2. Wolfgang PressBird Wood Cage
I grew up way out in the suburbs, where there wasn’t much going on. It’s closed down now, but there used to be this chain in the US called Tower Records. And I would spend a lot of time there. My local store had an import section full of stuff from the British label 4AD. 1980s alternative rock, post-punk, gothic rock – it was all at least a decade old. And this album stuck out. I must have been about twelve-years-old when I got my hands on it, and I have played it pretty solidly ever since then. I’ve always been a big fan of Motown and soul, which I think resonates here – it’s as if Wolfgang Press are doing a post-punk version of a soul record, for lack of a better description.
That’s a good way of putting it. It’s very smooth and funky, while also being harsh and industrial too.
Absolutely. They have a cover of Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect,’ which has to be one of the most impressive versions of that song ever recorded. Listening to that, you can feel where their groove originates from. As a deep lover of both soul and early 1980s British post-punk, there is very little else I could ask for. It’s the perfect crossover. I wish, for their sake, that they had more notoriety because they so deserve it.
