Bleep

Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures. The Clash’s London Calling. The Pop Group’s Y. To anyone living after the fact, 1979 seemed like a fork in the road for UK rock music. The first document, an encroaching darkness over Salford. The second, a punk statement beckoned by brighter lights. The third, The Pop Group’s Y, represented something more opaque, more unforeseeable, as does any statement of artistic progress. The group’s definitive release seemed to predict punk’s fall off the edge of the earth, which ultimately lead their voyage to pastures of funk, noise and dub. Remarkably, The Pop Group drew out these boundaries into one vast continent of sound, paving a way forward for the likes of Sonic Youth, The Minutemen and Nick Cave.