Peripheral Minimal is a UK-based label established in 2013 and run by Jason B. Bernard. Specializing in Minimal Synth, Cold Wave, Post-Punk, and Kosmiche, it is an off-shoot of the now defunct experimental label Peripheral Records–which shut it’s doors in 2017. On April 13th, Peripheral Minimal will re-issue V-Sor,X‘s ‘Authors 2’ 7″, first released on the band’s DOX Music label in 1982. Rare, and long out of print, synth-wave record collectors have been known to pay as much as $50 for this hard to find 7″.
Hailing from the Midlands town of Lichfield (meaning “field of the dead” in Latin), the band was founded by Morgan Bryan in 1979. Influenced by Punk and interested in the developing electronic music scene, Bryan’s first effort, the Nurses, would eventually be scrapped. Seeking a new direction, the young musician was soon joined by Ian (‘Rolls’) Rowlands, and, not too long after, they added a singer named Irene Keyes. Calling themselves Ambush Infancy at that point, a comment on the state of education in Britain at the time, this line-up proved to be short-lived, and soon Bryan and Rowlands would ask Keyes to leave. Looking for a new name more in keeping with the vision that the two had for their group, they tossed around a handful of ideas like T-Tes-T (pronounced Tay-Tez-Tay), Photas R, and Qit, before settling on the equally befuddling moniker V-Sor,X (pronounced VEE-SORE-EX). The group would go on to release several LPs, 1985’s Cue (DOX) and 1989’s From The Mouth Of No King (Dossier, Ear-Ruption), as well as 2002’s A Strip Of Light But Still Too Dark (Genetic Music); and after taking an extended hiatus to work on other projects, V-Sor, X is back and readying the release of a new LP called Reformer.
Below, you can listen to the newly remastered version of “Authors 2.” Focused around a minimal synth set-up that incorporates an elastically expanding arpeggio and idiosyncratic melody lines that often echo the track’s singular vocals, “Authors 2” seems to explore the staid confines of a dying relationship. Following the back and forth of this he/she encounter, the cut’s dramatic vocal interplay is not soon forgotten. Cruel sport, indeed. V-Sor,X ‘Authors 2’ 7″ is being re-issued in a limited run of 300 copies, and you can pre-order yours, here.
