Jelodanti Records, the D.I.Y. micro-label run by the artists Clara Djian and Nicolas Leto, will return on September 10th with a limited edition vinyl compilation from the English avant-rock band The Work. Described as a missing link between Captain Beefheart and This Heat, The Work’s initial line-up included the musicians Tim Hodgkinson (Henry Cow, God), Bill Gilonis (Hat shoes, Officer!), Mick Hobbs (Strobe Talbot, Officer!), and Rick Wilson (Family Fodder). During the band’s tenure they released the 1981 EP I Hate America, as well as several LPs, including: 1982’s Slow Crime, 1989’s Rubber Cage, and 1992’s See–all out on Hodgkinson and Gilonis’ label Woof Records. In addition, in 2010 Ad Hoc Records released The Work’s LP The 4th World–a live recording made by the band in 1994. Look for the upcoming compilation to be issued in a limited edition, hand-numbered vinyl run of 400 copies with gatefold cover designed, painted, and stamped by Djian and Leto.
The Work began in the late-70’s when longtime Henry Cow participant Tim Hodgkinson met up with the musical improviser Bill Gilonis. Hodgkinson had first teamed up with the experimental musician/composer Fred Frith in 1968 to form the legendary prog-rock band Henry Cow, but by the late-70’s punk rock had rendered the genre’s long-form compositions and jazz-influenced avant stylings passe. After Henry Cow called it quits in 1978, Hodgkinson and Gilonis would go on to form the Wandsworth Municipal Street Orchestra, with the duo releasing the 1979 hand-screened EP I Do – I Do – I Don’t – I Don’t, as well as forming the label Woof Records. In need of a rhythm section, the pair would go on to add the bassist Mick Hobbs–formerly of the University of London Jazz Quartet, as well as the drummer Rick Wilson. The line-up would go on to record the 3-song EP I Hate America in 1981 before embarking on a European tour.
In 1982, The Work would go on to play the Rock in Opposition Festival in Bonn, Germany. Joined at the time by the vocalist Catherine Jauniaux, the group also recorded their debut LP Slow Crime with her that same year. In June of 1982, the band was also invited to tour Japan, but when Rick Wilson left the group to study temple drumming in India and Mick Hobbs departed over creative differences, The Work had to add former Henry Cow drummer Chris Cutler and bassist Jim “Amos” Welton to the fold. While the group’s Japanese tour would go on to be well remembered by that countries avant-music fans, it was not a financial success, and in an attempt to recoup travel costs, they released The Work Live in Japan (Recommended Records) that same year. However, with monetary pressure’s mounting, the tour would prove to be their last for a while. Upon returning to Britain, The Work ended up calling it quits.
The group’s time apart would be fairly short-lived, though. In 1989 the original line-up reconvened to record the industrial/noise album Rubber Cage, and the LP was followed by a tour of Europe. The Work would also go on to record their final studio album See in 1992, but two years later Bill Gilonis’ exit would mark the group’s demise. While The 4th World, a live album recorded in Germany in 1994 and released by Ad Hoc Records in 2010, would prove to be The Work’s last sonic document as a group, Jelodanti’s upcoming compilation offers an intriguing reappraisal of their creative efforts. Gathering together 11-tracks from across the band’s recorded history, the collection is an important reminder of their place in post-punk history.
While punk rock might have ushered out the more gratuitous and dated aspects of prog and metal, introducing the musical world to a new generation of loud and exciting voices, post-punk would continue to offer more expanded options for reworking what rock music had become. With an eye to the more radical elements of late-60’s and early 70’s art practice, Tim Hodgkinson and The Work preserved that era’s aesthetic questioning, social consciousness, and do-it-yourself spirit, while helping to forward those agendas into a new and contemporary form of expression. Often as complex and compositionally challenging as prog could be, and at times brutal and uncompromising like early metal, The Work’s music offers an intriguing bridge by which to view how styles of the recent past updated their sound into an important new form.
The Work – Compilation
A
1. Fingers and Toes 2.50
2. I Hate America 5.52
3. Brickyard 4.36
4. State-Room 3.24
5. Do It 2.17
B
1. Hell 3.10
2. Abdomen 1.56
3. Dangerfish 2.16
4. Eat 5.26
5. Read To Me 3.24
6. Stone 2.39
Mick Hobbs bass, guitar
Rick Wilson drums, percussion, voice, ‘cello
Tim Hodgkinson flat guitar, keyboard, alto sax, main voice
Bill Gilonis guitar
Side A: Tracks 1 and 2 were originally released on a 7” single in 1981; tracks 3, 4 and 5 are from
‘Slow Crimes’ (LP/CD, 1982).
Side B: Tracks 2, 3 and 6 are from ‘Rubber Cage’ (LP/CD, 1990); track 4 is from ‘See’ (CD, 1992);
tracks 1 and 5 are from ‘The 4th World’ (live recording from 1994).
Mastered by Noel Summerville at 3345 Mastering, Peckham.
Tape baking and analogue to digital transfers by FX Rentals, Acton.
DAT transfers and digital editing by Andrew Jacques.
Sleeve notes by Chris Cutler. Cover art by Jelodanti.
