This Heat - Deceit poll

The Raincoats - s/t poll
Swell Maps - Jane from Occupied Europe poll

For the purist: original album

I'm compelled to go with "A New Kind of Water".

Cenotaph is as heavy as War Pigs

Gotta be 'Makeshift Swahili'

I'm compelled to go with "A New Kind of Water".

That's where I'm going.

Same - amazing drumming on that one.

i've always adored "sleep"

^*

New kind of water is the one kind of stuck in my memory, but need to listen a couple of times to remind myself of the record and or rediscover it.

new kind of water is great too but Cenotaph has like three great riffs that would make Tony Iommi proud

Tough one. This is one of the best albums ever.

SPQR edges New Kind of Water and Makeshift Swahili but it's a photo finish

make Tony Iommi proud

Hah... what? That is so far out of my frame of reference for this (or at least how i remember it and frame it).

I did listen to the s/t recently and yeah oh guitars. Ive just never listened to sabbath really lol

SPQR is the song made for this moment in history

Anyways yes this is one of the greatest albums ever.

I think I've spent half my life considering if I prefer this or the self-titled.

I prefer the first album tbh.

"24 Track Loop" would be hard to resist if we were polling both.

Bought the This Heat box set, having never heard them, based on the recommendation of ILX. It's so good, the gift that keeps on giving.

Man, that set was the most I've ever splurged on something for my music collection. I bought it from reading ILX or Pitchfork too.

There's a release on their Bandcamp which isn't in the set. This is new to me:

https://thisheat.bandcamp.com/album/this-heat-meets-mario-diekuuroh-at-cold-storage

it's very embryonic improv stuff and around 15 minutes long, but absolutely worth hearing

originally a split tape with Albert Marcoeur, iirc these are their earliest recordings

pretty much zero odds & sods with this group, sadly - just lots of (awesome) live recordings and the box stuff

xp Yeah, 1977. It sounds a lot like a Can improv session.

In case people haven't seen it, there's also this very late live show from their final European tour with bassist-vocalist Trefor Goronwy and keyboardist Ian Hill joining Bullen and Hayward (Gareth Williams had left by this point):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVDErVzy-cw

Nice. I haven’t played them in a while, had bought the oddball version of In Cold Storage that their Bandcamp site sold during COVID. I still wonder who put those together.

What are the different versions?

Deceit is great but Health And Efficiency is this band’s finest moment.

spqr just beats sleep for me
love this record

xxp it was just the digipack versions of the CDs in the normal box, but the box itself was a plain black one with (maybe?) laser-prints of the box artwork cut out and glued on.
https://www.discogs.com/release/31460345-This-Heat-Out-Of-Cold-Storage

makeshift swahili. i wouldn't disagree with almost anything as winner tho.

Oh, I've got the box with the cheapo glued on labels. Always thought it was chintzy but the jams were so good it didn't matter.

it's not been mentioned yet but i do have a lot of love for 'shrink wrap' too

never listened to this band before. I love the sound of this album. really love the rhythmic clanging parts and the noise. sometimes the vocals sound a little detached from the music, but overall a fun listen. I voted "Makeshift Swahili" and am keeping that one for sure. Such a crazy little epic, a song where I think the vocal performance stands up to the greatness of the music.

Peel session version of Makeshift Swahili destroys the album version.

I love This Heat's vocals. It's a very distinctive trio of voices.

xp disagree, performance might be better but the shift between studio and live versions on the LP totally makes it for me

I must vote for "Sleep", but it's a close call with "Triumph" and "S.P.Q.R."

never listened to this band before. I love the sound of this album. really love the rhythmic clanging parts and the noise. sometimes the vocals sound a little detached from the music, but overall a fun listen. I voted "Makeshift Swahili" and am keeping that one for sure. Such a crazy little epic, a song where I think the vocal performance stands up to the greatness of the music.

― nicky lo-fi, Friday, June 19, 2026 6:11 AM (four hours ago)

I did a lot of research for this batch and are all new to me as well. It's fun looking into ILM data banks to see which ones to ultimately poll.

What do you think of this album, Bee?

I'm loving this album but still don't know what I'm voting for, still absorbing it. I know some of the bigger post-punk albums but this exercises is giving me an excuse to dig deeper.

Swell Maps and this one seems more Experimental rock though but nonetheless very fun albums.

I think TH worked long enough on their first one that it's both pre-punk and post-punk and that's a v sweet spot for me. Lots of dual things going on in their music - improv/composition, real instruments/'fake' instruments, songs/not songs, musicians/not musicians, heat/not hot.

I don't get "Sleep" yet but love that "Paper Hats" is their "Paranoid Android" on this album and is also the second song. The drumming is hypnotic.

i made sure to catch this is not this heat at p4k fest in 2018 on the theory that i would never get another chance to hear bullen and hayward play S.P.Q.R., so probably that. might need to relisten, though

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

This album was great to get to know. I ended up voting for "Cenotaph" over "S.P.Q.R" and "A New Kind of Water."

damn wanted to re-listen but didn't get the chance. "spqr" is the answer

went with makeshift

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

fuck I forgot about "Independence", it's corny but I used it as a radio show name/theme for years in the 90s

really enjoyed listening to the debut and will probably go back to that one again. It's such pleasantly unnerving atmospheric horror. the vocals are some real "Rosemary's Baby" level incantations.

also enjoyed the "Health and Efficiency" single a lot. I'd like to find out more about this band. I wonder about their motivations and what ambitions they had.

So is 'deceit' merely a pronounciation joke on 'this heat' or was calling the band this heat a joke on the word deceit to start with?

xp last months issue of Uncut

…had an article, was what I meant to say

So is 'deceit' merely a pronounciation joke on 'this heat' or was calling the band this heat a joke on the word deceit to start with?

The title of their Peel Session disc "Made Available" seems to be a play on Maida Vale

ohhhhh

Not seems, is.

puns I missed

seems to be a play on Maida Vale

:O

my brain asplode

I'd like to find out more about this band. I wonder about their motivations and what ambitions they had.

there's some good stuff in Simon Reynolds' "Rip It Up And Start Again"

and for anyone just getting into the band, all 3 members have excellent solo work as well (Camberwell Now, Lifetones, Flaming Tunes)

I voted "New Kind of Water" without really thinking about it, then I was listening to the record last night walking the dogs and a few times, mostly during "Makeshift Swahili", I was starting to regret my vote and then the second "NKoW" kicked in I was like "no I made the right choice"

Also:

Deceit is great but Health And Efficiency is this band’s finest moment.

― The Immortal Bird of Avon (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, June 18, 2026 6:08 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is correct. When I first heard about This Heat I believe I had read a description of "Health & Efficiency" somewhere but the music has hard to come by and the first This Heat I ever heard was Repeat which was not quite the post-punk holy grail I was expecting.