THIS HEAT

Made Available Repeat/Metal Live 80-81

Three vinyl reissues from the original avant-rockers

Somewhere between the white-hot rage of punk and the severe end of late ’70s prog, you found This Heat: smart and surly refuseniks inventing the next 30 years of experimental rock music from a converted cold storage freezer somewhere beneath Brixton. The last few years have seen long-awaited vinyl reissues of the trio’s albums hit shelves, and now Light In The Attic turn their attention to the group’s extra-album recordings. Made Available collects This Heat’s two Peel Sessions, recorded in 1977, some two years before the release of their eponymous debut. Still, songs from This Heat and 1981’s Deceit are fully formed, while instrumentals such as “Sitting” and “Slither” explore an uneasy, claustrophobic improv of meandering tape loops and droning strings. But for a glimpse of This Heat at their most out-there, try Repeat/Metal. The first of its two side-long tracks is a dub-tinged remix of their “24 Track Loop” that spins Charles Hayward’s punchy breakbeats out to the horizon; the second is 22 minutes of scrap-metal gamelan percussion led by the group’s Gareth Williams. Finally, Live 80–81 collects 11 live recordings from through the group’s lifespan; occasionally rough fidelity can’t obscure the trio’s fury, their technicality, or – on the closing “Health And Efficiency” – their sheer, unfettered joy. Extras: None, but the three-vinyl bundle includes a poster.