Various Artists - Intrigue - Steven Wilson Presents: Progressive Sounds In UK Alternative Music 1979-89 (2023) [4CD]

Curated by Porcupine Tree guitarist Steven Wilson, the four-disc compilation Intrigue: Progressive Sounds in UK Alternative Music 1979-89 tackles the entirety of the 1980s with the mission of exposing the strangest, most inventive, and most abstract sounds coming out of the United Kingdom in a decade where music could often feel sterile or homogenized. That’s hardly the case with the 58 tracks Wilson presents here, all of which are miles away from the blandness of the charts and commercial trends of the ’80s and focused more on post-punk, new wave, art rock, goth rock, synth pop, and all imaginable intersections thereof. Intrigue offers a fantastic primer for independent music happening at a time when bands like U2 or Tears for Fears were what most people considered edgy. The comp kicks off with an especially moody Wire track, and quickly follows with submissions from Public Image Limited, Magazine, Gang of Four, This Heat, and the like. Wilson includes updated mixes of his own making with tracks like XTC’s “Complicated Game” and Robert Fripp and the League of Gentlemen’s “Cognitive Dissonance.” Intrigue makes space for many different shades of sound that grew out of post-punk, ranging from the haunted ska of the Specials’ “Ghost Town” to Joy Division’s slow-moving funeral march “The Eternal” to Kate Bush’s theatrical Hounds of Love fever dream “Waking the Witch.” There’s nothing but highlights throughout the several hours of deep cuts and more familiar tracks gathered on Intrigue, and the entire collection flows well regardless of the various wild directions it goes in. If Wilson’s aim was to showcase the excitement and unconventional thinking that existed in the shadows of banal mainstream sounds throughout the ’80s, Intrigue accomplishes that goal and then some. ― Allmusic

CD 1
01. Wire – I Should Have Known Better – 03:53
02. Bill Nelson’s Red Noise – A Better Home In The Phantom Zone – 04:28
03. Magazine – Back To Nature – 06:43
04. XTC – Complicated Game (Steven Wilson 2014 Mix) – 05:00
05. Public Image Limited – Careering – 04:34
06. The Stranglers – The Raven – 05:10
07. Punishment Of Luxury – Puppet Life – 03:04
08. Ultravox – Astradyne (Steven Wilson Stereo Mix) – 07:12
09. Gang Of Four – Contract – 02:41
10. Simple Minds – I Travel (Extended Version) – 06:14
11. The Durutti Column – Sketch For Summer – 02:59
12. This Heat – Health And Efficiency – 08:01
13. John Foxx – Burning Car – 03:15
14. Robert Fripp And The League of Gentlemen – Cognitive Dissonance (Steven Wilson 2022 Mix) – 03:32
15. In Camera – Fatal Day – 11:25

CD 2
01. The Sound – I Can’t Escape Myself – 03:55
02. Joy Division – The Eternal – 06:07
03. Swell Maps – Big Empty Field – 03:44
04. Art Nouveau – Enemies – 03:18
05. Gary Numan – The Joy Circuit – 05:12
06. 23 Skidoo – The Gospel Comes To New Guinea – 10:10
07. Echo And The Bunnymen – All My Colours – 04:05
08. The Specials – Ghost Town (Extended Version) – 06:00
09. New Musik – They All Run After The Carving Knife – 05:53
10. New Order – The Him – 05:31
11. The Associates – White Car In Germany (Single Edit) – 04:54
12. Section 25 – Hit – 02:54
13. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Sealand – 07:45
14. Japan – Talking Drum – 03:33
15. The Cure – Faith – 06:42

CD 3
01. Twelfth Night – Three Dancers (Steven Wilson 2021 Mix) – 02:55
02. Thomas Dolby – Airwaves – 05:22
03. Crispy Ambulance – Are You Ready? – 05:47
04. Rupert Hine – The Outsider – 05:31
05. A Certain Ratio – Knife Slits Water – 07:34
06. Tears For Fears – Memories Fade – 05:08
07. Peter Hammill – Patient – 06:15
08. Cocteau Twins – Donimo – 06:19
09. Mr And Mrs Smith And Mr Drake – In A Waiting Room – 01:30
10. The Art Of Noise – Close (To The Edit) – 05:29
11. Dalis Car – Dalis Car – 05:14
12. Scott Walker – Rawhide – 03:49
13. David Sylvian – Brilliant Trees – 08:37
14. Propaganda – Dream Within A Dream – 09:08

CD 4
01. Kate Bush – Waking The Witch – 04:19
02. This Mortal Coil – Ivy And Neet – 04:52
03. Perennial Divide – Beehead (7” Version) – 04:14
04. The Sisters Of Mercy – This Corrosion – 09:32
05. O Yuki Conjugate – Ascension – 05:58
06. Dif Juz – No Motion – 04:51
07. SLAB! – Gutter Busting – 03:17
08. Momus – Murderers, The Hope Of Women – 05:18
09. Dead Can Dance – The Host Of Seraphim – 06:19
10. Cardiacs – R.E.S. – 05:16
11. The The – Good Morning Beautiful – 07:30
12. The Shamen – Omega Amigo – 04:47
13. No-Man – Night Sky, Sweet Earth – 06:39
14. Kitchens Of Distinction – The 3rd Time We Opened The Capsule – 03:18

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