This Heat - Health and Efficiency This Heat

The second reissue on This Heat’s own new imprint follows the acclaimed reissue of their self-titled debut (TH01LP), which was named Uncut’s Reissue of the Month, earning a 9/10 review alongside a four-page feature and Q&A.

This edition features a 24-bit/96kHz remaster from the original analogue tapes, pressed on heavyweight 180g vinyl and housed in a heavyweight sleeve with Pantone printing to faithfully match the original 1979 release.

Writing about Health and Efficiency, Simon Reynolds described it as “their most concentrated blast of visceral intensity and wayward experimentalism.” The title track combines fierce, angular rock with multi-layered vocals, clattering percussion and found sounds, while the B-side, Graphic/Varispeed, is a more subdued and hypnotic tonescape whose duration changes depending on whether it is played at 45 or 33 RPM. This reissue also faithfully reproduces the original release’s striking blue-painted cover artwork by Pete Cobb, along with the multilingual text on the reverse.

Although widely regarded as one of post-punk’s defining bands, This Heat began performing and recording in 1976, during the earliest days of London's punk movement. Across just two albums and one EP, they forged a singular blend of avant-garde rock that would become a blueprint for post-rock, math rock, homemade musique concrète and experimental electronica. Their influence has been widely recognised in artists including Sonic Youth, Glenn Branca, Steven Wilson, Public Image Ltd., Radiohead, Swans, Shellac, Black Dice, and Lightning Bolt.

Following the band's breakup in 1982, their legacy has only continued to grow. More than fifty years after their first live performance, surviving members Charles Bullen and Charles Hayward have returned to their DIY roots by launching a dedicated imprint to preserve and reissue the band's groundbreaking catalogue for a new generation of listeners.

“Over the years, there have been bands to play as aggressively, or even as strangely, but very few have been able to rise from their collective influences and histories to create music so singularly distinctive and inspiring.” – Pitchfork (9/10)

“This Heat sounded like the future then ... and still do now.” – Dan Snaith (Caribou)

“This Heat had a certain kind of force the post-punk bands were unable to adequately control without falling foul of rawk excess, and which the punk bands—albeit blitzing and rowdy—were too basic in form to build.” – John Calvert, The Quietus