Minimal Compact - Deadly Weapons (1984)

Despite the Colin Newman ties, Minimal Compact made long-limbed post-punk from a bleaker, less-spastic perspective. Deadly Weapons emphasized the situational decay of a lot of what had become standard in early-'80s anti-pop. Minimal Compact's world was stiff and artificial, made to underscore the bizarro funk of the brass and the woefully droning and distorted vocals. Everything, in fact, was swollen with a phobic sense of performance, as if the band was afraid to touch their instruments. "There's Always Now," an exaggerated shadow play of the Cure's Pornography, is still fantastically depressing; the title track is almost synth pop in spirit; and "The Howling Hole" is a mangled interpretation of a repetitive, barely decipherable, tribal-drum Middle Eastern snarl. Underappreciated, if nothing else.

Tracklist:
1 01. Minimal Compact - Next One Is Real (1984 Remix) (03:03)
1 02. Minimal Compact - Losing Tracks (In Time) (03:46)
1 03. Minimal Compact - The Well (03:04)
1 04. Minimal Compact - There’s Always Now (03:03)
1 05. Minimal Compact - Nada (04:19)
1 06. Minimal Compact - Not Knowing (04:08)
1 07. Minimal Compact - Deadly Weapons (04:24)
1 08. Minimal Compact - Burnt-Out Hotel (03:55)
1 09. Minimal Compact - The Howling Hole (03:22)
1 10. Minimal Compact - Next One Is Real (Radio Remix) (03:46)
1 11. Minimal Compact - Not Knowing (Remix) (03:57)
1 12. Minimal Compact - Babylonian Tower (Remix) (03:37)
1 13. Minimal Compact - Hole Version (Accidental Remix) (03:27)
1 14. Minimal Compact - Next One Is Real (Extended Remix) (05:51)
1 15. Minimal Compact - Introspection (04:54)