Bleep

Some deaths certainly do take forever. It could be argued that the maniacally innovative and wickedly stylish prog-electronica debut LP from Bernard Szajner — sometimes known as Zed — has far exceeded its 1980 release date in its quietly towering influence. Having made a name for himself as a visual effects designer for Magma, Gong and — most puzzling of all — The Who, Szajner’s Some Deaths Take Forever is full of anything-goes auteurship, from the pseudo ‘fourth world’ industrial groove of ‘Ritual’ to the strange, electronic disco-rock suite ‘Welcome To Death Row’. The LP has a Bowie-esque sense of futurism about it, and it still sounds just as forward-thinking decades later.