Various - Bustin' Out: New Wave to New Beat: The Post Punk Era 1979-1981

  by Tommy Gunnarsson

published: 26 / 3 / 2010

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Review

There are few things as hard as defining musical genres. Just look at the mis-used term “indiepop”, which once was more or less the same as twee pop, but is now used for everything from the Arctic Monkeys and the Knife to Belle and Sebastian and the Clientele. The same goes for the term “post punk”, which basically means the musical movement that came out the punk in the late 70’s, when art school students revolted against the revolution that was punk. They wanted to make the music more experimental, but still with the same “anyone can play”attitude. For me, post punk is best represented by bands such as the Slits, Au Pairs, Orange Juice, Josef K and Devo, guitar-based bands (even though Devo also were synthesizer pioneers) that took the punk sound one step further, often incorporating it with reggae rhythms, and adding other instruments such as saxophones and keyboards. On this compilation, we get a broader picture of the term post punk, and compiler Mike Maguire has made it his mission to show the listeners that post punk can be just about everything you want it to be. The album starts out with Tubeway Army, the band that featured future synth-pop star Gary Numan, and their song 'Replicas' shows that even electronic pop fitted under the post punk umbrella, and through the 14 tracks on the CD, you get to hear everything from funky disco to scratchy guitars, with bands from all around the world. I’m not going to review all the tracks, as that is quite unimportant when it comes to a compilation like this, with previously released songs. All I can say is that this is a very well compiled CD, with strong liner notes too, from journalist Kris Needs. Anyone interested in the roots of modern pop music will enjoy this, I’m sure.

Track Listing:-

1 Tubeway Army- Replicas
2 Killing Joke- Almost Red
3 Lizzy Mercier Descloux- Fire
4 Bush Tetras- Too Many Creeps
5 Loose Joints- Is It All Over My Face
6 Material Featuring Nona Hendryx- Bustin' Out
7 Josef K- Sorry For Laughing
8 Chris & Cosey- Heartbeat
9 Moev- Cracked Mirror
10 Front 242 -Body To Body
11 Tuxedomoon- Desire
12 Dead Can Dance- Frontier (1981 Demo)
13 No More- Suicide Commando
14 23 Skidoo- The Gospel Comes To New Guinea