Deceit | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 1981 | |||
Recorded | April–August 1981 | |||
Studio |
| |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 40:07 | |||
Label | Rough Trade | |||
Producer |
| |||
This Heat chronology | ||||
| ||||
Additional cover art | ||||
Deceit is the second and final studio album by English experimental rock band This Heat, released in September 1981 by Rough Trade Records. As with their self-titled debut album, the tracks on Deceit were assembled from largely improvised recordings that the band accumulated since their inception in 1976, with varying degrees of audio quality.[ citation needed ] However, it is generally considered to be more song-oriented than its largely abstract predecessor. The title is in part a pun on the band's name. [1]
Deceit is regarded as a classic of the post-punk era, and was ranked at number 73 on Pitchfork's 2018 list of "The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s". [2]
Deceit was recorded between April and August 1981. [3] As with previous This Heat recordings, much of the album was recorded in the band's own Cold Storage, a disused refrigerated storeroom at a former meat pie factory in Acre Lane, Brixton, England. [4] The music included new improvisations along with songs the band had been playing during live performances; portions of these songs were culled from actual concert recordings, such as "Makeshift Swahili", which was assembled from three different performances. [3] [4] As drummer Charles Hayward describes, "some of the album was really plush sounding, some dim and pokey. Sometimes it would sound like the machinery was breaking up. We deliberately would make it sound as though the record player was exploding." [3] [lower-alpha 1]
In a 1991 interview, Hayward explained that the threat of nuclear warfare motivated the band and provided the album with an underlying theme: "The whole speak, 'Little Boy', 'Big Boy' [ sic ], calling missiles cute little names. The whole period was mad! We had a firm belief that we were going to die and the record was made on those terms.… The whole thing was designed to express this sort of fear, angst, which the group was all about, really." [5] The album's subject matter also deals with war and imperialism. [6]
The cover art for Deceit, designed by bandmember Gareth Williams and Nicholas Goddall in collaboration with Xerox artist Laurie-Rae Chamberlain, reflects the album's lyrical concerns, and includes a photomontage of images such as mushroom clouds, thematic maps depicting nuclear arsenals and photographs of Ronald Reagan, Leonid Brezhnev and Nikita Khrushchev. Charles Hayward explained that the album's cover photograph was achieved by using cut-out images from a Protect and Survive pamphlet, which were then assembled into a mask shape, photographed and projected over Williams' face. [7]
During the 1990s, intermittent availability made Deceit a rarity and a collector's item among fans. In 2006, This Is, a Recommended Records imprint, released a remastered version of Deceit as part of the 6-CD Out of Cold Storage box set. This Is also released the album as a separately available CD. In January 2016, Light in the Attic imprint Modern Classics Recordings pressed remastered reissues of Deceit, This Heat , and Health and Efficiency on vinyl. [8]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [9] |
The Great Alternative & Indie Discography | 7/10 [10] |
Metal.de | 9/10 [11] |
Pitchfork | 9.0/10 (2002) [12] 9.1/10 (2016) [8] |
PopMatters | [13] |
Select | [14] |
Uncut | 9/10 [15] |
Although Deceit was not commercially successful, it has been well received by critics. Andy Kellman of AllMusic wrote of the album: "Out of all the boundary breaking that occurred during the fertile era of post-punk, This Heat's Deceit is one of the most expansive, imaginative and remarkably wild records to have been produced during the time—and very possibly the last three decades." [9] The Trouser Press Record Guide described the album as "austere, brilliant and indescribable." [1] Miles Bowe of Tiny Mix Tapes called it a "radiation-soaked masterpiece", [16] while Select magazine's Dave Morrison wrote that it "stands as a phenomenal achievement, opening up avenues yet to be explored." [14] In a retrospective feature on This Heat in the October 1998 issue of Record Collector , Ian Shirley called Deceit "a mature collection of songs" that displays "a fantastic grasp of dynamics, rhythm, tempo, and the full exploitation of the recording studio and mixing techniques". [3]
Deceit is regarded as a classic of the post-punk era, and was ranked at number 20 on Pitchfork's 2002 list of "The Top 100 Albums of the 1980s" [17] and at number 73 on its 2018 list of "The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s". [2] In 2011, Hot Chip frontman Alexis Taylor, who has frequently collaborated with Hayward, selected Deceit as part of NME's The 100 Greatest Albums You've Never Heard issue. [18]
All tracks are written by This Heat (Charles Hayward, Gareth Williams, Charles Bullen).
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Sleep" | 2:13 |
2. | "Paper Hats" | 5:57 |
3. | "Triumph" | 2:55 |
4. | "S.P.Q.R." | 3:26 |
5. | "Cenotaph" | 4:35 |
6. | "Shrink Wrap" | 1:40 |
7. | "Radio Prague" | 2:21 |
8. | "Makeshift Swahili" | 4:04 |
9. | "Independence" | 3:39 |
10. | "A New Kind of Water" | 4:57 |
11. | "Hi Baku Shyo 被爆症 (Suffer Bomb Disease)" | 4:03 |
Chart (1981) | Peak position |
---|---|
UK Independent Albums (MRIB) [19] | 18 |
Scum is the debut studio album by English grindcore band Napalm Death, released on 1 July 1987 by Earache Records. The two sides of the record were recorded by two different lineups in sessions separated by about a year; the only musician in both incarnations was drummer Mick Harris. The two sides are very different, and the two taken together serve to bridge stylistic elements of heavy metal and punk rock. While the songs on the A-side are influenced heavily by hardcore punk and anarcho-punk, the vocals and lower-tuned electric guitars on the B-side anticipate subsequent developments in extreme metal. Loudwire put it in the list of the best 10 metal albums of 1987.
End Hits is the fifth studio album by American post-hardcore band Fugazi, released on April 28, 1998 by Dischord Records. It was recorded at Inner Ear Studios from March 1997 to September 1997 and produced by the band and Don Zientara, and saw the band continuing with and expanding upon the in-studio experimentation of their previous album Red Medicine (1995). Due to the title, rumors began circulating at the time that it was to be their last release.
This Heat were an English experimental rock band, formed in early 1976 in Camberwell, London by multi-instrumentalists Charles Bullen, Charles Hayward and Gareth Williams.
Youth of America is the second studio album by American punk rock band Wipers. It was released in 1981 by record label Park Avenue.
Over the Edge is the third studio album by American punk rock band Wipers, released in 1983.
Charles Hayward is an English drummer and was a founding member of the experimental rock groups This Heat and Camberwell Now. He also played with Mal Dean's Amazing Band, Dolphin Logic, and gigged and recorded with Phil Manzanera in the group Quiet Sun project as well as a short stint with Gong. He was a session musician on The Raincoats' second album, Odyshape, and on one occasion played drums for the anarchist punk band Crass. Since the late 1980s, Hayward has released several solo projects and participated in various collaborations, most notably Massacre with Bill Laswell and Fred Frith.
Gareth Jones is an English music producer and engineer notable for working with Depeche Mode, Einstürzende Neubauten, Wire and Erasure.
Lo-fi is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The standards of sound quality (fidelity) and music production have evolved throughout the decades, meaning that some older examples of lo-fi may not have been originally recognized as such. Lo-fi began to be recognized as a style of popular music in the 1990s, when it became alternately referred to as DIY music.
Real to Real Cacophony is the second studio album by Scottish rock band Simple Minds. It was released on 23 November 1979 through record labels Zoom and Arista.
Pink is the tenth album by Japanese experimental music band Boris. It was originally released in 2005 through Diwphalanx Records in Japan and subsequently reissued in 2006 by American label Southern Lord Records. The album received favorable reviews, particularly for incorporating more melody into the band's abrasive sound.
Camberwell Now were an English avant-prog band from London, formed in 1982 after the demise of This Heat.
This Heat is the debut studio album by English experimental rock band This Heat. Recorded between 1976 and 1978, it was released in September 1979 by record label Piano.
Red Mecca is the third studio album by English band Cabaret Voltaire. It was released in September 1981 through record label Rough Trade.
Gareth Williams was a British musician best remembered as the bassist and vocalist for the experimental rock group This Heat.
A–Z is the debut studio album by Colin Newman, lead singer of post-punk band Wire. It was released in October 1980, through record label Beggars Banquet. "A-Z was planned as the fourth Wire album, but EMI [Wire's label] cancelled studio time in the wake of failed negotiations with the band."
Health and Efficiency is an EP by English experimental rock band This Heat. It was released in 1980 by record label Piano.
For a Reason is the sole studio album by English duo Lifetones, consisting of This Heat's Charles Bullen and his then-neighbour Julius Cornelius Samuel. It was released in 1983 under the Tone of Life imprint, and was later reissued in 2016 by Light in the Attic Records. The album - recorded in Cold Storage - combines post-punk and dub with a range of different stylistic influences from world music. Intended as a reaction against “the culture of death that was around” at the time, the album is also far more positive in comparison to Bullen's work with This Heat; its "koanic" and "ephemeral" lyrics subverting common linguistic cliches and tropes through repetition.
Human Story 3 is a studio album by American electronic musician James Ferraro, self-released on June 14, 2016. Displaying a turn towards the style and aesthetic of modern classical, the album's concept revolves philosophically and structurally on how technology that can be used meaningfully is often used less usefully for commerce and, as a result, how the technology may eventually end up subverting humanness. The record garnered critical acclaim and landed at number seven on Tiny Mix Tapes' year-end list of the best albums of 2016.
Radiator Hospital is an American indie rock band. Though songwriter Sam Cook-Parrott (vocals/guitar) is from Grand Rapids, Michigan, they are now based in Philadelphia. The rest of the current lineup is Cynthia Schemmer (guitar/vocals), Jon Rybicki (bass), and Jeff Bolt (drums). They have released six albums; two out of print lo-fi cassettes, and four LPs put out by Salinas Records.
Made Available: John Peel Sessions is a 1996 compilation of tracks by the band This Heat. Culled from two live John Peel Radio 1 sessions, the tracks were originally recorded and broadcast in 1977.