What?!! No Test Department thread?!?

Wasn't their debut album, *Beating the Retreat*, a box set? How many bands have ever debuted with box sets? I kinda liked that one at the time, too, but sold my copy eons ago. After that, I thought they got kinda too foofy for my tastes, recording with striking miner's choirs and all that stuff. (Who I'm sure deserved the help, don't get me wrong. I'm just not a striking miner's choir kinda guy MUSICALLY.)

(Actually, these titles sound familiar: Shoulder To Shoulder and
Unacceptable Face Of Freedom. Was one of them with the miner's choir? I forget. I'm pretty sure I must have heard one or both, back then.)

http://www.boltbeats.com/rec-t.html

That came up fifth on google (for "test dept." compulsion pulsations search); this came up fourth, ha ha:

http://www.rocklist.net/swells.htm

Beating The Retreat was originally issued as a double EP on 45 in a box, then reissued as a single LP. It's quite good as well.

The other albums all have amazing moments, but they get more and more varied - Scottish folk music (Good Night Out side 2), vicious political rants by aggrieved miners (GNO Side 1, Unacceptable Face), multilayered rhythm workouts (most of Terra Firma), Russian ballads (TF again), etc. I think they are all worth investigating. Sometimes the wild diversity doesn't come across so well as a whole. Certainly a unique band - a bizarre marriage of theater, politics, industrial noise, and folk music. Does anybody know why they started to be so awful in the 90's? Loss of key members, perhaps?

i think they got crap due to rave culture influences creeping in, key members leaving and various members having personal problems.

That being stated, however, "Gododdin" is a masterpiece. I seem to remember "Terra Firma" being pretty good, too.

have to agree i saw them live once, many years later, expecting not a lot, and never experienced such a glorious noise .. the bass booms they managed out of their metal structures was beyond belief.

My feeling is that their music has to be seen as just a part of a whole performance. And, yes, the political element was always a given.

Thanks also for the NVA link. Always read about their activities after the event, maybe I'll be able to catch the next one.

A revive of this thread could be timely. There has been a bit of twitter chat about TD lately, partly b/c the industrial revolution part of the Olympic opening ceremony was very TD-ish. Also there is a retrospective book planned for next year and even talk of more performances, which would be incredible.

yes! very much looking forward to the book. i contributed a short piece to it about how important the "shoulder to shoulder" album was to me as a teenager. fingers crossed for some performances.

also, apparently danny boyle attended some of the large scale NVA / Test Dept. events in the late 80s/early90s so it seems fairly likely that was an influence on the industrial revolution segment of the opening ceremony.

Cool, that would make sense. Much to my regret I never saw any of the large-scale TD events, but I saw a few of their late period club gigs when they had gone techno, which were a bit underwhelming. I also saw some of the early NVA events, which were breathtaking.

http://testdept.org.uk/redux/

So, not a full-scale reunion then but a "computer based audio-visual performance environment". Shame.

First performance of TD:Redux at a festival in Belgium last week. Maybe it's unfair to judge by a shaky youtube clip, but it seems a bit underwhelming tbh. Still, I'll probably go if it hits my town.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukxQGgMJeTc

gah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukxQGgMJeTc

TD:Redux was a bit of a letdown but this looks a lot more like it:

http://www.avfestival.co.uk/programme/2014/events-and-exhibitions/test-department

ah, it sounds from their fb page as if it's an installation rather than a performance. pity.

http://www.barbican.org.uk/film/event-detail.asp?ID=18868

(Never knowingly heard them btw)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vic_Reeves

As Vic Reeves
As well as working and performing in bands in London, including being an original member of the Industrial/Experimental band Test Dept and performing onstage with them at their debut gig (then leaving soon afterwards), Reeves also joined the alternative comedy circuit under many different guises.

Is this true I wonder?

i think he was very, very briefly as they shared a squat together.

this was actually mentioned in a recent TD article in mojo.
made me do a double take.

Yeah I guessed they were more of a loose collective when they started out, probably had their mums in the band for a bit too

mums in the band = punk or what?

Both Vic and TD have their (performing) roots in Sarf London - they both played the Albany Empire in Deptford, for example.

1st new single in 20 years:

https://twitter.com/Test_Dept

new album:
https://testdept.bandcamp.com/album/disturbance

This has only two of the original members on it and in particular Angus Farquhar, whom I always thought of as the creative hub of the group in the 80s, is not involved. Not to say that it won't be worth hearing but it's not Test Dept as I remember them.

I'm not sure that is right. Not to take away anything from Angus, but TD was always a collective thing and I don't think he would want to take that credit. Also, he might not be an active particpant in the current line up (and wasn't in the 90s incarnation either) but is still a close ally.

While on the subject, I listened to "The Unaceeptable Face Of Freedom" in its entirety recently for the first time in a long time and it still sounds incredible. Also thematically feels very current in many ways too.

Unacceptable!

this new record is solid, way better than the 90's material imo

humorless and bitter, but that's how I like my politics these days

update: this is my favorite release of theirs since Gododdin. thanks for the revive!

wow the book (Total State Machine) is incredible. 368 pages, full color, tons of dense text, diary entries, reviews, flyers, essays, so much to dig into.

it's epic.

reminds me that the accompanying reissue program never saw the light of day -

to mark this occasion beyond the book itself, the band re-issue ‘Shoulder To Shoulder’ (1985), the second in a series of re-releases, partnering the book, published in June by PC-Press, the first being the 12” ‘Tested Product’ for Record Store Day, in new and adapted artworks, also through PC-Press. This special red vinyl edition paves the way for more back catalogue action late October 2015, namely both 6 x CD & 6 x vinyl box sets.

‘Shoulder to Shoulder’ encapsulates the tour organised by Test Dept in support of the Miners Strike in 1984/85 and features a choir of South Wales miners, brought together by the group for a one off concert in London. Such was the bond formed on that occasion; it led to a nationwide tour, a landmark meeting and lasting memory of music, solidarity and political struggle. As such it can be viewed as an important historical document.

omg how did I miss this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3pgSF70iIs

i guess this is as good a place as any to post this. there is an oral history of Some Bizarre just out that is most excellent -

http://jawbonepress.com/conform-to-deform/