Record: Y
Label: Radar
Year of Release: 1979
Sounds Like: Punk, Post Punk, Funk, Experimental, No Wave
England
The Pop Group are an English Band from Bristol, they were formed by the vocalist Mark Stewart, Guitarist and Saxophonist Gareth Sager, Bassist Simon Underwood, guitarist John Waddington, and Bruce Smith playing the drums. They became prominent by the end of the 70's when they released the albums ''Y'', and ''For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?'', they disbanded after that, just to come back nearly 35 years later with the album ''Citizen Zombie'' in 2015 and ''Honeymoon in Mars'' in 2016. Their rhythm has often been described as a raw mixture of Punk, Funk, Dub, even improvised Jazz. Their Imagery was shocking and their lyrics totally uncomfortable. ''Y'' is recognized as their major work and a big influence in the events to come in the plane of Post Punk era and the beginnings of New Wave age.
Does it Work?
Regina Says: There are few records whose covers warn me so much about the stuff I'm about to hear as happens with this one. The first impression that I got from this record ,just based on its cover, is that it was gonna be tribal, wild, dirty and pretty shocking, and it was all these things, and some more.
No, this is not an easy record. Like happens almost all the time here, in Discotropia, this record is far from being a treat to your ears, it is a road movie of European decadence and sounds of violence, improvisation and even crudeness. I have heard this record like 30 times in my life. I first listened to it when I was 14 or something, and I found some of its beats truly catchy and the lyrics killed me. ''She is beyond good and evil'' was, for a while, the song that I used to introduce myself, whenever that was needed.
Maybe that's why it is easy for me to say that this record is really valuable, incredibly spontaneous and very brave. But now, I will try to wear someone else's shoes and assume it as a first experience.
The record, feels like the ultimate statement of Post Punk music. This thing features a lot of ideas and concepts that would have not fitted the Punk standards,but it is still so alienated and visceral that could not be any other thing but Punk. ''Avant Punk'', maybe? it's closer to the things that DNA and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks were doing at the same time in other latitudes. It is not even close to ''The Clash'',for instance, this feels like a bunch of Punk kids who got tired of Punk rules and decided to do something even ''punker'' by creating a thing that is a little more complex and bohemian, angry and artsy all at once.The funk stuff here is the key that opens a very rusty trunk.
Black, in the entire spectre of the word.
No, not all the record is great, some themes are better than others ( I invite you to decide which ones), but it is shockingly intense, and I, for one, appreciate that.
Rate: Highly Recommendable
Hugo Menanth says:A band whose name is ''pop group'' and a record that is named simply ''Y'', Google can find it with no problems, and I tell you why: because it is a classic.
This is another record that I had already listened to, before meeting Regina. I too checked it out when I was like 15 and I remember it blew my mind. This was my kind of stuff when I was younger. And now, as an adult, I can say that it has aged like the angels. The cover ,like the music, seem to question the vulnerability of our modern occidental society, looking at us, the individuals, as the victims and propitiators of a disastrous ''free market''. In the same way, this environment reveals the true essence of its content: a desperate and rabid cry against the cultural hegemony of rock; in the end, another new form of colonialism. That's what this record turns out to be about.
At their time, the Pop Group were a celebration of conscience whether it is in an aesthetic or an ideological way, we only need to check out the spine chilling lucidity of some of its verses ''I admit my crime /I'm a thief of fire /We do not have anything/ We have not learned anything/ We do not know anything/ Do not understand / We do not sell anything/ We do not help But we will betray And we will not forget/ I admit my crime I'm a thief of fire''
Impious, maniac, violent, paranoid, painful. An exorcism in its own. Disturbing but necessary.
They didn't have the same links and influences as their contemporaries, they weren't fond of them either, their respect belonged to King Tubby, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, The Last Poets y George Clinton. This record sounds like a supermarket after a massacre, in which people are hiding from murderers that come from a new concept of liberty.
I once heard Viv Albertine of the Slits, saying that the Sex Pistols were inspiring, that they didn't make you afraid or like they were spitting on you. Well, The Pop Group in this record ,does make you feel like that, like they are bashing you and humiliating you. Deliberately, and guess what...it is enjoyable.
Rate: Imprescindible.