Codex Teenage Premonition

No-wave, post-punk dissonant jumpy urgent rock, re-release of obscure (heretofore highly collectable) Scottish band. Jagged rhythms, desperate male vocals and clanky disjunct percussion (with a cowbell like you’ve never heard before) put this stuff in the realm of the No New York clan: James Chance and the Contortions, Mars, DNA. Gang of Four and The Fall certainly come to mind as well. A band that never recorded enough, the first 5 tracks are their only studio attempts, the next ten are from various live recordings, bootlegs, and the last three are John Peel sessions and a Franz Ferdinand song that they did upon a recent reformation (and tour with Franz).

1) instrumental, urgent, spastic
2) classic stuff, melodic
3) a bit less jagged
4) different mix and production than existed on their rare 12”, melodic and “fun” feel, could’ve been a hit
5) live feel, lower production
6) very brief backstage interview snippet, obviously old and ironic cuz he says “we’re playing with a band called U2, I’ve never heard them yet”
7) Gang of Fourish near dance wave
8) another dancey feeling one, good dissonant guitar work
9) swingier rhythm, feel
10) instrumental no-wave fer sure
11) live version of the great track 2
12) more urgency and melody
13) reverby large hall quality, lower fi, echoey and bassy
14) The Fall comes to mind, upbeat playful (but very low vocal mix)
15) takes a few seconds to get the groove, very spontaneous improv jam feel
16) Peel recording, good quality and their trademark urgency
17) swingier The Fall playfulness in the rhythm, poppy
18) Franz Ferdinand cover, recently recorded while on tour with them, slower, different, smarmy and dark first part, fuzzy vocs, excellent!