk canaries in a collapsing coal mine that threatens to engulf us all as the gilded elite, who can pay for the finest in privatized education for their offspring are preparing their doomsday bunkers [cost is no object] or worse yet, their private space force as they cast their eye off planet to own the planet Mars. What was once the province of fantastical James Bond villains is now commonplace in the Late-Stage Capitalism charnel house that awaits us.

It says volumes that the Bandcamp page for this release contains an overweeningly large and complete research bibliography [with links] for anyone wishing to explore these themes in a more academic form. Obviously, I fully endorse owning copies of this amazing album, which is so far ahead of the pack for album of the year I might as well give the award right now. And it is available in the three formats.

POPULAR FORMATS

  • DL – £7.00
  • CD – £10.00
  • LP – £27.90/$31.90

The LP contains just the first nine tracks, and is available from ElasticStage which is an on-demand platform and will be available from October 22nd. The limited edition CD is available now from Bandcamp as well as the 24/44.1 DL – which they never run out of. I don’t care how you partake, just do yourself a favor and listen. Then begin to act. As Dr. Tara Brabzon says in the final track [on the CD only] “This is not going to end well, is it?”

CD + DL – BANDCAMP

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LP – ELASTICSTAGE

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Nostalgia Deathstar Tackle The Large Problem On Incisive And Defiant Album “They Kill The Flame” [pt. 1]

Posted on September 25, 2025 by postpunkmonk

A someone born in the sixties, I thank my lucky stars that I made it through the education process before it had been hollowed out by politicians determined to have a populace incapable of critical thought as well making higher education into a cudgel of debt to ensure a tractable and fearful populace. I was among the first generation to play with inexpensive desktop computers as creative tools and currently, in 2025, our owners prefer to cut human creativity [that they have to pay for] out of the equation entirely with the latest wrinkle aiming to edge me toward a life of Neo-Luddism; the despicable pipe dream of Artificial Intelligence, virtually within their frantically grasping hands. Meanwhile they are literally stoking the fires of climate change via the enormous amounts of energy required to stop paying a worker a wage. The eco-social cost of this is staggering, but the 0.001% are seemingly assured not to pay it. Capitalism appears to be steering 99.999% of humanity towards oblivion as it ratchets up into a comfy love nest with Authoritarianism in a “no-one-could-have-predicted-that” move.

Do I have a bone to pick with human society ca. 2025? You might say that. Fortunately, I am not alone in these concerns. Nostalgia Deathstar, the electro duo comprised of Sean Albiez and Martin James, will release an album tomorrow that’s a masterclass in describing the pot containing the sociopolitical waters coming to a boil in the year 2025. It follows a tactic of examining these threads as viewed through a lens of higher education and how it is currently under attack as part of a plan to re-structure society to benefit a select few. Using Neoliberal market forces to foster the notion of a Zombie University that illuminates this work. Here in America, we’re setting the pace for others to follow, as usual, with an active war on education as conducted by an Authoritarian government attempting to shape assent in the crudest way possible. Through blunt economic force…for now.

Sean Albiez is a musician and academic who makes electronic music as Ghost Elektron. Together, with Martin James of Mothloop, they form the duo Nostalgia Deathstar. A concern whose very name points towards to the obliteration of easy comfort! Martin James has been a working at universities in the UK for much of the last 20 years; either in a Professorial capacity or otherwise. He’s witnessed and experienced terrifying things happen up close to the very idea of a University education in the UK and he’s here to report back with his findings. With synthesizer accompaniment. Let’s dig in.

State Of Bass | UK | CD/LP/DL | SOB018 | 2025

Nostalgia Deathstar: They Kill The Flame – UK – CD/LP/DL [2025]

  1. Theme from ZU [featuring Professor Tara Brabazon] 4:42
  2. Break Their Hearts My Pride and Hope 4:27
  3. Human Resource 5:05
  4. The Ground Belongs to Me 5:15
  5. Pneumotic 3:06
  6. Art V STEM 4:26
  7. The Sooner You Begin 6:52
  8. Helioseismic 6:40
  9. Oath of Allegiance (No Kings) 5:17
  10. ZU (Night of the Claustrozombies) [featuring Professor Tara Brabazon & Professor Steve Redhead] 5:32

A rubbery sequencer loop mated with the tritone aspect of a police siren as white noise swelled up heralded the introduction to the album with “Theme From ZU.” Then the hard beat locked with the loop to create a tough EBM vibe that was fairly easy to start reciting the lyrics to Nitzer Ebb’s “Control I’m Here” to for a bar or two. Then an oscillating synth riff redolent of the one in Yello’s “Bostich” interpolated into the mix and we had a desperate and urgent backbone with which to build this album’s theme on. It was inexorable and hurtling forward at reckless speed; giving off the whiff of the inevitable. By its midpoint a series of expansive synth glissandos took flight as soundbites of Professor Tara Brabazon decried the ascent of political appointees lacking Doctoral expertise firmly in charge of curricular development in the modern University environment. Minor key swells of synth in the climax leave little to the imagination regarding the urgency of the album in its first salvo.

Shimmering synths over a hard House beat practically ripped from Blow Monkey’s “Wait” remix played as “Break Their Hearts My Pride And Hope” began. And then the mood turned sinister as Martin James channeled the dark, insinuating delivery of Stephen Mallinder from Cabaret Voltaire’s imperial period. Not so much singing the verse lyrics as snarling them. His vocals treated with chorus to fill the soundstage with a roomful of drooling ogres viewing a treadmill of naive students stepping eagerly into the jaws of education. The music bed dropped out for a singular Martin James to sing the song’s chorus before the song’s inevitable cycle began anew. With hints of Acid in the climactic fade as another soundbite proclaimed “here comes another one.”

“They
They keep on coming
And here they come again so naive and so alive
They
They keep on dreaming
Dreaming of a future
Based on shameful lies”

Break Their Hearts My Pride And Hope

The dark heart of the album was the baleful “Human Resource.” A cinematic swell of synths began to curdle and roil on the horizon as the song’s chaotic intro began to cohere into a churning rhythm, strongly redolent of Propaganda’s “Frozen Faces” as the beats came forward with face-slapping intensity. Martin’s voice a model of impersonality as he dispensed with the script that everyone fired from their University position heard as the Post-Brexit environment fostered rising costs and yet another wave of austerity damaging the very structures which hold society aloft. Then the vocoders kicked with the unsettling chorus of “Well how do you feel? Well how do you feel? It’s important to us you understand, we care how you feel.” In a matter that absolutely belied the brutality of what the words were saying. The unempathetic monotone as depicted here merely insult to injury as dispensed by unfeeling cogs in a hostile machine.

Next: …Ownership In The End Times

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Fluid Japan Explore Brightly Lit Dark Areas + Team Up With Rainsurfer In New Singles

Posted on September 24, 2025 by postpunkmonk

I’ve been hitting the road so hard lately that I can barely keep up with buying things that I’m interested in. And then there’s the time to actually listen to them! Case in point, The last two Fridays have seen two singles issue on Bandcamp from the direction of Fluid Japan; a band I follow closely. On the 13th, I was flying to Orlando, so I missed the Rainsurfer EP which featured backing vocals from Fluid Japan’s Todd Lewis and Heather Heimbuch. It was only Fluid Japan adjacent, but the band have taste to spare, so if they lend their voices to another artist, it pays to pay attention. And how!

Bandcamp | UK | DL | 2025

Rainsurfer: In A Different World – UK – EP [2025]

  1. In A Different World
  2. The Prophet’s Reflection

The cleanly mixed track had a slow tempo and a loping beat with pitch bent synths from Rainsurfer that got right into a pedal steel groove for a slightly Hawaiian vibe. And then the vocals hit and I was paying rapt attention, because Rainsurfer had a presence here that sounded like a phalanx of John Cales as his voice was multiplexed with chorus vocal production effects. At that point, the mind couldn’t help but notice that the rest of the music bed was hitting Eno-esque marks with adroit aplomb. Making “In A Different World” feel like a long-lost track from the Eno/Cale classic “Wrong Way Up.”

Then the buoyant chorus allowed for the influx of Lewis’ and Heimbuch’s backing vocals to add even greater impact to the track. Ms. Heimbuch in particular, added much warmth to the already quite warm [Rainsurfer uses vintage analog gear on this music] and shimmering track. Where the collision of memory, simplicity, and the pleasure of the past chafe against the darker times of the present. With the past coloring the music more than the lyric. The B-side, “The Prophet’s Reflection” was an altogether more radically abstract sound collage. Not quite music; proffering instead cinematic atmosphere. Brief and unsettling with shards of tangy synths making for a vibe of unease before taking its leave after a brief 90 seconds. The DL is in better than CD resolution at a “name you price” so don’t forget to make it worth the artist’s time. DJ hit that button.

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Bandcamp | US | DL | 2025

Fluid Japan: [Sometimes I Feel] I Just Can’t Carry On – US – DL [2025]

  1. [Sometimes I Feel] I Just Can’t Carry On

Meanwhile, Fluid Japan released their new single the next week, when I was on the road to Charlotte. This outing was one where Walt Wistrand of the trio dealt all of the cards since he wrote, played, mixed, and even designed the artwork for the song all on his own. “[Sometimes I feel] I Can’t Carry On” was a cool, elegant track that was steeped in a vibe that felt like it was airbrushed onto the “tape.” The band cite “Wrapped Around Your Finger” by The Police as a jumping-off point, and while I can certainly hear that happening the gear used here actually made good use out of digital synths for a change. The glassy, bell tones of the keys rubbed shoulders with synths that evoked Art of Noise’s classic “Moments In Love” for these ears. But applied instead to an altogether more complex composition that was far less repetitive.

And vocally, Wistrand was really hitting a zone where I was hearing that late 60s Association sound as captured on “Cherish.” With synths doubling with his vocals to subsume them in a velvety swirling mist. A touch of clean guitar on the middle eight receded to once more cede the spotlight to his vocal before the drum fills of the climax heralded the final fade. That all of the soft, even featherlight music and vocals were in service to such a potentially depressing and nihilistic song, one that decried all notions of hope and represented a surrender to the void, was delectably ironic.

“All my life
There’s been hell to pay
Never asked to be here anyway
Try and try
But every day’s the same
The candle just seems
Wasted on the game”

[Sometimes I Feel] I Just Can’t Carry On

This was another name your price Bandcamp offering, and while I recommend buying this, I should point out that Fluid Japan are offering their entire digital discography [18 releases] for an almost maddening $4.61 currently, which I highly recommend topping off most generously. So if that seems like a good thing to you [I’ve bought on the installment plan] then DJ hit that button!

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