Two Daughters

With hindsight, the scene which emerged in Britain during the late 1970s and 80s, birthing seminal projects like Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, Coil, Dome, Cabaret Voltaire, Nurse with Wound, Current 93, and a great many more, is among the most fascinating junctures of music which has occurred during the last 50 years. Often cast under the banner of industrial music, a term which defies its true breadth and divinity, it's impossible to overstate the range, singularity, and importance of this energetic transition of Punk into an intersecting series of entirely visionary and experimental forms. Now, drawing on their deep dedication to rich veins of neglected underground sound, Vinyl On Demand's latest release - a double LP survey of the remarkable outfit, Two Daughters - Recordings 1979 -1981, takes the ear into the heart of rarely heard territories of this incredible scene.

Like so many projects of their moment, Two Daughters were short lived and sinfully under-documented, producing only two releases - a self-titled cassette, and a single LP, Kiss The Cloth / Gloria, between 1980 and 1981, before concluding activity the following year. Based in Brixton and comprised of Anthony Burke and an artist simply know as Paul, they were closely associated with Throbbing Gristle and Nurse with Wound, but very little other information survives. We're not for a small group of dedicated fans who championed the project's output over the years, all would have likely been lost.

Recordings 1979 - 1981, gathers the lion's share of all the available recorded material from Two Daughters - drawing from their lone releases, into a beautifully produced double LP, marked by the high standards for which VOD has becomes renowned. Far from the standard expectations of what industrial music is historically understood to have been, it is a mesmerizing journey into DIY experimentalism with no loyalties and nothing to loose. Beautiful melodic lines rest in harmony against atonal ambiences, and driving percussion, and flowering avant-garde approaches, which stand up roughly 40 years on.

Wonderful from start to finish, Two Daughter's Recordings 1979 - 1981 is yet another revelation from VOD - an essential piece of the puzzle in all that was. As historically important and musically fascinating as releases come, at long last offering this long overlooked project pride of place. Sure to sell out fast, grab it while you can!