Jack Ruby

Formed in Albany, New York, during the summer of 1973, Jack Ruby grew out of the partnership between vocalist Robin “Robby” Hall and guitarist Chris Gray. By the end of that year they had both moved to New York City, where they expanded the lineup with multi-instrumentalist Randy Cohen and classically trained violist Boris (Policeband). Cohen was involved with the development of the Serge synthesizer and brought an unusual electronic approach to the group, while Boris amplified his viola through an FM transmitter and even incorporated police walkie-talkies into his setup. 

The name came from Hall, who was fascinated by the visual possibilities of the name Jack Ruby, the Dallas nightclub owner who shot Lee Harvey Oswald. He imagined using the famous photograph of the shooting on posters and record covers, although there would be no record to put it on during the group's lifetime. Their sound drew from the Velvet Underground, the Stooges and MC5, but also from more experimental territory, with Cohen's primitive electronic rhythms and Boris's amplified viola pushing the music away from conventional rock arrangements.

 
Their early recordings came together in a Times Square studio in 1974. Among the material recorded was “Hit and Run,” which became their signature number, along with “Mayonnaise,” a strange piece built around Boris's viola and Cohen's electronic rhythms. The first demo attracted the attention of Steve Paley at Epic Records, leading to another recording session at Columbia Studios. By this stage Boris Policeband had left, and the remaining members worked on new material before recording “Bored Stiff,” “Sleep Cure” and “Bad Teeth.” Epic eventually passed on the recordings, and attempts to interest other labels also came to nothing. 

George Scott subsequently joined on bass, and the lineup went through further changes, including the arrival of drummer Nick and, later, vocalist Stephen Barth replacing Hall. Scott would become particularly important in the emerging downtown New York scene, later playing with James Chance and The Contortions and becoming associated with projects including 8-Eyed Spy and the Raybeats. Randy Cohen eventually left the group as well, moving towards writing and other creative work. 

Between 1973 and 1977, the group reportedly made only five studio recordings and played roughly five gigs. Their almost complete lack of a physical discography made them particularly difficult to document, and for decades their existence circulated largely through memories of musicians and people connected with the New York underground. They never released an album or single while active, despite having recorded professionally and having attracted some attention from the record industry. 

The recordings eventually resurfaced many years later. In 2011, Weasel Walter obtained an archival tape containing eight pieces and issued the material in remastered form through ugEXPLODE!. A much more extensive retrospective, 'Hit & Run', appeared as a two-CD set on Saint Cecilia Knows in 2014, collecting the surviving recordings and putting “Hit and Run” alongside the other studio material. The release also included contributions and documentation from figures such as Thurston Moore and Jon Savage, helping fill in the story of a group that had left very little physical evidence behind. 

The music sits in the territory between proto-punk, noise rock and the early New York no wave aesthetic, although Jack Ruby existed before the downtown scene had acquired those labels. Their mixture of abrasive guitar, primitive synthesizer rhythms, unconventional viola and stripped-down vocals placed them alongside the more experimental strains of early-1970s New York rock. Later musicians and writers, including Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, have discussed the group in connection with the development of the city's no wave and downtown underground. 

Boris Policeband continued developing his peculiar combination of amplified strings, electronics and police communications after leaving Jack Ruby, eventually recording under the Policeband name. George Scott remained involved in the downtown New York scene, while Robin Hall later formed W-2. The surviving Jack Ruby recordings, particularly “Hit and Run,” “Mayonnaise,” “Bored Stiff,” “Sleep Cure” and “Bad Teeth,” provide the main recorded trace of the group and document a brief period between the proto-punk explosion of the early 1970s and the more defined no wave movement that followed. 

Inandout

Emerging from the Berlin underground in 1983, this German electronic and experimental project operated under the names Inandout, IAO and I.A.O. The original line-up consisted of Achim Kohlberger, Ralf Östereich and Carsten Zielske, working in a period when Berlin's post-punk, industrial and experimental scenes were increasingly crossing paths with electronic music and the city's developing club culture.

 
Achim Kohlberger is the most prominent figure connected with the project. Alongside his musical activities, he became involved in Berlin's wider experimental and electronic network and worked with Dimitri Hegemann around the Berlin Atonal festival and the legendary UFO club. This environment would later feed into the development of Tresor, but I.A.O. belongs to an earlier phase, when the distinctions between experimental electronics, art-rock, industrial music and club-oriented sounds were still fairly loose. 

The group's music was based around synthesizers, electronic processing and percussion, but it didn't follow the polished synth-pop formula that was becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. Their recordings combine programmed and played elements, with abstract textures, unusual rhythmic structures and atmospheric passages giving the music a distinctly experimental character. There are also traces of minimal electronics, post-punk and art-rock in the arrangements. 

The project went through personnel changes and different phases during its existence. A later period is generally identified as "Phase 3", covering recordings made between 1988 and 1995. This material features Kohlberger, Östereich and Zielske as the central line-up and documents a period when the Berlin underground was changing rapidly, particularly around the collapse of the Wall and the transformation of the city's musical infrastructure. 

Tracks associated with this period include “Gospel IV,” “Absublium XX,” “Massiv XIV,” “All Is Bliss,” “Green Earth,” “Feel The Forgotten Sense,” “Hang On,” “Ferns” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” The recordings move between synthesizer pieces, electronic soundscapes, experimental rock and more rhythmically driven passages, with some compositions having an almost soundtrack-like quality. 

The catalogue appeared through several labels and has remained relatively scattered, with releases connected to names such as Interfisch, AKT-Tonträger and Big Sex Records. The use of different versions of the group's name has also contributed to some confusion in discographical listings, where Inandout, I.A.O. and I A O can occasionally appear as separate entries. 

A substantial rediscovery came with 'Phase 3', a 16-track double LP released by Melbourne-based Left Ear Records in 2020. The compilation brought together recordings from the 1988–1995 period that had remained difficult to find, making a significant portion of the later I.A.O. material available in a single release. 

The recordings collected on 'Phase' 3 cover a broad territory, from sparse synthesizer patterns and atmospheric electronics to angular rhythms, experimental instrumental passages and more spacious pieces. Rather than settling into a clearly defined genre, the material reflects the fluid musical environment surrounding Berlin's experimental scene during the 1980s and early 1990s. 

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".