[Hope] – ‘Joy! – Volume 2: Post-Punk 1982’ (1982)

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Stream the mix while you read; download at the bottom of this post.

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March 8th, when I posted ‘Joy! Volume 1: Jazz’ (1969-1973) was three and a half weeks ago, at the time of posting this.  Can you clearly remember March 8th?  In New England at least, we were still doing normal life, if nervously.  It feels a long bloody time ago.

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The days were already dark before all this.  But now: taking the most malicious and inept leadership the United States and the UK has had (even with generations of often terrible leadership), and combining it with a global pandemic… it’s fucking bleak.  The only solace I can take is that–while the “leaders” try to pit nation against nation, state against state; and while plenty of people don’t yet realize it–we’re all in this together.  Hopefully eventually that will lead to something positive, to share a terrible experience around the world where no one is inherently “the enemy,” as close as we’ve come to aliens attacking from outer space.  Aside from the 30% or so of humanity that just seems bound and determined to doom us all to hate: maybe the rest of us will learn something about our interdependence and the necessity of cooperation.

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Besides that glimmer, though, for me the only thing that’s really given me a minute where I can let go of everything that’s happening is music.  Sometimes I’ve still needed the subdued and reserved and purely beautiful.  But a lot of the time, more than usual, I’ve found there’s a certain “fake it till you make it” quality to buoyantly joyous music–like smiling until you feel it, but a lot more fun, you might start low but eventually your body overcomes your head and your heart and you can actually smile for a minute.

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So to bury the lede a bit: ‘Joy! Volume 2: Post-Punk 1982‘ (1982) is as close as Musicophilia will probably ever come to a 1982 sequel to the 1981, 1980, and 1979 massive sprawling box sets that have been the foundation of the blog.  The focus, though, is narrower: imagine the most bouncing, itchy, funky, twitchy parts of the ‘Feet‘/’Car‘/’Cassette‘ mixes from those sets, and ramp up playfulness even more, and you more or less have it.  As I’ve lamented before, post-punk’s reputation is far more trench-coat-wearing and walking-in-rain than it deserves (sorry, Joy Division lovers).  It’s actually mostly a vast and endless world of arty, inventive fun.

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Granted, the explicit “subject” of all of this music isn’t joy per se–post-punk is prickly and puckish, bookish and broadly political, so it doesn’t too often go in for just pure, unabashed puppies and rainbows (though it definitely can).  There’s almost always a bit of grit and verve and absurdity to temper the mania–but maybe, that makes it a bit more relatable in hard times, lessons learned from Fela and Marley and James Brown, to get the ass jumping so the mind would follow?  This is music that will get you grinning like an idiot but leave you with your intellectual cred intact afterward.  But don’t overthink it: like I said, it’s a ton of fun, first and foremost.

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I always thought of there being a massive fall-off in post-punk after 1981, before it fully morphed and recovered as New Wave pop and later into glamorous, mature High Art (and was later continually born anew).  At the very least, I thought 1982 as being a year when all the edges got worn off and things got less exciting.  Maybe there’s a bit of truth to those assumptions, but you won’t find evidence here.  Instead, I realized that a lot of the funkiest, looses, wiriest, silliest and most free-spirited post-punk happened in 1982, and ‘Joy! Volume 2’ is an overstuffed buffet of it.  (It flows nicely as a mix, but it’s also meant to be a big room you can just hang out in, rather than the highly-directed journey I’m often trying to shape.)

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So: turn up your Walkman/Soundabout/Stowaway to max on some fresh batteries, and if you feel it, dance like no one is watching (since no one is except your family/roommates/partner and your pets, and they all know you’re crazy at this point anyway).  Fuck Covid-19, fuck Trump, fuck Boris, fuck opportunistic oppression and the wedges the powerful use to divide us.  Hurrah to remembering why we like seeing people regularly, hurrah to all the people who are underpaid who’re keeping the world going right now in the hope we’ll change that on the other side.  Keep the light, friends, and pass it on.

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Download/stream the mix below the tracklist. As always, please, buy this music, support the artists, support the shops and labels that get this music out there for us all to enjoy. Without your direct support, music will become a streaming commodity that can’t support artists, won’t create community, will isolate us rather than bring us together–and, in a streaming-only world, can disappear at any moment. Buy music to make it last–don’t rent it.  Now more than fucking ever.

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Various – ‘Joy! Vol. 2 – Post-Punk 1982’
1982
01 [0:00:00] The Raincoats- “No One’s Little Girl” (‘Running Away’ 7″)
02 [0:04:30] Rip Rig & Panic- “You’re My Kind of Climate” (‘You’re My Kind…’ EP)
03 [0:10:20] African Head Charge – “High Protein Snack” (‘Environmental Studies’)
04 [0:13:40] Haircut 100 – “Favourite Shirt (Boy Meets Girl)” (‘Pelican West’)
05 [0:16:40] Family Fodder – “The Big Dig” (‘The Big Dig’ 7″)
06 [0:19:35] Our Daughter’s Wedding – “Buildings” (‘Moving Windows’)
07 [0:23:30] The Stick Men- “Personality Pollination” (‘This Is The Master Brew’)
08 [0:25:10] Pigbag – “Wiggling” (‘Dr. Heckle and Mister Jive’)
09 [0:30:15] Antena – “Camino del Sol” (‘Camino del Sol’ EP)
10 [0:33:55] Shriekback – “My Spine is the Bassline” (‘My Spine is the Bassline’ EP)

11 [0:37:55] Pylon – “Beep” (‘Beep’ 7″)
12 [0:41:15] Scritti Politti – “The Sweetest Girl” (‘Songs To Remember’)
13 [0:46:20] Sonic Youth – “The Burning Spear” (‘Sonic Youth’ EP)
14 [0:49:40] Delta 5 – “Powerlines” (‘Powerlines’ 7″)
15 [0:52:45] Maximum Joy – “Dancing On My Boomerang” (‘Station MXJY’)
16 [0:55:55] Weekend – “Summerdays” (‘La Verite’)
17 [0:58:45] R.E.M. – “1,000,000” (‘Chronic Town’ EP)
18 [1:01:50] Dog Eat Dog – “Rollover” (unreleased)
19 [1:04:45] Lora Logic – “Martian Man” (‘Pedigree Charm’)
20 [1:09:05] Tones On Tail – “Now We Lustre” (‘There’s Only One’ 7″)

21 [1:13:25] 48 Chairs – “Rhino Whip” (‘70% Paranoid’)
22 [1:17:10] Pere Ubu – “A Day Such As This” (‘Song of the Bailing Man’)
23 [1:20:45] Psychic TV – “Just Drifting” (‘Force The Hand’)
24 [1:24:25] ESG – “The Beat” (‘ESG Says Dance to the Beat of Moody’ EP)
25 [1:26:35] A Certain Ratio – “Touch” (‘I’d Like To See You Again’)
26 [1:31:35] The Gist – “Love At First Sight” (‘Embrace the Herd’)
27 [1:35:00] Special AKA & Rico – “Easter Island” (‘Jungle Music’ EP)
28 [1:39:05] Orange Juice – “L.O.V.E. Love” (‘You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever’)
29 [1:42:35] Yasuaki Shimizu – “Dots” (‘Kakashi’)
30 [1:45:30] Comsat Angels – “After the Rain” (‘Fiction’)

[Total Time: 1:49:30]

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Download ‘Joy! – Volume 2: Post-Punk 1982 (1982)’ Here (255 MB)

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Stream here:

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