Systems of Romance

Some classic post-punk on the slab this afternoon, half of this post which comes as a generous donation from Jeffo!, a good chum, stellar dj, and otherwise obscure expert here in the heart of New York City. He’ll be spinning a set at this week’s weekly Wierd Records night, if anyone’s in town.

That said, today’s band is Foreign Press, a UK based post-punk act originally formed in 1978 umder the name Emergency. Within a year, the band shifted their sound from a more standard punk aesthetic to incorporate more post-punk leanings, inspired by the likes of Joy Division, Magazine, and several of the Factory Records bands. The band would even bring Joy Division’s devoted manager, Rob Gretton, in for production on their first 7”, uploaded below.

Foreign Press would release four singles before their demise in the mid-1980s, exploring a more commercial, yet no less gloom-ridden direction over time. For your listening pleasure, I’ve uploaded their first two singles, both their 1979 debut 7” (Downpour), as well as their excellent 1982 follow up, Climbing. Let’s get down to the nitty gritty, shall we?

Foreign Press- Downpour 7”
1. Downpour
2. Crossfire
3. Behind the Glass

Foreign Press- Climbing 12”
1. Climbing
2. Remember You
3. Open Secret

*download both here*

Naturally, these two records are long out of print, but there seems to be a copy of the Climbing 12” on Ebay right this very second. If you’re hip to it, happy bidding!

Otherwise, no new reuploads just yet- haven’t been able to devote enough time to the blog’s backlog. Hopefully this week I can get all the old posts back up and running, so please continue to be patient in the interim. Keep your eyes peeled, however, for several posts to follow this week…

This entry was posted on December 8, 2008 at 6:21 pm and is filed under 1970s, 1979, 1980s, 1982, emergency, foreign press, post-punk, uk . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.