The Wolfgang Press

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

These guys don't get enough love around here. Are you a fan? Stand up and be counted! There's only two piddly threads here with their name in, one of which is dedicated to The Burden Of Mules, an album I think is one of their poorest releases. It's adventuresome, sure, but always strikes me as boring for some reason.

Standing Up Straight and Legendary were two fave albums of my high school years but over time a strange thing has occured where Legendary has proven to be timeless but Standing Up feels like I've played it too many times.

I'm currently digging out Big Sex & Bird Wood Cage for the hell of it. I'd like to hear Queer again, too. I think I quit following them after that, but I found this track they did with Jah Wobble in 1995 called "Chains" that I'm going to listen to here in a minute. I seem to have a vague memory of Funky Little Demons being disappointing.

Of course I'm crazy about the Mass "Labour Of Love" album, and Rema Rema but I've already discussed that elsewhere on this board.

Here's a snippet from Wikipedia as to what these guys are doing now:

Michael Allen is now with the band Geniuser, who released an album Mud Black on the Danish Phisteria label in 2005, Andrew Gray records under the name Limehouse Outlaw and released an album Homegrown on his own label in 2003, and Mark Cox is currently working on music, but as yet, has no name for it.

― Bimble's Gonna Tremble (Bimble...), Sunday, 16 April 2006 20:06 (twenty years ago)

mama told me not to come 12 inch and kansas 12 inch are all i really need, but i find them indispensable to me and my life. mama told me, especially, is a big part of my life. i know, right, wolfgang press, but there you go.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 16 April 2006 20:23 (twenty years ago)

Brilliant, of course,

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 16 April 2006 20:42 (twenty years ago)

I totally need to hear Bird Wood Cage again..been forever and it's great.

― cs appleby (cs appleby), Sunday, 16 April 2006 20:59 (twenty years ago)

i find it hard to believe that there is no s/d/c/d thread already.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 16 April 2006 21:05 (twenty years ago)

I love this band. Such a weird approach - the funk thing, no one was really doing it like them at the time. Yeah, I still listen to them. They can't sing but they have 'soul' in some strange way. Love the cover of 'Respect', it's a hilarious 'drag' take.

― yarn, Sunday, 16 April 2006 22:30 (twenty years ago)

I only had the weird first album, it's long gone from my stacks. still have the cool "Fire Eater" track from Abstract #5 which is from that era. Much more like a subdued artsy Rema-Rema than the later period smooth dance machine.

that later stuff is good too but I never had the albums. Should look for those...

― sleeve (sleeve), Sunday, 16 April 2006 22:51 (twenty years ago)

I love both Bird Wood Cage and Queer. I ended digging out BWC after I listened to the LCD Soundsystem album. Everyone talks about the Fall but I think LCD sound like a mediocre Wolfgang Press cover band.

― EZ Snappin (EZSnappin), Monday, 17 April 2006 00:42 (twenty years ago)

Another second for the briliance of Bird Wood Cage, which is IMHO the standout album, not least because Flood, in one of his early productions, polished the Metal Box sonics into sharp focus. Allen's bass is deeply dready here.

Also:

Micheal Allen has returned to music after a decades hiatus in a collaboration with Giuseppe de Bellis called Geniuser. Their debut, Mud Black (2005) on the Danish Phisteria label, is groovy glichy electronica with Allen in good vocal form. Sonically, its probably closer in feel to Bird Wood Cage than to any other WGP album.
I've only given one listen so far, but its definitely a keeper.

AFAIK, the only easy way to obtain a legitimate copy for US folks is through 4AD mail order.

― Darryl Roy (35 Hertz), Monday, 17 April 2006 06:43 (twenty years ago)

I love WP, especially Standing up Straight. The first song of theirs I'd heard though was "Cut the Tree" off the "Lonely is an Eyesore" 4AD compilation (which I recall reading once was originally going to end up on the "water" ep but didnt? Dont know if thats right though). "Cut the Tree" is a brilliantly moody song, and has a suitably 4AD-of-the-time clip: off the wall and artwanky but with a perverse streak of humour, which I like a lot.

Although often he does caterwaul a bit off key, I find myself thinking Allen sounds like Cave in some things like "I am the Crime".

I have Bird Wood Cage on vinyl, have done for years, and havent given it a listen in ages. Might do so.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 17 April 2006 07:39 (twenty years ago)

i absolutely adore wolfgang press. bwc is my favorite whole record. standing up straight and lengendary... (the comp) though are utter genius as well, if not for "i am the crime" alone on standing up straight. though i even have a soft spot for queer and funky little demons.

― ehbenoit, Monday, 17 April 2006 11:59 (twenty years ago)

Heh. I heard Going South and loved it from a CMJ. My dad liked it enough that he bought the album, and we were both pretty disappointed. My dad dissed it as "too gay." Now that I've kinda gotten over all of the high school angst macho bullshit of what I was listening to when I heard it, I wonder if I'd like it.

― js (honestengine), Monday, 17 April 2006 18:23 (twenty years ago)

I love that butch gay funk thing they have going on. I loved when they called their album 'queer'. I don't know if they're gay or not, but they sound 'queer'.

― yarn, Monday, 17 April 2006 18:33 (twenty years ago)

"time .. its all a question of time."

classic.

― mark e (mark e), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 14:11 (twenty years ago)

I am always astounded that more people aren't into these guys..

― Pookas (Pookas), Thursday, 20 April 2006 13:03 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Oddly enough I just finally got the Mass album the other day.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 02:14 (nineteen years ago)

Yay!

― Twitchety Twitch Manic Toy System (Bimble...), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 03:11 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

just 'cause:

― 2 ears + 1 ❤ (Pillbox), Sunday, 22 February 2009 10:19 (seventeen years ago)

fourteen years pass...

Been on a deep dive with these guys who I just discovered (only vaguely remember Girl Like You from that time) - some of the latter tunes on Funky Little Demons (eg Chains or Executioner) sound like funky Sisters of Mercy. Love it

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Monday, 2 October 2023 15:09 (two years ago)

nine months pass...

In 'news I did not expect'...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJxEzuo85gM

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 8 July 2024 16:01 (one year ago)

Relevant PR:

The new album features core members Michael Allen and Andrew Gray, joined by Stephen Gray, Andrew’s brother. Whereas their last studio release (Unremembered Remembered, a compilation of unreleased material from 1995 recorded by Allen and Gray) leaned toward ecstatic soul and a rhythmic palette typical of the time, A 2nd Shape finds the trio less concerned with anything approaching funky, opting instead for a brooding yet vital set of tracks, reintroducing a reinvigorated band.
Talking about the new album, The Wolfgang Press explain, “This album arrived naturally and organically. The tracks came about from a measured process, and we feel A 2nd Shape is timely and essential. We also feel Downwards Records has fitted in perfectly with this process, their enthusiasm for this project has been tangible and encouraging.”
The original post-punk era looms larger over these new recordings, which are sounding powerful and full of life. Allen's bass playing is as prominent as it has been since their debut, and though they're sounding moodier than they have since those early days, A 2nd Shape feels like music for these times, the only kind of statement a group can make after enduring the growing malaise of recent years. For all the moments of atmospheric contemplation, the trademark TWP confidence remains in place.
Talking about the recording process, they go on to say “For this project we wanted the record to be made without the use of computers. It was important for us that the tracks were recorded on tape and played live as a band, with very little tampering/overdubbing. We purposely limited ourselves in the number of tracks we could record by using an old ADAT 8-track machine and the result of how well this worked surprised us all.”
Known for drawing lines between his own techno and the post-punk groups that inspired it, Karl O'Connor's Downwards Records is a fitting label to launch this rebirth. He recalls witnessing The Wolfgang Press blow a few of his favourite bands off the stage in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and chose Bird Wood Cage when recently asked to write about a favourite sleeve for The Wire. The vibe evoked by the reinvigorated TWP has channelled the isolation felt by many into an album that sits alongside their best work.
A 2nd Shape will be released on Downwards Records on 27 September 2024

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 8 July 2024 17:11 (one year ago)

Woah!

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Monday, 8 July 2024 20:10 (one year ago)

curious!

― Bernard Quidbins (NickB), Monday, 8 July 2024 20:13 (one year ago)

still play 'kansas' every once in a while, that sounds sick bumped up a few bpm

― Bernard Quidbins (NickB), Monday, 8 July 2024 20:20 (one year ago)

four weeks pass...

We got first full new song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cdlUi4tPgY

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 5 August 2024 21:59 (one year ago)

one month passes...

Ok first listen, this new album is rather impenetrable Gutsy move to release something so oblique after 30 years

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Saturday, 28 September 2024 17:11 (one year ago)

What a fascinating record this is

― assert (matttkkkk), Tuesday, 1 October 2024 03:23 (one year ago)

I really like it. Love that it's here, love that it was made with very limited gear and sounds perfectly like them. Nice notes on Quietus.

― Psychocandy Apple Grey (Pyschocandles), Tuesday, 1 October 2024 06:23 (one year ago)

two weeks pass...

Serious question: is this the best Wolfgang Press album?

― assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 19 October 2024 02:47 (one year ago)

Dunno about best but definitely the gothiest

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Saturday, 19 October 2024 09:29 (one year ago)

Queer is the best but I really love the new one.

― Psychocandy Apple Grey (Pyschocandles), Sunday, 20 October 2024 08:39 (one year ago)

one month passes...

How the fuck is it that I've only just NOW learned that the band's name is clearly a reference to this guy!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Preiss

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 6 December 2024 21:49 (one year ago)

Wow. Puns you didn't etc.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 6 December 2024 22:29 (one year ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.