Attrition 1982 ambient release ‘This Death House’ reissued on vinyl
In 1982 the UK electronic outfit Attrition released “This Death House”, a dark ambient soundtrack, spread over two long tracks: “Crawling” (23:22) and “Dead Of Night” (22:49). This iconic album now gets a re-release on vinyl and download to celebrate it’s 40th anniversary year. Included with the vinyl is a free poster.
Released on the Russian label Other Voices “This Death House” will also be available on all streaming services from April 30th on.
The line-up for this released consisted of Martin Bowes (Electronic drums/Synthesizer & production), Ashley Niblock (Synthesizer and Keyboards) and Richard Woodfield (Synthesizers). The whole was remastered by Martin Bowes at the Cage, Coventry, England last year. The artwork for this re-issue was executed by Oleg Galay.
You can check out the album below.
Also out soon in May is a new single and video, “The Alibi” taken from the all new album for this year, “The Black Maria”. More on that when it happens.
About Attrition
In 1979, Martin Bowes started a xeroxed fanzine called Alternative Sounds to document the Coventry music scene (including such notables as The Specials and Furious Apples). The fanzine ran for 18 issues until 1981, and culminated in a vinyl compilation, “Sent from Coventry” (on Cherry Red) and a brief appearance on the BBC’s Something Else programme. During this time, Martin met Julia at a local gig and, with the addition of Martin’s brother Chris on guitar, Attrition was formed. In 1980 Chris was replaced by Julia’s brother Ashley Niblock on synthesizer, and a short time later they replaced their live drummer with a drum machine
Musically the band emerged from the experimental post-punk scene of the early 1980s and, along with other groups such as Throbbing Gristle, Coil, Einstürzende Neubauten, and In the Nursery, greatly contributed to the development of industrial music in the UK.
Drones and tape manipulations released under the title “Death House” prefigured dark ambient by almost 10 years, while the group’s first two proper albums, “The Attrition of Reason” and “Smiling at the Hypogonder Club” set the tone for the style now known as darkwave.
A band which has never ceased to produce new material and as such one of the few still active today along The Cure and related bands who all coloured the early days of the post-punk movement pitch black.
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