....In "Jane From Occupied Europe"

Sound DNA

• Punk
• Punk Rock

• raw
• chaotic
• art school

About

The second and last studio LP from the Swell Maps, <i>Jane from Occupied Europe</i> was issued in 1980, one year after <i>A Trip to Marineville</i> blew out cheap speakers all around the U.K. The band’s sonic assault and experimentalist leanings both ripened on <i>Jane</i>, with the brute power of tracks like “The Helicopter Spies” and “Whatever Happens Next” bringing on major neck whiplash, while the oddball tinkering on songs like “Robot Factory” and “Mining Villages” are more likely to induce squirming. Both sides of the band are well represented here, and the production — heavy as ever with reverb, delay, and needles usually in the red — is actually cleaner and tighter. “Secret Island” has a crisp, martial backbone, with a feel similar to <i>Pink Flag</i>-era Wire, but the basic, post-punk stylings of “Let’s Buy a Bridge” and “Border Country” are accessorized with weird piano flourishes and atonal sax squalling. Though founders Nikki Sudden and his brother Epic Soundtracks have both departed this mortal coil, their musical legacy as avant-punk pioneers will endure.

via Apple Music

Tracklist

Credits