Post-Punk Monk

Leave it to Independent Project Records to reissue a title I had never heard of but now can’t imagine living without. Usually this means a Southern California Post-Punk band that never pinged my radar over the years getting their due, but this time the target for their reissue program was Mark and Clive Ives. A pair of British brothers who started making music for their own pleasure in the mid-70s without and thought of commerciality.

They holed up in their studio space-slash-Clive’s flat with their synthesizers, guitars, drum machines and percussive array making music on their own time and hoping not to disturb the tenant below. It originally took until 1982 for the Ives to release the first album by Woo, but apart from buoyant reviews in Melody Maker and the NME that this Monk never read [the scant money win my wallet was better spent on records, not expensive import UK press!] I had heard nothing of Woo – a name I associated with keyboard master Bernie Worrell, until late last year when I caught wind of this wonderful CD.

The original twelve songs of the 1982 LP are here, abetted by an extra ten tracks The Ives selected from their large body of work [which has never stopped] to make a complementary and expanded package which is released today by Independent Project Records. The packaging is in their usual folio design, but the letterpress element was relegated to the metallic ink over the less traditional four color offset. Necessary to replicate the vintage children’s book illustration [albeit remixed here into something more psychedelic] that inspired the title.

1. Swingtime 4:22
2. Pokhara – C.H. Revisited 2:47
3. A Wave 4:11
4. The Cleaner 2:36
5. Wah Bass 5:00
6. The Attic 2:40 video
7. Razorblades 4:13
8. White and Whiter Still! 2:37
9. Wapping 5:58
10. Life in Shadows 2:47
11. The English Style of Rowing 4:35
12. Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong 3:35
13. Lovelorn 2:54
14. Ruby Ruby 3:32
15. Rosehips 1:39
16. Tibetan Trains 3:47
17. It’s Love – Reworked 2:24
18. Baa Lamb 4:57
19. Twinkle Toes 2:00
20. Dobbins Lost His Coconuts – Revisited 1:09
21. A Western Sunset 2:33
22. The Very End of the Attic 3:46

When I first put this on I knew that I was in the presence of something that was more unique than my typical fare. The opening “Swingtime” had and evocative bass line with a shuffling rhythm track with synthesizers trilling off in the distance. The feel was European folk music; particularly when the pizzicato acoustic guitar entered the mix. Not long after followed by a series of spacy synths. It was music that was traveling in several divergent directions at once and somehow cohering into something quite beautiful.

The song lasted for 4:23 and just as one was prepared to delve further into its unique vibe, there was a hard cut to the next song! Almost provoking disappointment that the vibe of “Swingtime” had been hijacked by the repetitive folk-trance groove of “Pokhara + C.H. Revisited.” Which at its halfway point morphed from a cheerful cod-ethnic groove into something quite enervated and sinister, as drum box in high velocity burst into the music. Along with double picked guitar awash in reverb; as if a swarm of insects had overtaken the track.

Freeform synths careened through the intro to “A Wave” as the lazy Jazz guitar weaving through the track simply ignored their exotic energies. The appearance of clarinet, an under-utilized instrument if ever there were one, only served to brighten my mood. Leaving the song to come home to roost in a warm acoustic Jazz setting.

With a self-referential title like “Wah Bass” we got what we came for. Hearing this I couldn’t help but think that the Brothers Ives had been taken with Eno’s “Another Green World” and its use of Percy Jones on fretless. The clarinet added glints of light to compete with the subterranean pull of the namesake bass in the slow growing number. Attaining a very funky vibe here!

Having evoked Eno already, the only vocal number here, “The Attic” actually sounded like an Eno vocal number left off of “Another Green World!” You could play the song for an unwitting listener and easily convince them that this was newly unearthed Eno vocal song. It is a glorious and euphonious as anything Mr. Eno has ever committed to tape.

“Razorblades” opened in an almost foreboding fashion with minor key synth burbles with random waves until the waves of guitar [almost sounding like saxes were multiplexed along with them] gave the instrumental the feel of something that might have been on side two of Bowie’s “Low,” at least until they drifted off to leave the rhythm box and clarinet alone for a tete-a-tete.

The distinctive Roland System 100 sequencer and patches immediately gave “Wapping” the vibe of a track we’d recognize from the early Human League era. This one could have been part V of “The Dignity Of Labour!” The use of delay on the sequencer was the flashpoint of the complete break with Jazz that finally occurred at this point in the album. At least until the clarinet fought its way into the last movement of the song to change its complexion completely.

The double picked guitars of “Life In Shadows” almost reached for a frantic bazouki feel in its intro before settling down to gently strummed guitar with mellow clarinet floating above it. A rare piano joined the rhythm box, clarinet, and guitar for a truly beautiful flirtation with waltz time that could have lasted all night by my reckoning.

The winsome title track closed out the original album with fluid acoustic guitar all to itself this time. And with that we entered the bonus track zone. From the straightforward acoustic Jazz of “Lovelorn” to the rich ambience of “Ruby Ruby,” which flowed with a compelling blend of guitars and synthesizers.

“Tibetan Trains” sounded more like mandolins at work as they created a mantra for the scant hints of clarinet to swirl into like marbeling. “It’s Love – Reworked” was a confection with guitar surrounded by distorted harmonics. Glockenspiel and guitar formed a gentle pas-de-deux of Jazz on “Baa Lamb” that reached back to the pre-war era.

“The Very End Of The Attic” was the only later cut here that had quite the same uncanny blend of disparate elements that typically began a song with one vibe before it mutated into quite another. The stillness of the first third of shimmering ambience soon gave way to the peppy, percolating groove of the second third, with warm synthesizers bubbling under the hint of clarinet. Then the coda closed out the CD/track in a manner not entirely different from the way “Endless, Endless” functioned on Kraftwerk’s “Trans Europe Express.”

The invocation of Kraftwerk was not at all untoward for this disc. It really felt like the Brothers Ives had been soaking up early, bucolic Kraftwerk [especially “Ralf + Florian”] as well as the gentle parts of the first three Eno solo albums, with a strong nod to “Another Green World.” And the best influence of all at play here was the fact that the initial album was created without any commercial concerns at all! This was a rare music of unaffected innocence that becomes a balm for the person lucky enough to be listening to it. Especially in 2026! The arrival of this reissue could’t have been more timely.

Purchase options are reliably broad.

• DL [24/44.1] – $12.00
• CD – $15.00
• 2xLP [black] – $36.00
• 2xLP [clear] – $40.00

Each of the formats has the same 22 songs, so no one gets short-changed. Once I put this album on it beckons me to let it play all night long. it casts a compelling spell that I’m not eager to break. And the Ives have another 42 [!] releases in their Bandcamp store to investigate! DJ hit that button!

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