Normil Hawaiians’ 1984 album What’s Going On? will be reissued by Upset The Rhythm this summer.
The label’s connecting with the ’80s post-punk band stretches back to 2013 when it released Return of the Ranters, an album that had been written and recorded in 1985 but remained unreleased until then.
UTR followed that in 2017 with the reissue of 1982’s double-LP debut More Wealth Than Money and the re-release of What’s Going On? will complete the label’s reissue project with the band. You can hear ‘Market Place’ from What’s Going On? just above. The 10-minute track sees the band touch on the subject of Hindu modes of existence.
Recounting the success that followed the band’s debut album and preceded their second record, UTR explains that writing sessions for What’s Going On? began in early 1983 at Intergalactic Arts Studios off London’s Old Kent Road.
"IGA was a ramshackle, semi-residential rehearsal space where the Hawaiians – none of them ‘natural’ musicians – would often play and rehearse in the dark, recording demos onto cassette," says the label. From there, the band took their sessions to Powys, Wales. "Canary Wharf had been built," the band’s Guy Smith recalls. "The squat scene was closing down. We had to get out. We got in the bus and hit the road."
With Illuminated Records, the label with whom the band was signed, running into serious financial trouble by 1984, the album didn’t quite get the promotion or wide release that the group had been building up to however.
Upset The Rhythm will reissue What’s Going On? digitally, on CD and on vinyl on July 5. It will come with a number of bonus tracks, including live cuts, album outtakes and unreleased B-sides. You can pre-order it here.
For more on the band’s history, revisit our 2017 interview.
