The Jukebox Rebel

On their September '79 debut this highly experimental group of multi-instrumentalists from London line-up: Charles Bullen (vocals, guitar, clarinet, drums, tapes), Charles Hayward (vocals, drums, keyboards, guitar, bass, tapes) and Gareth Williams (vocals, bass, keyboards, tapes). Three years in the making, their intriguing set would have been hugely welcome to those who saught challenge in their musical diet, without being all metal machine music about it. That said, the rating is negatively affected by the test-card blips which bookend the album and the similarly annoying “Diet Of Worms” in mid-set, which has our canine friends barking at the loudspeakers. Mustn't grumble though, there's plenty of goodness to unpack inbetween and all around, beginning with “Horizontal Hold”, a ferocious mid-tempo slab of dub-kraut-musique-concrète which shakes, rattles and rumbles the senses. Out there! The eerie “Not Waving” is film-soundtrack-like and reminds me a bit of Robert Wyatt when the lamenting vocal drifts in. The minimalist “Water” foretells the industrial clang which would inform an entire genre, before the rhythmic “Twilight Furniture” accentuates the positive greatness within the group; inventive rhythms, an economic use of instrumentation and a moody vocal delivery. The fantastic “24 Track Loop” opens side two with a trance-inducing six minutes of electronic squall, built on a proto-junglist rhythm which is crazily ahead of its time, at least a good 10 years before the ravers. It might be a bit consistent, but this is an amazing, daring record all the same, delving deeper into the avant-garde, one step beyond Can.

The Jukebox Rebel
17–Aug–2016

A1	[00:47] This Heat - Testcard [album version 1] (Charles Bullen, Charles Hayward, Gareth Williams) Avant-Garde
A2	[06:56] This Heat - Horizontal Hold (Charles Bullen, Charles Hayward, Gareth Williams) Avant-Garde
A3	[07:26] This Heat - Not Waving (Charles Bullen, Charles Hayward, Gareth Williams) Avant-Garde
A4	[03:10] This Heat - Water (Charles Bullen, Charles Hayward, Gareth Williams) Avant-Garde
A5	[05:06] This Heat - Twilight Furniture (Charles Bullen, Charles Hayward, Gareth Williams) Moodcore
B1	[05:57] This Heat - 24 Track Loop (Charles Bullen, Charles Hayward, Gareth Williams) Electronica
B2	[03:09] This Heat - Diet Of Worms (Charles Bullen, Charles Hayward, Gareth Williams) Avant-Garde
B3	[03:40] This Heat - Music Like Escaping Gas (Charles Bullen, Charles Hayward, Gareth Williams) Avant-Garde
B4	[02:55] This Heat - Rainforest (Charles Bullen, Charles Hayward, Gareth Williams) Avant-Garde
B5	[05:10] This Heat - The Fall Of Saigon (Charles Bullen, Charles Hayward, Gareth Williams) Moodcore
B6	[04:09] This Heat - Testcard [album version 2] (Charles Bullen, Charles Hayward, Gareth Williams) Avant-Garde

ratings by TJR