Deceit (album)
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| Deceit | ||||
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| File:Thisheatdeceit.jpg | ||||
| Studio album by This Heat | ||||
| Released | 1981 | |||
| Recorded | 1981 | |||
| Studio |
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| Genre | ||||
| Length | 40:45 | |||
| Label | Rough Trade | |||
| Producer |
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| This Heat chronology | ||||
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| Additional cover art | ||||
| The cover art (as shown in the 1991 CD booklet) reflected This Heat's anxiety about nuclear war.
The cover art (as shown in the 1991 CD booklet) reflected This Heat's anxiety about nuclear war.
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Deceit is the second and final studio album by English experimental rock band This Heat. It was recorded in 1981 and released the same year by record label Rough Trade.
Deceit is regarded as a classic of the post-punk era, and was ranked at number 20 on Pitchfork's list of the greatest albums of the 1980s.[1]
Contents
Background
In a 1991 interview, Charles Hayward explained that the threat of nuclear warfare motivated the band and provided the album with an underlying theme: "The whole speak, 'Little Boy', 'Big Boy' [sic], calling missiles cute little names. The whole period was mad! We had a firm belief that we were going to die and the record was made on those terms.… The whole thing was designed to express this sort of fear, angst, which the group was all about, really."[2] The album's subject matter also deals with war and imperialism.[3] The cover art reflects these concerns, and includes a photomontage of images such as mushroom clouds, thematic maps depicting nuclear arsenals and photographs of Ronald Reagan, Leonid Brezhnev and Nikita Khrushchev.
As with other This Heat recordings, much of the album was recorded at Cold Storage, a disused refrigerated storeroom at a former meat pie factory in Acre Lane, Brixton, England.[4] The music included new improvisations along with songs the band had been playing during live performances (portions of these songs were culled from actual concert recordings).[2][4] As Hayward describes, "some of the album was really plush sounding, some dim and pokey. Sometimes it would sound like the machinery was breaking up. We deliberately would make it sound as though the record player was exploding."[2][lower-alpha 1]
Track listing
All songs written and composed by This Heat (Charles Hayward, Gareth Williams, Charles Bullen).
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Sleep" | 2:13 |
| 2. | "Paper Hats" | 5:57 |
| 3. | "Triumph" | 2:55 |
| 4. | "S. P. Q. R." | 3:26 |
| 5. | "Cenotaph" | 4:35 |
| 6. | "Shrink Wrap" | 1:40 |
| 7. | "Radio Prague" | 2:21 |
| 8. | "Makeshift Swahili" | 4:04 |
| 9. | "Independence" | 3:39 |
| 10. | "A New Kind of Water" | 4:57 |
| 11. | "Hi Baku Shyo (Suffer Bomb Disease)" | 4:03 |
Release
During the 1990s, intermittent availability made Deceit a rarity and a collector's item among fans. In 2006, This Is, a Recommended Records imprint, released a remastered version of Deceit as part of the 6-CD Out of Cold Storage box set. This Is also released the album as a separately available CD.
Critical reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [5] |
| Pitchfork | 9.0/10[6] |
| Tiny Mix Tapes | very favourable[7] |
Deceit has been well-received by critics.
AllMusic wrote of the album: "Out of all the boundary breaking that occurred during the fertile era of post-punk, This Heat's Deceit is one of the most expansive, imaginative and remarkably wild records to have been produced during the time—and very possibly the last three decades."[5] The Trouser Press Record Guide described the album as "austere, brilliant and indescribable."[8] Tiny Mix Tapes called it a "radiation-soaked masterpiece".[7]
Personnel
- This Heat
- Charles Hayward – vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, drums, tape music
- Gareth Williams – vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, tape music
- Charles Bullen – vocals, clarinet, guitar, drums, tape music
- Production
- David Cunningham – production
- Martin Frederick – mixing
- Laurie-Rae Chamberlain – colour xerography
- Nicholas Goodall – sleeve photography direction
- Studio 54 – sleeve design
Charts
| Chart (1981) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Indie Chart | 18[9] |
Notes
- ↑ The source text actually reads "record played", but this is assumed to be a typographical error.
References
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External links
- Deceit at Discogs (list of releases)
- The Quietus article on Deceit
