Ahead of the release of the definitive edition of their highly influential and innovative debut, Y, released on Mute on 1 November 2019, The Pop Group have shared a new video for the unreleased studio recording of ‘Kiss The Book’. 

Previously only available as a Peel Session (recorded in 1978), ‘Kiss The Book’ is one of several unreleased gems found when The Pop Group unearthed the original 2” tapes of their studio sessions and recordings, and now, fellow accelerationists Mark Stewart & Daniel Kramer have at last had a chance to collaborate – watch the film here: 

Writing about Daniel Kramer, Mark Stewart has said: “Daniel offers a critical refusal of the new pragmatism, and a commitment both to the utopian force of the radical attempt and against today’s vicarious aesthetic. He exhibits indispensable boldness in this age of political surrender and intellectual timidity.” while Daniel Kramer explains, “I do not control the glitch, the glitch controls me. I’m a student of Wabi-sabi; a perspective that accepts transience and imperfection.”

Remastered and cut at half-speed at Abbey Road to mark the 40th anniversary of Y’s original release, the band are releasing two limited edition box sets that include the original album, ‘She Is Beyond Good & Evil’ and two additional albums Alien Blood and Y Live, as well as an extensive booklet and art prints. A super deluxe version of the box set limited to 500 copies will include 180gm Inca gold vinyl pressings with two signed prints. 

Originally released on 20April 1979, Y represents a stunning culmination of The Pop Group’s crucial nonconformity. Preceded by a meteoric rise in recognition, Y firmly realised the latent potential of the group’s early years. From playing Bristol youth clubs to early gigs supporting Pere Ubu and Patti Smith to gracing the front covers of NME and Melody Maker,The Pop Group’s progression to the forefront had been swift. With the recording of Y, The Pop Group were to build on the promise of these earlier experiences and of their first recordings, delivering a debut album that transcends most, if not all, classification and one that exists in a league of its own. 

Recorded in 1978, the Y sessions were conducted at Ridge Farm in Dorking, Surrey, an experience the band’s bassist Simon Underwood now characterises as “an intense and electrifying journey of creative exploration and experimentation”.

The album was produced by dub maestro Dennis ‘Blackbeard’ Bovell, with Y becoming his first non-reggae project. The group’s decision to collaborate with Bovell is emblematic of the risk and range found on Y, where tracks are adeptly moulded with reverb, delays, tape loops and a range of other studio treatments. The results corral all of the captivating mixing desk ingenuity that Bovell had been previously applying to UK reggae and lovers rock, making for a record that ventures into altogether unchartered territory. 

As well as the feats of engineering applied by Bovell, the group were, as their then manager Dick O’Dell now recalls, “bursting with creativity”. The product of this creativity was drawn from a wide pool of influences, running from punk, dub, reggae, free jazz and funk to impressionism, chanson and avant-garde experimentalism. On Y these touchstones are channeled, disassembled and reconstructed in blistering new permutations.

The 10-track album Alien Blood is the result of The Pop Group revisiting the original 2” tapes of their studio sessions and recordings. This meticulous process has unearthed never-before-heard material, including the studio recording of ‘Kiss The Book’ and ‘We Are Time (Ricochet)’, described by The Pop Group guitarist Gareth Sager as the version “with the gloves off, all moves allowed, applied and approved”. The exploration of these studio sessions has brought to light the raw and skeletal elements that exist on Y album tracks. On ‘Words Disobey Me (Dennis The Menace Mix)’ the sheer force of the rhythm is revealed whilst ‘Thief of Fire (Bass Addict)’ exposes the track’s original velocity. Altogether Alien Blood reveals the life of Y before everything was finalised, exposing revelatory dimensions within these iconic works.

The Y Live album is an essential addendum to the original release, one that captures all the fierce urgency of The Pop Group’s Y era live performances. Comprised of recordings captured at a variety of locations including New York, London, Sheffield and Manchester, Y Live exemplifies what had proved so thrilling about The Pop Group. A snapshot of a time when the group were sharing stages with future acolytes including Cabaret Voltaire, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Public Image Ltd, Mark Stewart describes the album as a document of performances that were attempting to“paint the impossible”.

Combining the visionary lyrics of Mark Stewart, the convulsive rhythms and instrumentation of Gareth Sager, Bruce Smith, John Waddington and Simon Underwood, and the unconventional production expertise of Dennis Bovell, Y soon became a pivotal and epochal classic. In the years sincereleaseits relevance has stood undiminished; an accomplishment that has lost none of its fearless sense of ambition and attack.

Together this definitive reissue of Y, ‘She Is Beyond Good & Evil’, Alien Blood and Y Live affirms The Pop Group’s status as a group thathave consistently stretched the boundaries of what is conceivable. With this extensive reissue one of their finest and most celebrated achievements is renewed and expanded. 

On Y The Pop Group were: Mark Stewart (vocals, lyrics), Gareth Sager (guitar, saxophone, clarinet, piano, organ), John Waddington (guitar, bass guitar), Simon Underwood (bass guitar) and Bruce Smith (drums, percussion)

Available on:

Super deluxe 4x Inca gold vinyl – signed edition 

Deluxe 4 x vinyl edition

Y vinyl + 12”

3x CD edition

CD 

Cassette

“The Pop Group were unique in that every song on their hugely influential album Y seemed like it could fall apart at any moment, but even in their loosest moments they somehow managed to contain the turmoil long enough to create something bold, dramatic, meticulously organized” – ‘Top 50 Best Post-Punk Albums Ever’ – Pop Matters

“Y sounded incandescent, incendiary; as if the relics of rock were being melted before our very ears…years have done nothing to lessen the sheer weirdness of Y. In fact, time has only intensified its bizarreness. In the destranged world of today’s ‘alternative’ rock, the album sounds more impossible than ever…Joy Division’s Closer is often considered the crown jewel of post-punk, but Y – inchoate with potential, the fire to Joy Division’s ice – has an equal claim.” – Mark Fisher, FACT

Tracklistings
Y
Thief of Fire (Remastered)
Snowgirl (Remastered)
Blood Money (Remastered)
Savage Sea (Remastered)
We Are Time (Remastered)
Words Disobey Me (Remastered)
Don’t Call Me Pain (Remastered)
Boys From Brazil (Remastered)
Don’t Sell Your Dreams (Remastered)

Alien Blood
Kiss The Book
Blood Money (Slow Thief)
Don’t Call Me Pain (First Mix)
Words Disobey Me (Dennis the Menace Mix)
We Are Time (Ricochet)
Thief Of Fire (Bass Addict)
Savage Sea (Sparse)
Boys From Brazil (Ridge Reels)
Snowgirl (Take 3)
Don’t Sell Your Dreams (‘A’ Mix)

Y Live
Thief of Fire (Live)
Snowgirl (Live)
Blood Money (Live)
Savage Sea (Live)
We Are Time (Live)
Words Disobey Me (Live)
Don’t Call Me Pain (Live)
Boys From Brazil (Live)
Don’t Sell Your Dreams (Live)

‘She Is Beyond Good & Evil‘
She Is Beyond Good & Evil
3.38

Pre-order the album: smarturl.it/SIBGAE