Always at the forefront of innovative music and genre-blending, British post-punk pioneers The Membranes present their new 'Nocturnal' EP, a three-track collaborative effort that features two remixes by darkwave-goth rock luminary DJ Kitty Lectro.
For the 'Kitty Lectro Remix', Kitty Lectro adds an addictive dance floor spin to this already-dark delight, while her 'Meow Meow Money Mix' takes a harsher Meat Beat Manifesto-esque direction.
Kitty's remix credits include Kommunity FK, Andi Sex Gang, The March Violets, Still Patient, Lestat, ANKST, Strap On Halo, Angels Of Liberty, Das Projekt and Dilemma, among others. Most recently, she collaborated with Beauty In Chaos (Michael Ciravolo) on several tracks, including the single 'Darknesses', also involving Wayne Hussey (The Mission) and Simon Gallup (The Cure).
The song 'Nocturnal' was originally on The Membranes' new album 'What Nature Gives… Nature Takes Away', released this summer and acclaimed as one of the best albums of 2019. The band’s new opus is the brainchild of frontman, music journalist, author and media pundit John Robb, who has led Membranes in one form or another for close to 40 years. This set of psychedelic post-punk soundscapes comprises their eighth studio album and the second since reforming in 2010.
"Nocturnal is our death disco dance with Pan, or our dark Dionysian dislocation of the senses that has been remixed to shadowy dance floor brilliance by Kitty Lectro," says frontman John Robb.
"It is from our new double album "What Nature Gives...Nature Takes Away" and examines the beauty and violence of nature, in which we took our bass-driven post-punk and added choirs to it to create an epic brooding soundtrack to the theme of nature itself and its desperate struggle to survive the human race’s hell bent determination to destroy it."

Formed in 1978 in Blackpool, The Membranes played classic bass-driven northern post punk and were part of the same world as bands like The Fall, Sisters Of Mercy, Echo and The Bunnymen and Cabaret Voltaire, all inspired by 1977 to launch their own idiosyncratic journeys. The band released a remarkable series of records that combined their small town frustration with a love of heavy bass and distortion. This ultimately became a prime influence and the precursors to such American noiseniks as Steve Albini, Swans and Sonic Youth.
John Peel and music press favourites, a continual frenzy of releases, public acclaim and touring worldwide with national TV appearances, the band went on hiatus in 1990 until finally reforming in 2010 when former support band My Bloody Valentine convinced them to return to the stage for the ATP festival.
Definitive Gaze is a boutique record label and marketing consultancy formed in 2014 by former Rough Trade/Astralwerks/PIAS alumnus Nick Clift to re-issue the works of ‘80s post-punk artists Ski Patrol, Folk Devils, Ian Lowery, as well as newer output from legacy artists of this era.

TRACKLIST
1. Nocturnal (KITTY LECTRO Remix)
2. Nocturnal (KITTY LECTRO Meow Meow Money Mix)
3. Nocturnal (Album Version)

TOUR DATES (*** denotes headline dates)
Nov 28 Bologna, IT - Freakout Club***
Dec 01 Lausanne, CH – Les Docks
Dec 02 Zurich, CH – Bogen F
Dec 03 Koln, DE – Essigfabrik
Dec 04 Amsterdam, NL - OCCII***
Dec 05 Turnhout, BE – De Warande
Dec 06 Hasselt, BE – CC Hasselt
Dec 07 Roeselare, BE – De Spil
Dec 08 Paris, FR – Le Trianon
Dec 10 London, UK – Roundhouse
Dec 11 Bristol, UK – SWX
Dec 13 Sheffield, UK – Leadmill
Dec 14 Edinburgh, UK – Liquid Rooms
Dec 15 Manchester, UK – Academy 2
Dec. 17 Dublin, IE – Button Factory
Dec 18 Belfast, N. Ireland – Empire

www.facebook.com/theMembranes

Los Angeles synth act More Ephemerol consists of members Sea Fjerstad and Tamara Sky. Though the project has one previously released LP, "Fractal Bath", featuring an array of experimental compositions by Sea, the new material ditches all digital instruments and adds the voice and presence of Sky to the equation, establishing More Ephemerol as a strictly analog synth duo, delivering a newly focused sound inspired by the likes of proto-new wave/minimal wave favorites such as Experimental Products, The Modern Mannequins, Turquoise Days, Oppenheimer Analysis, and early Human League.

'Cult Classics' discusses the human desire to be accepted into groups of individuals who we feel completely outside of, or invisible to. The lyrics focus on intrigue and the raw sort of vulnerability within this rather universal desire.

www.facebook.com/MoreEphemerol

Today it’s been 40 years since Joy Division’s second Peel Session was broadcasted for the first time by John Peel on BBC radio (December 10th, 1979).

All tracks, previously unreleased at that time, were recorded in the London BBC studios on November 26th, 1979.

The EP of this recording was released in 1986 by Strange Fruit records and spent seventeen weeks in the UK Indie Chart, peaking at number 3!

Joy Division - The Peel Sessions (II)
A1. Love Will Tear Us Apart 3:20
A2. 24 Hours 4:05
B1. Colony 4:08
B2. Sound of Music 4:20

DISCOGS

This December, 40 ago, Throbing Gristle released the album 20 Jazz Funk Greats. It was released in December 1979 by the band's own label Industrial Records. It is regarded as the band's best work, with music magazines naming it the best album of the 1970s, and the best industrial album of all time.

Actually it is the band's first real full studio album, as prior albums contained both live and studio recordings. The album was recorded on a 16-track tape recorder borrowed from Paul McCartney after Peter Christopherson had worked on some artwork for McCartney.

The album was produced meanly using effects units and instruments from Roland and Boss.

The album's cover photograph was taken at Beachy Head, a chalk headland on the South coast of England known as one of the world's most notorious suicide spots.

In a 2012 interview, Cosey explained the album cover and tongue-in-cheek title:

“We did the cover so it was a pastiche of something you would find in a Woolworth’s bargain bin. We took the photograph at the most famous suicide spot in England, called Beachy Head. So, the picture is not what it seems, it is not so nicey nicey at all, and neither is the music once you take it home and buy it. We had this idea in mind that someone quite innocently would come along to a record store and see [the record] and think they would be getting 20 really good jazz/funk greats, and then they would put it on at home and they would just get decimated.”

The 1981 issue of the album released on Fetish Records featured an alternate version of the cover art in which an apparently dead and naked male body is seen lying in front of the band. In 2013, Radiohead graphic designer Stanley Donwood selected the artwork as his favorite album cover.

20 Jazz Funk Greats

All tracks were written by Throbbing Gristle:

• Genesis P-Orridge – vocals, bass guitar, violin, vibraphone, synthesizer
• Cosey Fanni Tutti – guitar, synthesizer, cornet, vocals
• Chris Carter – synthesizer, album sequencing, drum programming, vocals
• Peter Christopherson – tape, vibraphone, cornet, vocals

DISCOGS

Public Image: First Issue is the debut studio album of Public Image Ltd, formed and fronted by Jonny Rotten aka John Lydon after he left the Sex Pistols in January 1978. First Issue was released by record label Virgin on December 8th the same year and it is still considered as one of the pioneering records of post-punk.

It entered the UK Albums Chart, where it stayed for 11 weeks and reached #22 on 23 December 1978. The single “Public Image” entered the UK Top 75, where it stayed for 8 weeks and reached #9 on 21 October 1978

In 1979, a court in Malta had stopped selling the album because the lyrics of “Religion” offended public morals and decency.

After hearing the test pressings Warner Bros records also decided not to publish the album in the United States because the sound of the record was considered as too uncommercial for an American release. PiL were asked to re-record parts of the album and although the band recorded new versions of some tracks the album was never released in the US. Only in 1980 Warners released the song “Public Image” on the compilation album “Troublemakers”, the only album track released in the US until the 2013 release of the entire album.

On 18 June 2013, the album was finally officially released in the US via Light in the Attic Records.

Upon its release, Public Image: First Issue received only 2 out of 5 stars review in Sounds and NME was similarly negative, quipping that "unfortunately the 'image', public or otherwise, is a good deal less limited than many of the more practical factors involved in this venture."

However, it is now considered as a groundbreaking post-punk classic. Pitchfork Media stated "First Issue's industrial-strength stompers anticipate the scabrous art-punk of the Jesus Lizard and Slint, while Levene’s guitar curlicues on “Public Image” are the stuff Daydream Nations are made of." It is, along with Metal Box, included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Public Image: First Issue
1. Theme 9:05
2. Religion I 1:40
3. Religion II 5:40
4. Annalisa 6:00
5. Public Image 2:58
6. Low Life 3:35
7. Attack 2:55
8. Fodderstompf 7:40
Personel:
John Lydon – vocals, piano
Keith Levene – guitar
Jah Wobble – bass, vocals and fire extinguisher on "Fodderstompf"
Jim Walker – drums, vocals on "Fodderstompf"

DISCOGS