Hajime Tachibana

Hajime Tachibana, born in Tokyo in 1951, is a musician, graphic designer, visual artist and multi-media creator whose work sits right at the intersection of Japanese new wave, electronic pop and contemporary graphic culture. His name in Japanese is 立花ハジメ. He first studied in London in 1973 at the Camden Art Centre while attending Waseda University, returning to Japan the following year and joining the graphic-art group Work Shop MU!!. This background in design became an important part of his approach to music, with records, stage presentation, instruments and visual material often treated as parts of the same project. 

 
In 1976, Tachibana formed Plastics with Toshio Nakanishi and Chika Sato, with Masahide Sakuma and Takemi Shima joining the line-up shortly afterwards. Tachibana played guitar, while the group developed a highly stylised mixture of new wave, electronic pop, punk and funk. Plastics quickly became associated with Tokyo's emerging techno-pop scene and attracted international attention after their 1979 single "Copy/Robot" appeared on Britain's Rough Trade. Their debut album, 'Welcome Plastics', followed in Japan in 1980, and 'Welcome Back Plastics' appeared internationally through Island in 1981. The band toured extensively in Europe and the United States before splitting at the end of 1981. 

 
Tachibana's musical direction changed considerably after Plastics. He moved increasingly from guitar towards saxophone and began developing his own instruments, including the handmade Alps series. His first solo album, 'H', appeared in 1982 on Alfa, produced by Yukihiro Takahashi. The record already showed how far he was moving away from the compact pop structures of Plastics, combining saxophone, electronics, experimental instrumentation and short, fragmented compositions. 'Hm', released through the YEN/Alfa connection in 1983, continued that approach.

 
The 1984 album 'Mr. Techie & Miss Kipple' pushed the concept further, bringing together electronic textures, saxophone, manipulated sounds and Tachibana's increasingly distinctive visual world. Tracks such as "Replicant J.B.", "Steel Necro Music" and "Theme From Barricade" reflected his interest in treating the recording studio almost like another design environment. During this period he was also active behind the scenes as a graphic designer, record-jacket designer, stage designer and video director. 

 
Music was only part of Tachibana's activity during the 1980s and 1990s. He became increasingly prominent as a graphic designer and visual artist, working on record covers, typography, videos, exhibitions and computer-related projects. In 1991 he received the Grand Prize at the ADC Awards, one of Japan's major graphic-design honours. His design work and music continued to overlap, with many of his records functioning as extensions of his broader visual practice rather than simply conventional pop releases. 

 
After several solo projects during the 1980s and early 1990s, Tachibana formed Low Powers in 1997. The group released 'Low Powers' that year on For Life, bringing a more rock-oriented format into his work. The project later returned in a reformed version, with 'Low Powers With The Friends' appearing as a download in 2019 and concentrating largely on new recordings of material connected with the 1997 album. 

 
His 2002 album 'The END' was another sharp change in format. Rather than following the conventional idea of an album, it consisted of ringtones and other very short pieces, fitting perfectly with Tachibana's interest in computers, digital media and the changing relationship between music and technology. At the time, he described the project in deliberately open-ended terms, making it something that could be approached as much through its presentation and concept as through conventional listening. 

 
Tachibana returned to more conventional musical activity with 'Monaco' in 2013, although even this release appeared in an unusual format: a strictly limited edition on USB memory stick. 'GalleriAprotia' followed in 2014 as a download-only release. He was also involved in The Chill, formed in 2007 with Chiharu Konno, Gota Yashiki and Kuni Sugimoto, while Plastics periodically returned for reunion performances and recordings. Plastics' later appearances included the 2016 "Welcome Back Plastics" performances with Tachibana alongside Toshio Nakanishi and other musicians. 

 
In the late 2010s and 2020s, Tachibana continued moving between music, design and other forms of creative work. The Low Powers name was revived for live activity, while Hm became another outlet for his music. He also published "ORIGATO PLASTICO", his first collection of poetry, in 2021, adding another medium to a career that had already moved between sound, graphics, video, typography, software and performance. Tachibana returned with new solo material in 2026. His album 'dad bb' was released on 10 August 2026, accompanied by the 12-inch single 'ZOUNDS!', marking his first new album in thirteen years. 

 
Alongside the 2026 music, Tachibana has continued to be involved with the legacy of Plastics and Low Powers. In 2025, Sony Music issued 'hajimeht', his first career-spanning best-of collection, bringing together material from different stages of his musical career and further underlining the connection between his early electronic/new-wave work and his later experimental projects. 

 

G*Park

G*Park is the musique concrète project of Swiss-American artist Marc Zeier, born on 24 July 1954 in Jersey City, New Jersey. He moved with his family to Switzerland in 1961 and eventually settled in the Zürich area, where he developed a practice that sits somewhere between experimental music, sound art, installation and visual art. He has been working under the G*Park name since the early 1980s, although his recorded output has always been relatively sparse.

 
Zeier's approach to sound is strongly connected to field recordings, acoustic phenomena and the transformation of everyday or natural noises. Rather than relying on conventional instruments, he has worked with sounds captured from objects, environments and small physical events, turning them into dense, often very detailed tape and electroacoustic compositions. In an interview, he recalled that his early experiments involved arranging long plastic tubes, placing microphones at one end and producing sounds at the other. His later work became increasingly focused on recording sounds directly on location and reducing them down to their essential acoustic qualities. 

 
The earliest G*Park material dates from 1983, and Zeier eventually gathered his first five tape releases into the '1983-1988+' collection. The original sequence includes 'G*Park 1' (1983/84), 'G*Park 2' (1984/85), 'Anästhesie' (1985/86), 'Ko-Nü' (1987) and 'Zwei Freunde' (1988), followed by a 1991 improvisation with Rudolf Eb.er. The collection was originally reissued as a limited six-CDR box by Tochnit Aleph in 2006 and was remastered by Zeier in 2021. 

 
Zeier also became involved with the Zurich-based Schimpfluch-Gruppe, joining the collective in 1986. The group brought together artists working across noise, performance, sound and experimental art, and its activities became an important part of the Swiss underground experimental scene. Zeier's work with G*Park remained somewhat apart from straightforward noise, concentrating instead on tiny acoustic details and strange combinations of organic, mechanical and environmental sounds. 

 
One of the best-known early G*Park releases is 'Seismogramm', originally issued by Schimpfluch in 1990. The album uses recordings of things such as agitated wires, a tree trunk moving in the wind and the mewing of Zeier's cat, Buxy, assembling them into free-form tape collages. The result is based less on conventional musical development than on magnifying small acoustic events and placing them into unfamiliar relationships. 

 
The 1990s brought further releases including 'Geopod' and 'Yack Park', while Zeier continued to work with installations and visual projects. His later catalogue includes 'Reuters', issued by Tochnit Aleph in 2008, with nine compositions constructed from recordings involving ice, wind, plankton, a whip, a bow, a suitcase and other sources. The album marked a return to recorded G*Park material after a long period of relative silence. 

 
Another major work is 'Gour', a long-form composition built entirely from micro field recordings and natural phenomena. The material includes sounds associated with insects, animals, frozen lakes, trees and other environmental sources. It was released by Tochnit Aleph and reflects Zeier's continuing interest in capturing very small acoustic events and reshaping them through musique concrète techniques. 

 
In 2013, Zeier released 'Sub' through the American label 23five Incorporated. The album was described as a large-scale work of contemporary musique concrète, assembled over several years, and its source material again included recordings of natural and everyday phenomena. Zeier described the idea behind the record as dealing with amorphous conditions that lead toward, or interfere with, recognizable forms and states of being. 

 
G*Park's activities have never been limited to records. Zeier has created sound installations, video works and multimedia projects, often bringing together acoustics, sculpture and scientific observation. His installations have included "Instrument", "Plankton", "Fishing Grounds", "Black Table Music" and "Blackbox", while his sound performances have taken place in venues and festivals in cities including Berlin, London, Bristol, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Beijing, Zürich and Basel. 

 
There is also a strong connection between Zeier's artistic work and his interest in the natural world. Alongside his activities as a composer, performer and installation artist, he has worked as a plankton fisherman, an unusual profession that has fed directly into projects such as "Plankton" and "Fishing Grounds". His work frequently treats the smallest sounds and physical processes as material for observation and transformation, linking his musical practice with his interests in acoustics, biology and sculpture. 

 
G*Park's discography remains relatively small, but the material stretches across several decades. Alongside the early cassette works and albums such as 'Seismogramm', 'Geopod', 'Yack Park' and 'Reuters', Zeier has issued live and collaborative material including '15', recorded at Berlin's NK in September 2009, as well as collaborations with artists such as Luigi Archetti and Ian Anüll. His work has appeared through labels including Tochnit Aleph, Zabriskie Point, Blossoming Noise, Zelphabet, Banned Production, 23five Incorporated and Helen Scarsdale Agency. 

 

Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 were an American goth rock band formed in New Jersey around 1984, operating in the New York/New Jersey underground at a time when the term “goth” was still being defined. The name came from Ray Bradbury’s famous novel, and their sound pulled together elements of The Doors, the Stranglers and Bauhaus, with dark guitar work, prominent keyboards, bass-driven rhythms and Athan Maroulis’ theatrical vocals. They developed a small but dedicated following around the Northeastern U.S. and played regularly in clubs around New York and New Jersey. The group’s principal line-up featured vocalist Athan Maroulis, guitarist Shelly Stewart, bassist Pete Lisa, keyboardist and percussionist Nick Ferro, and drummer Ed Enzyme. 

Athan Maroulis was only nineteen when he joined Fahrenheit 451. Born in Brooklyn in 1964, he quickly became the focal point of the group, with a vocal style drawing on Peter Murphy and Jim Morrison. Fahrenheit 451 played a string of New York-area venues including CBGB, The Dive, The World, The Dirt Club, the Lismar Lounge and the Loop Lounge. They also shared bills with groups such as Of A Mesh and The Brain Eaters, while larger support slots included shows with Gene Loves Jezebel, Specimen and the Ramones. The Ramones appearance became particularly memorable for the wrong reasons, as some members of the audience responded to the goth set by throwing beer cans at the stage.

 
Their only release during the original run was the 'House Of Morals' EP, issued on vinyl in 1986. The four-track record contained “House of Morals,” “Strangers on a Train,” “Cathedral in Ice” and “Passions,” with the songs combining angular art-rock guitar, funky bass, Stranglers-style keyboards and percussion with a distinctly gothic atmosphere. The band had also recorded further material under the title 'A Fire in the Garden', but those recordings remained unreleased for years. 

Fahrenheit 451 split in 1987 after roughly three years. The members subsequently scattered into different projects. Ed Enzyme went on to play with U.S. Chaos and later the Undead, Pete Lisa became associated with Cycle Sluts From Hell, and Shelly Stewart joined Lucifer Scale. Maroulis moved to Philadelphia and became the vocalist of Executive Slacks, remaining there from 1987 until 1991. He subsequently worked with Tubalcain before becoming closely associated with the industrial/darkwave group Spahn Ranch. 

Maroulis’ later career took him considerably further from the narrow confines of early goth. He became involved with industrial, darkwave and alternative projects, while also exploring jazz and traditional pop through Blue Dahlia. He later fronted NØIR, and his career has included work with Black Tape for a Blue Girl as well as numerous recording, production and reissue projects. His connection with Fahrenheit 451 remained part of his musical history, and he has continued to revisit the group’s material. 

There was a brief Fahrenheit 451 revival in 1996, when Maroulis and Stewart returned to the studio and recorded versions of Bauhaus’ “The Three Shadows” and The Mission’s “Wasteland”. These recordings eventually appeared alongside the earlier material on Cleopatra’s 'The Gothic Years & After', issued in 2000. The compilation brought together much of the group’s 1984–87 material, the 1996 recordings and additional tracks, finally making a substantial portion of Fahrenheit 451’s catalogue available on CD.

The original 'House Of Morals' recordings have also continued to circulate through later reissues. A 30th Anniversary Edition appeared in 2016, remastering the four original EP tracks and adding the group’s 1985 recording of “Strangers on a Train”. The release also preserves some of the atmosphere surrounding the band’s early days, when Fahrenheit 451 were rehearsing in a meat locker and moving through the small but active New York/New Jersey dark-music circuit. 

Ericka Irganon

Ericka Irganon is a French experimental electronic artist associated with the strange, homemade world of early-1980s minimal synth, electroacoustic music and underground cassette culture. Very little biographical information about her is available, and even basic details about her life remain obscure. What is much easier to trace is her recorded work, particularly her connection with the French group Ptôse and the cassette label Ptôse Production Présente. 

Irganon's recordings began circulating through the cassette network around 1981. Her first documented release was the split cassette 'Le Rat d'Hotel / La Nuit des Sauriens', made with John J. Cabanis and issued by Ptôse Production Présente as PPP K010. Her own 'Le Rat D'Hotel' cassette followed, while later compilations and Ptôse-related releases helped spread her recordings beyond the small French cassette circuit. A 2020 Bandcamp reissue of "Le Berceau Du Chat" identifies the piece as coming from that original 1981 split tape. 

The relationship with Ptôse is particularly important. Ptôse emerged around 1979–80 in Niort, western France, initially as a project built around brothers Lionel and Benoît Jarlan and later involving Pascal “ZZe” Elineau, Ericka Irganon, Li Khui and Patrick Pichon. The group operated heavily within the international DIY cassette circuit, producing small-run tapes and gradually appearing on experimental compilations around Europe. Irganon is listed among the participants on several Ptôse releases, although the precise nature of her role within the collective is not always clearly documented. 

Her recordings are built around short electronic pieces, tape manipulation, voices, effects and primitive-sounding synthesizer textures. Titles such as “Lai Bu II”, “Traudi Aime Le Chien Chaud (Remixé)”, “Ins Kino”, “Sur Un Terrain Mortel, Bat Toi” and “Le Berceau Du Chat” appear together with material by John J. Cabanis on later archival editions, giving a clearer picture of the material originally associated with the early cassette releases.

 
Another important track is “Petite Otite”, which was included on 'Noise Reduction System: Formative European Electronica 1974–1984', a major archival compilation documenting the early European electronic underground. The credits for the track list Ericka Irganon as composer, effects, mixing, synthesizer, tapes and voices, alongside Benoît and Lionel Jarlan. That makes the recording particularly useful for understanding the range of techniques involved in her work.

 
Irganon also appeared on 'Femirama', originally issued in 1986 by the Spanish label Auxilio de Cientos. The compilation brought together eleven female experimental artists working across industrial, electroacoustic, minimal and electronic music, with Irganon's contribution being “Creatures”. The record was later reissued by Munster Records, bringing this obscure material back into circulation.

 
Her catalogue has continued to surface through archival reissues and digital editions. 'VOD-Records Presents: 80s Minimal.Synth.Wave Volume 2', for example, includes a dedicated vinyl section pairing Ericka Irganon with John J. Cabanis and collecting material such as “Lai Bu II”, “Petite Otite”, “Martine on the Docks”, “Nursery Noisy Dance” and several other pieces. 

There is also an intriguing element of uncertainty surrounding the name. Contemporary recollections of the Ptôse cassette world have questioned whether Ericka Irganon was always a straightforwardly identifiable musician or whether some of the recordings and credits were connected to the deliberately mysterious, playful identity games surrounding Ptôse and its releases. That ambiguity fits the broader cassette culture of the period, where pseudonyms, home recording, tiny editions and deliberately obscure presentation were common. 

Her music has also been picked up by radio and specialist archival projects decades after the original recordings. NTS has featured “Creatures” and identifies Irganon as a member of Ptôse, while WFMU has played several of the early pieces credited to J.J. Cabanis and Ericka Irganon, including “Lai Bu Ji”, “Ins Kino” and “Le Berceau du Chat”. 

D.I.

D.I. emerged from Fullerton, California, in the early 1980s, built around vocalist Casey Royer after the Adolescents broke up. Royer was already deeply connected to the Southern California punk scene: he had played drums in an early version of Social Distortion before joining the Adolescents in 1980. When the Adolescents split in 1981, Royer put together D.I. with guitarist Tim Maag, bassist Fredric Taccone and drummer Derek O’Brien. Some sources date the band's formation to 1981, while the band and several music databases commonly give 1982 or 1983. 

The early D.I. lineup changed quickly. Rikk Agnew, another former Adolescents member, became involved during the band's first recordings, and the group gradually developed a sound that kept the speed and aggression of Orange County hardcore but brought in surf-rock touches, simple pop melodies and a streak of dark humor. The name was initially explained as standing for "Drug Ideology", although Royer later said the initials weren't intended to have any particular meaning. 

Their first release was the self-titled 'D.I.' EP, issued in 1983 and later reissued under the title 'Team Goon'. It contained early staples such as "Richard Hung Himself", "Venus De Milo", "Reagan Der Führer", "Purgatory" and "Guns". "Richard Hung Himself" had actually originated during Royer's time with the Adolescents and was subsequently recorded by D.I. The EP also captured the band's willingness to move beyond a strictly straight-ahead hardcore formula, with surf references and more melodic arrangements appearing alongside the frantic guitars. 

D.I. also became part of the small but growing network of Southern California punk bands appearing in films and local media. In 1983 they were featured in Penelope Spheeris' "Suburbia", performing "Richard Hung Himself" onstage. The appearance helped put the group in front of a wider audience and documented the band during its early period, when Orange County punk was beginning to attract attention outside the local scene.

 
By 1984 the lineup had expanded into a sextet featuring Royer, Tim Maag, Rikk Agnew and Alfie Agnew on guitars, Wade Watson on bass and Derek O'Brien on drums. Further changes followed, and by 1985 the lineup had settled around Royer, the Agnew brothers, bassist John "Bosco" Calabro and drummer John Knight. That version recorded 'Ancient Artifacts', D.I.'s first full-length album, and then moved on to the material that became 'Horse Bites Dog Cries'. 

The second album was recorded in 1985 at Casbah Studios in Fullerton with Chaz Ramirez, but its release was delayed until 1986; the 1985 copyright date printed on the record has caused some confusion over the actual release year. The record featured Royer, Rikk and Alfie Agnew, John Calabro and John Knight, and included tracks such as "Youth In Asia", "Hang Ten In East Berlin", "Johnny's Got a Problem", "Obnoxious", "No Moms" and "Spiritual Law".

 
'Horse Bites Dog Cries' became the band's best-known early album and the record most closely associated with D.I.'s mid-'80s period. Its fast hardcore framework was balanced by catchy songwriting, surf-influenced guitar work and Rikk Agnew's distinctive playing. "Hang Ten In East Berlin" and "Spiritual Law" had already appeared in different versions on 'Ancient Artifacts', while "Spiritual Law" later received another lease on life when Slayer covered it, along with "Richard Hung Himself", on their 1996 album 'Undisputed Attitude'. 

The period also brought more personnel changes. When the Adolescents reunited in 1986, Royer briefly returned to his former band, but he soon left again to concentrate on D.I. The Agnew brothers also moved between the two groups, making the relationship between D.I. and the Adolescents particularly fluid during this part of the decade. D.I. continued with further lineups and released 'What Good Is Grief to a God?' in 1988.

 
After the energetic run of the mid-'80s, D.I. went through quieter periods and lineup changes rather than following a straight recording schedule. 'State of Shock' appeared in 1994 after a five-year gap between studio albums, and the group temporarily broke up in 1995 before reuniting in 1997. A later run of releases included 'On the Western Front' in 2007, while Royer remained the one constant presence throughout the band's many incarnations. 

 
In 2021, D.I. issued 'Greatest Hits A-Z', a collection of newly recorded versions of songs from their back catalogue, arranged alphabetically by title. The band has also continued performing, with concert listings extending into 2026. 

Cabine C

Cabine C was a short-lived São Paulo band formed in 1984 by Ciro Pessoa, shortly after his departure from Titãs. Pessoa had been one of the founding members of Titãs and left the group in 1983, concentrating instead on a darker and more experimental project. Cabine C brought together post-punk, gothic rock, cold wave and art-rock elements, with keyboards and atmospheric guitar work giving the songs a distinctly shadowy character. Their influences included Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, Cocteau Twins and Talking Heads. 

The original line-up was a pretty remarkable collection of musicians from São Paulo's alternative scene. Alongside Pessoa on vocals were his then-wife Wania Forghieri on keyboards, Edgard Scandurra of Ira! on guitar, Charles Gavin on drums and Sandra Coutinho of Mercenárias on bass. Coutinho was later replaced by Ricardo Gaspa, also connected with Ira!. The group recorded a demo and played a number of bars and clubs around São Paulo, building a reputation within the city's underground circuit. 

The constant movement between different projects soon affected the line-up. Scandurra had Ira!, Gavin was increasingly involved with Titãs, and Gaspa also moved toward Ira!, leaving Pessoa and Forghieri to rebuild Cabine C. In 1986, Anna Ruth dos Santos and Marinella Setti joined on bass and drums respectively, creating the line-up that would make the band's only official album.

 
That album, 'Fósforos de Oxford', was recorded in 1986 and issued by RPM Discos, the label founded by Paulo Ricardo and Luiz Schiavon of RPM. The record featured Ciro Pessoa on vocals and guitar, Wania Forghieri on keyboards, Anna Ruth on bass and backing vocals, and Marinella Setti on drums and backing vocals. Fernando Deluqui contributed guitar to "Tão Perto", while Akira Tsukimoto, from Akira S. e as Garotas que Erraram, played chapman ttick on "Jardim das Gueixas". Luiz Schiavon handled production.

 
Pessoa's lyrics gave the music another layer of darkness, drawing heavily on Romantic and Symbolist literature. Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud were important references, while Antonin Artaud also figured among his influences. Several songs on 'Fósforos de Oxford' were directly connected with Poe's writing, including "Pânico e Solidão", inspired by "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket", and "A Queda do Solar de Usher", which takes its title from Poe's famous story.

 
The album appeared in 1986 and was subsequently associated with the emerging Brazilian dark and gothic scene, although Pessoa himself rejected the gothic label at the time. The record's combination of cold keyboards, post-punk guitars, restrained rhythms and literary imagery placed Cabine C close to the darker side of the Brazilian underground, while the more art-rock-oriented elements kept the music from fitting neatly into a single genre. 

RPM Discos failed to give 'Fósforos de Oxford' much promotion, and the album became a commercial failure despite receiving positive attention from parts of the music press. A dispute between Cabine C and the label developed into a lengthy legal battle, and RPM Discos closed in 1987. Cabine C also came to an end around the same period. The group had been preparing a second album, 'Cotonetes Desconexos', but it was never completed.

 
The band's recorded legacy remained small, but 'Fósforos de Oxford' gradually became much easier to discover outside its original context. "Tão Perto" appeared on Soul Jazz Records' 2005 compilation 'The Sexual Life of the Savages', which documented Brazilian underground post-punk, and the album was eventually reissued digitally by Curumim Records in 2019. Ciro Pessoa continued working on music after Cabine C, including the Flying Chair project, and died in 2020. 

B.G.K.

B.G.K., short for Balthasar Gerards Kommando, were an Amsterdam hardcore punk band formed in 1982 out of the remains of The Nitwitz. The original Nitwitz line-up had been active since the late 1970s, but by 1982 singer Eric Pieters had left to join Outrageous, leaving the remaining members to start over with a new name and a much faster, more politically charged approach. René van de Meer, Tony Leeuwenburgh and Marcel Verhoeven formed the core of the new band, with Steven Walraven joining on bass during the early period. 

 
The name Balthasar Gerards Kommando referred to Balthasar Gérard, the assassin of William of Orange in 1584. It was deliberately chosen for its provocative anti-monarchist meaning and fitted the band's increasingly political outlook. Rather than following the British Oi! direction that was becoming prominent in parts of the European punk scene, B.G.K. looked towards the emerging American hardcore sound, with bands such as MDC, D.O.A., Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys among their influences. The result was a much faster and harder style built around sharp guitar riffs, short songs and politically minded lyrics. 

 
B.G.K. were closely connected to Amsterdam's squat-based punk network, where bands organised their own shows, recorded and distributed their own music and maintained a strong DIY infrastructure. They also helped run shows at the Emma squat, a venue that became an important meeting point for the Dutch and international hardcore crowd. Their activities went beyond simply playing gigs, with benefit shows and other forms of scene organisation forming part of their approach. 

 
Their first major release was the LP 'Jonestown Aloha!' in 1983, issued in the United States by Radical Records. They had already appeared on several international and Dutch compilations, and their profile grew quickly outside the Netherlands. 'The White Male Dumbinance' 7-inch followed in 1984, while 'Nothing Can Go Wrogn!' appeared in 1986 on Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label. These records helped establish B.G.K. as one of the more internationally visible bands to emerge from the Dutch hardcore scene. 

 
The band also became heavily involved in international touring. They made two US tours, in 1984 and 1986, and toured mainland Europe at least five times during the period. The first American trip in 1984 was arranged with help from their manager Wouter and saw B.G.K. sharing stages with various figures from the American hardcore scene. Their extensive touring helped connect the Amsterdam scene with punk and hardcore communities across Europe, Britain and the United States. 

 
There was a significant line-up change in 1985 when Steven Walraven left. Tony Leeuwenburgh moved from bass to guitar, while Mathijs Houwink took over the bass. Houwink had to learn the band's extremely fast repertoire in a very short time, giving the group a new three-piece configuration alongside René and Marcel. By the later period, Tony was also handling vocals, and an interview from around 1987 describes B.G.K. operating as a three-piece while looking for a new singer. 

 
The lyrics dealt with subjects such as war, religion, drugs, political authority, corporations and the social pressures that the band felt interfered with independent thinking. Their song “Regering (Krijg de Tering)” became an example of their direct political approach, while the band's anti-authoritarian attitude was also reflected in the way they organised shows and distributed records. 

 
B.G.K. continued touring and recording through the second half of the 1980s before splitting in 1988. Tony Leeuwenburgh remained active in the Dutch punk world afterwards, becoming involved with projects including Loveslug and a later incarnation of The Nitwitz, as well as working as a touring musician. B.G.K.'s recorded legacy was later gathered on a double-LP discography issued by Alternative Tentacles in 1999, bringing their studio recordings together in one collection. 

 

A Popular History Of Signs

A Popular History Of Signs were a London electro-pop and post-punk group formed in 1979 by bassist and singer Andrew Jarman. The group went through several line-up changes during the 1980s, gradually shifting between minimal electronic rhythms, synth-pop, artier new wave and a more developed indie-electronic sound. Their early records have a particularly stripped-down character, with drum machines and synthesizers providing much of the framework around Jarman's bass and vocals.

The original core of the band featured Jarman alongside Peter Scammell on synthesizer and Paul Clarke on percussion. This line-up made the first three singles, beginning with 'Justice Not Vengeance / Possession' on Melodia Records in 1980. 'Crowds / Crossing The Border' followed in 1981, and 'Dancing With Ideas / The Traveller' appeared in 1982, giving the group a small but steadily developing catalogue of electronic new wave.

 
Scammell eventually left and Andrew Smith joined on guitar, synthesizers and vocals. The changing personnel gave A Popular History Of Signs a less strictly minimal approach, while Jarman remained the central figure. Their records were picked up by John Peel, who also recorded a session with the group for his BBC programme in 1983. Around this period they were becoming more active outside London, including touring in Britain with Shriekback and playing extensively in France and Spain.

 
Their first album, 'Comrades', was recorded in 1984 and issued by Jungle Records. The line-up for the album included Jarman on vocals, bass, keyboards and drum programming, Lindsey Smith on guitar, keyboards and drum programming, Paul Patient on percussion, and Christeen Isherwood on vocals. The ten tracks included "Body And Soul", "Crowds", "Tidy", "Halcyon Days", "Lenin", "October Already", "Father And Son", "Five Towns", "Land Of The Free" and "Comrades". 

'Comrades' showed the group moving beyond the stark drum-machine sound of their earliest singles. The arrangements brought in funkier bass lines, percussion, keyboards and a looser rhythmic feel, while the songs continued to retain the cool, slightly austere character of British early-'80s electronic pop. Several titles and themes also reflected Jarman's political interests, particularly "Lenin", "October Already" and "Comrades".

 
Jungle Records became their main label during this period. The group issued the 'If She Was A Car' 12-inch, followed by the 'Body And Soul' single and 12-inch, while tracks such as "House", "Ladder Jack" and "Stigma" expanded their electronic palette. "Ladder Jack" and "House" later attracted the attention of Al Jourgensen, who remixed both tracks for the American Wax Trax! label, giving A Popular History Of Signs a connection with the emerging industrial and electronic underground in the United States. 

The group's changing membership continued through the middle of the decade. Paul Clarke was eventually replaced by Mark Tattersall on drums, while Andrew Smith left in 1986. Other musicians passed through the line-up, including John Lucibello, Vini Champier, Nick Cash, Cliff Ovenden and Carrie Brooks on later recordings and appearances. This constant reshuffling meant that A Popular History Of Signs never really settled into a fixed format for very long. 

Jungle Records later gathered much of the group's material on 'Taste', issued in 1987. The album brought together songs from different stages of the group's career, including "Crowds", "Justice Not Vengeance", "Dancing With Ideas", "Stigma", "Art Of Persuasion", "If She Was A Car", "Ladder Jack", "Trapped", "Body And Soul", "House", "Rock & Roll" and "Run Through The Jungle". The last two were covers of songs by the Velvet Underground and John Fogerty respectively. 

The final phase came with 'England In The Rain', issued by Jungle Records in 1988. By then the group had moved further towards a more straightforward pop-oriented electronic sound. Songs from the release included "City Don't Sleep", "Crawling 4 U", "Word To The Wise", "Salvation Train", "Shoeshine Boy" and "Western Wind". 

A Popular History Of Signs' recorded history therefore runs from the sparse, drum-machine-driven "Justice Not Vengeance" in 1980 through increasingly elaborate synth and percussion arrangements and finally the more accessible material of 'England In The Rain'. The band remained active through 1988, with Jungle Records documenting much of the later period, while their first three singles had established the group through Melodia. 

After A Popular History Of Signs, Andrew Jarman continued working with music and later became associated with the psychedelic project Strange Fruit before developing Southern Arts Society. Jungle Records still lists A Popular History of Signs among its catalogue of artists, describing them as "Electro indie". 

22 Beaches

22 Beaches were a six-piece post-punk and new wave group from Stirling, Scotland, formed in the late 1970s out of the short-lived band Alone At Last. Drummer Fred Parsons and guitarist Stephen Hunter were the two members who carried over from the earlier group, while the rest of the lineup came together largely through school friendships and local connections. The completed lineup was Hugh McGregor on vocals, Jackie Sharkey on vocals and synthesizer, Stephen Hunter on guitar, Simon Fildes on bass, Fred Parsons on drums and Billy McChord on percussion. 

The band developed during a particularly active period for Scottish post-punk, with Stirling sitting between the larger musical centres of Glasgow and Edinburgh. Their early sound was rooted in punk but quickly became more stripped-down, angular and experimental. Guitar, bass and drums were joined by synths, percussion and the contrasting voices of McGregor and Sharkey, giving the songs a slightly detached, sometimes unsettling character. Their recordings also show a gradual move away from the sharper punk attack of their early material towards more spacious, rhythm-led and dub-influenced arrangements. 

22 Beaches were an active live band and played a surprisingly wide range of venues around Britain. Their gigs included small clubs, university events, a swimming-pool boiler room and fundraisers connected with the miners' strike. One particularly memorable show took place at the International in Grangemouth, where they appeared on a bill with The Exploited and the first incarnation of the Cocteau Twins. The event even included a coach from Stirling for the audience and a buffet break during the concert. 

Their recorded output during the early 1980s was almost entirely confined to cassette compilations rather than conventional singles or albums. They appeared on 'The A.N.K.L.E. File', a compilation documenting bands and artists from the Stirling area, with tracks including “What Day Is It?” and “Sadie When She Died”. “Dust” appeared on a compilation connected with the fanzine Another Spark, while “Zoo” was included on 'An Hour Of Eloquent Sounds', issued by Glasgow's Pleasantly Surprised label alongside early recordings by groups such as Primal Scream, Cocteau Twins, The Wake and Sunset Gun.

 
The surviving recordings reveal several sides of the group. Earlier pieces such as “Zoo” and “Talent Show” have a raw, live-in-the-room quality, with Hunter's guitar and McGregor's vocals pushing against Parsons' drumming and McChord's percussion. Later material is more spacious and rhythmically sophisticated, with “Dust” built around bass, drums and percussion while the two vocalists create a layered, almost psychedelic atmosphere. “Cartoon Boy” is considerably more skeletal, using a persistent bass line, a repeating guitar figure and the interplay between McGregor and Sharkey. 

There was also a clear Scottish post-punk character to tracks such as “That Girl”, “One Of Us”, “Somebody Got It Wrong” and “Breathing”. Their music could move from tense, minimalist guitar work into punk-funk rhythms, jangling passages and dub-like spaces. The male/female vocal combination became an important part of the sound, particularly on “Breathing”, while Sharkey's spoken delivery on “Talent Show” added another experimental element. 

The group continued through the early 1980s but stopped in 1984, leaving behind a small collection of cassette recordings and demos. Much of the material remained practically unknown for decades, circulating mainly among people who had managed to find the original compilation tapes. The recordings were eventually digitised from the original cassettes by Conor Walker at the National Library of Scotland's Sound and Moving Image Archive at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. 

The band's recordings were finally collected on 'Dust: Recordings 1980–1984', issued by Glasgow label Seated Records on 27 May 2024. The eight-track release contains five previously unreleased recordings alongside three tracks that had appeared on the rare cassette compilations. The sequence covers the band's development across the period, moving between their early DIY post-punk material and the more spacious, dub- and Balearic-influenced direction heard in the later recordings.

The Sports

The Sports were an Australian rock group formed in Melbourne in 1976 by singer and songwriter Stephen Cummings, following his time with the rockabilly group The Pelaco Brothers. The original line-up brought together Cummings on vocals, former Pelaco Brothers guitarist Ed Bates, bassist Robert Glover, pianist Jim Niven and drummer Paul Hitchins. Guitarist Andrew Pendlebury joined in 1977, adding another important songwriting voice to the group. 

Their early sound mixed rockabilly, straight-ahead rock & roll, country touches and the emerging new wave style. Their live sets included songs by Chuck Berry, Billy Emerson, Don Covay, Company Caine and Graham Parker alongside original material, much of it written by Cummings and Bates. The band's first recording was the four-track 'Fair Game' EP, released in 1977 on the small Zac Records label in an edition of only 500 copies. A copy was sent to London's New Musical Express, which picked it as its "Record of the Week", giving the Melbourne group some unexpected attention in Britain. 

The Sports signed with Mushroom Records and recorded their first album, 'Reckless', released in 1978 and produced by former Pelaco Brothers member Joe Camilleri. By this point Martin Armiger had replaced Ed Bates, bringing guitar, vocals and songwriting to the line-up, while Pendlebury remained on guitar and vocals. 'Reckless' reached number 43 on the Australian Kent Music Report, while singles such as "Boys! (What Did the Detective Say?)" and "When You Walk in the Room" established the group on Australian radio. 

Their breakthrough came with 'Don't Throw Stones', released in February 1979. Produced by Peter Solley and Dave Robinson, the album pushed the group toward a broader new wave and pop sound without completely abandoning its earlier rock & roll and rockabilly roots. It reached number 9 in Australia and was certified gold, while "Who Listens to the Radio?" reached number 35 and "Don't Throw Stones" reached number 26 on the Australian singles chart. "Who Listens to the Radio?", written by Cummings and Pendlebury, also became their only US Billboard Hot 100 entry, reaching number 45. 

The success of 'Don't Throw Stones' opened the door to overseas touring. After supporting Graham Parker in Australia, The Sports were invited to join him on his European and British tour in 1979. They also signed with Stiff Records in Britain, which issued the 'So Obvious' EP, while Mushroom released the 'O.K, U.K!' EP in August. Their records attracted interest in Britain and the United States, although the international impact remained considerably smaller than their success in Australia. 

Personnel changes became increasingly frequent around 1980. Paul Hitchins was replaced on drums by Iain McLennan, while Jim Niven left the keyboard position and was replaced by Red Symons, formerly of Skyhooks. McLennan subsequently became ill with hepatitis and Freddie Strauks, also a former Skyhooks member, took over on drums. The changing line-up coincided with a more polished production style on 'Suddenly', released in March 1980. The album reached number 13 in Australia and produced "Strangers on a Train", which peaked at number 22. 

The final studio album, 'Sondra', appeared in May 1981 and reached number 20 on the Australian chart. The single "How Come" gave the group another Top 30 hit, reaching number 21, while later releases included "When We Go Out Tonight" and "Sunshine Superman". The group also recorded 'The Sports Play Dylan (and Donovan)', a 1981 EP devoted to songs associated with Bob Dylan and Donovan. 

The Sports broke up late in 1981 after five years of recording and touring. Stephen Cummings moved into a long-running solo career, while Martin Armiger went on to work as a composer and producer for film and television after moving to Sydney. Andrew Pendlebury later joined The Dugites, Freddie Strauks became a member of Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons, and Robert Glover worked with Wilbur Wilde's backing band. 

The group's catalogue continued to be reissued after the split, including the compilation 'All Sports' and later anthologies such as 'This Is Really Something' and 'The Definitive Collection'. 'Don't Throw Stones' was included in the 2010 book 100 Best Australian Albums. The Sports also reunited for a one-off appearance at the Mushroom 25 concert in 1998, celebrating the 25th anniversary of Mushroom Records. Keyboard player Jim Niven died of cancer in 2012.