Colin McDonald
Staff Reporter
It is 1977, the first wave of punk rock is about to break. Bands such as the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and the Ramones who take rock ‘n’ roll back to its scrappy, simple past, giving the finger to mainstream culture and establishing a do-it-yourself ethic. Around the same time, another movement is about to begin brewing, one that takes punk and goes wild with its blueprint: post-punk.
Meanwhile in Bristol, England, a group of teenagers from the same youth club are about to start one of the most eclectic and off-kilter bands to ever exist. A band that was honestly too punk for the punks themselves. Their deranged combinations of dub reggae, funk, free jazz, avant-garde music, noise, punk, and radical politics would leave a legacy for many and would pioneer a new style of music. This is the Pop Group.
The Pop Group was formed in 1977 with vocalist Mark Stewart, guitarist John Waddington, guitarist/saxophonist/pianist Gareth Sager, bassist Simon Underwood, and drummer Bruce Smith. They originally started as a funk band, being inspired by African-American funk and dance music which was creating an underground fan base in England at the time. As punk rock became bigger, the band showed an interest in the genre. They were very intrigued by the politically-charged lyrics and energy of the genre but were ultimately disappointed in its conventionality and recycling of old rock cliches.
Two years after their inception, the Pop Group would release their debut album, Y. It would be produced by Dennis Bovell, a dub reggae producer who made records such as Raindrops. This made the Pop Group the first band to get a reggae artist to produce their album. Y is characterized by a strong foundation of versatile drum beats covering a wide range of styles, yet still being danceable. Prominent bass lines as the center of most songs with a funk influence. Dueling guitars parts that are so jagged and angular it is almost as if they are shredding shards in the music. Y also features the occasional saxophone screeches from Sager. And lastly, Mark Stewart’s demented vocals shifting from shouting like a revolutionary to whispering like a prisoner providing forbidden knowledge. Y can be best described as the soundtrack to anarchy and revolution.
The album opens up with “She is Beyond Good and Evil”, which starts with guitar feedback and noise until the instrumental comes in. The instrumental consists of disjointed guitar riffs over a unique funk groove as Mark Stewart shouts about a supposed girl who has moved beyond the naive western moral compass. The title itself is a possible reference to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. “Thief of Fire” is next, it starts innocently enough (innocent for the Pop Group) with tight grooves, then devolves into chaos with loud drums, the guitars playing dissonant noise, and Mark Stewart going on a deranged rant. “Snowgirl” is a fine example of the joyful and organized messiness that the Pop Group is capable of. Switching from a free jazz-esque groove and an almost sarcastic sounding ballad. “Snowgirl” then devolves further into “Blood Money”. After the sounds of pure chaos and horror from “Blood Money” are over, it transitions to the six-and-a-half minute long “We Are Time”. It is similar to Gang of Four, a band that was making similar music at the time, but way more chaotic. We are not on what would be the b-side of the record, which opens with “Savage Sea.” On the track “Savage Sea”, one would think from the soft and consonant piano intro that normal songs are to come, but they would be wrong. “Savage Sea” is just as strange as the other tracks so far, sounding like the point in a movie where one gets to the irreversible point of insanity. “Words Disobey Me” is next, and now we are back to “normal” Pop Group, but with a noir twist. Next is “Don’t Call Me Pain,” which would be a perfect soundtrack to a mental breakdown. So far the b-side has been weird, but the "Boys from Brazil" is about to take things to a new level as it goes all over the place in its structure, barely resembling a typical song. The final track of the album, “Don’t Sell Your Dreams” ties the album all together with a slow drag of shouts, and bass and guitars with a simple message–do not let the system use your dreams and goals to make a profit.
Y was released to mixed reviews and was a commercial failure. NME at the time called it “a brave failure. Exciting but exasperating.” Over the years, however, Y rose in critical acclaim. Since then, the album has been put into the Wire’s 100 Most Important Records Ever Made, PopMatters’ 50 Best Post-Punk Albums Ever, and the Guardian's 1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die. Even though the band was a complete commercial failure in its time, the Pop Group left a sizable legacy, being cited as an influence by Sonic Youth, Minutemen, Nick Cave, Nine Inch Nails, among others. Many post-punk bands would rise in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, experimenting on punk rock’s outline. However, none were as inventive and individual as the Pop Group.
Image Credit: The Pop Group, NME
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