Sold Date: May 4, 2014
Start Date: May 3, 2014
Final Price: £9.99 (GBP)
Seller Feedback: 1563
Buyer Feedback: 93

REMA-REMA  International Scale  b/w Short Stories  7” with Fanzine

LABEL: Inflammable Material

CAT:  BURN017

Rema-Rema were formed in Summer 1978 from the ashes of punk band The Models. Bassist Michael Allen and Marco Pirroni (guitar) joined up with Gary Asquith (vox), Mark Cox (synth) and Moe Tucker-style tubthumper Max (aka: Dorothy Prior). All were original participants in the early 1976 London Punk scene, but Rema-Rema swiftly became‘post-punk’ before the term was invented, mixing Velvet Underground-style primal monotony with white noise, feedback and lyrics that eschewed punks’corny social commentary. Playing mainly in London throughout 1979 with the likes of Siouxsie & the Banshees, Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle,they were approached by (then) Axis Records for a 12”, which on release in Spring 1980, became the first under the new moniker 4AD Records. By this time, Rema-Rema had split when Pirroni  joined the new-look, pop-friendly Adam &The Ants. Their sole vinyl, “Wheel In The Roses” has been intermittently reissued by 4AD, with the tracks “Rema-Rema” and “Fond Affections” covered by Big Black and This Mortal Coil respectively. Becoming MASS for a single 4AD LP and 7”, the band splintered in 1981 with members going on, variously, to Psychic TV, Wolfgang Press and Renegade Soundwave.

This is the first unreleased Rema-Rema material to surface in over three decades, comprising two songs recorded as four-track demos in 1978-9. ‘International Scale’ is a thudding 2-chord denunciation of the music “biz”, dominated by a metronomic floor-tom/kick-drum backdrop and menacing feedback, whilst ‘Short Stories’ is a stark, brittle and melodic 2-minute post-punk song. Both were the nearest in R-R’s repertoire to that old verse-chorus/verse-chorus standard.

Pressing of 500, picture sleeve + Insert and 70g heavyweight vinyl. 

STILL IN PRINT, NO NEED TO PAY £15 ELSEWHERE!!

Comes with Defiant Pose #8, a 36-page A4 London punk fanzine, which contains a large 2013 interview with ex-Rema-Rema members, plus The Heretics, Cervix, Blood & Roses, 2 pages from Aaron Cometbus and an interview with obscure 1976 London all-girl punks The Stench (who pre-dated The Slits). All this plus a double-sided A4 card-print of art by Alexander Heir (NYC: Death/Traitors, Survival, Burn Books). 

POSTAGE: 

UK: £3.20  1ST CLASS

EUROPE: £5.50

USA/WORLD: Buy from Feel It Records Big Cartel

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