WORK, THE - COMPILATION (LP)

"When "The Work" was New: It was that time of the century: punk had seen prog off the premises and the New Wave had clambered over their exhausted bodies to claim the citadel for itself. The genius of the New Wave was that it didn't represent any particular musical idea; it was just a name, so anything could fly under its banner - as long as it observed the accepted musical, attitudinal and sartorial conventions. Poorly disguised hangovers from prog, jazz or metal would be rooted out but, in the newly polymorphous cultural climate, rebranding - if honest - would not be punished; indeed, everyone was at it. And the prize was a novel and reinvigorated aesthetic. extract from the text of Chris Cutler 2017" (label info) Side A: tracks 1 and 2 were originally released on a 7" single in 1981; tracks 3, 4 and 5 are from 'Slow Crimes' (LP/CD, 1982). Side B: tracks 2, 3 and 6 are from 'Rubber Cage' (LP/CD, 1990); track 4 is from 'See' (CD, 1992); tracks 1 and 5 are from 'The 4th World' (live recording from 1994, released on CD in 2010).