Back catalogue: Post Rock/Experimental

Review: Alongside Gilbert Artman, Guigou Chenevier, Jean-Pierre Grasset and Cyril Lefebvre, Dominique Grimaud's new 1979 adventure along side Monique AlbaVideo is made up of instrumentals that recall Henry Cow, Suicide and John Barry. It is a hugely improvised record that makes use of the AKS synth and was the start of the agitation around the Rock in Opposition and saw Musique Pour Garcons rise to the higher ends of the NEW independent charts. Electronics augmented by lap-steel guitar, tuning pop and more all feature.

Review: Virgin Prunes' If I Die, I Die album turns a remarkable 40 years old this year and as such it gets a special anniversary re-release. The original music has all been fully remastered and now included alongside it on the 2 x CD version is a selection of never before heard rarities and remixes which take in some unheard rough mixes of tracks such as 'Ballad.' This clear vinyl press has one of the band's best-known tunes in 'Baby Turns Blue' which was produced by Wire's Colin Newman and is an examination of purity and beauty. A real rock classic.

Review: The Virgin Prunes were masters of the uncanny, juxtaposing nightmares with lullabies, beauty with cruelty; combining gentle vocals and the spoken word with anguished wailing from purgatory itself. Their first album, A New Form Of Beauty (1981), powerfully laid out this terrain. Its themes ranged from mournful tales of unrequited love, frustrated sexuality, morbid eroticism and wasted youth, to yearnings for distant dreamlands, all of which were juxtaposed with macabre visions of dystopian societies, overpowered by dark forces and where demons run amok. Guggi's art work for A New Form of Beauty, which intimates a heartless transaction within a domestic setting, is in keeping with this sensibility. Now reissued by BMG, this 2024 deluxe edition features all four parts of the album remastered from the original tape, plus a trifold reverse board sleeve and a 16-page, 11-inch artbook with brand new sleevenotes.