Negative Reaction - S/T - New LP

Negative Reaction’s brilliant, lone album (1981) was originally released as a cassette for Terse Tapes (Tom Ellard/Severed Heads) then quickly pressed onto vinyl by Dogfood Production Systems (home of the estimable Slugfuckers) so you know the pedigree is tip-top. While you’d be correct in assuming the vibe here is experimental-merely by association-what you might not be prepared for is the most perfect example of dystopian malaise ever released by a band from the (then) burgeoning post-punk movement. It’s easy to forget-or simply not be aware-that in the nascent dawn of the 80’s, specific, niche genres hadn’t been painstakingly carved out. Negative Reaction’s album trods forth across the landscapes of industrial, experimental & minimal, gathering the Cold War gloom, the bleak threat of impending global nuclear holocaust, then forging it all into this S/T masterpiece. Done primarily with recitation, blurred guitar lines, echos & feedback, it’s a harrowing snapshot from the other side of an inevitable apocalypse. It’s beauty is in it’s simplicity; it doesn’t go for the jolt, like SPK, nor does it attempt to shock, like Throbbing Gristle. Negative Reaction go for the sublime, matter of factly & evenly laying down six tracks of impending doom that give “John" & The Book of Revelation a run for it’s money. One of the most pivotal records ever from a bygone era that was teeming with them. Edition of 250. RIYL: The Barons, Plast, Factrix, Prominent Disturbance, Vertical Slit-Slit & Pre-Slit.