“OtherWorld music”
“The Pop Group sounded otherworldly. ‘OtherWorld music’ might in fact be the most apt tag for The Pop Group’s delirial montage of funk, free jazz, Jamaican audio-mancy and the avant-garde.”
“dissidents from a ostensibly anti-establishment punk that had already calcified into orthodoxy”
Britse band (1977-1981) die in hun noise muziek dub reggae, diepe funk, free jazz, zelfs klassieke muziek en Afrikaanse ritmes integreerden en alles brachten met de energie van de punk. Het maakte van hen een van de meest radicale, complexe, originele en invloedrijke bands van eind jaren 70, begin jaren 80. Ze waren ook uitgesproken politiek met hun anarchistisch engagement.
“The Pop Group formed in Bristol in 1977 out of a sense of disenchantment with the increasing conservatism of punk. Drawing on an eclectic range of influences, from free jazz, conscious funk, heavyweight dub to avant-garde experimentalism, they were at the forefront of a musical period marked out by its groundbreaking innovation, alongside contemporaries like Public Image Limited, This Heat and Throbbing Gristle.”
Mark Stewart (vocals), John Waddington (gitaar), Simon Underwood (bass), Gareth Sager (gitaar/sax), Bruce Smith (drums)
Discografie.
Albums: “Y” (1979), “For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?” (1980).
Singles “She Is Beyond Good and Evil” (1979), “We Are All Prostitutes” (1979), “Where There’s a Will There’s a Way” (1980, split single met the Slits).
Ook: “Y in Dub” (2021) dub versie van “Y”, Dennis Bovell
Beyond the Pop Group.
Mark Stewart ging solo als Mark Stewart & the Maffia en werkte nauw samen met Adrian Sherwood en On-U Sound.
Gareth Sager stond mee aan de wieg van Rip Rig + Panic en opvolger Float Up CP.
Simon Underwood speelde bij Pigbag.
Bruce Smith speelde mee met The Slits, the New Age Steppers en Public Image Ltd. Smith speelde ook drums op “Debut” van Björk.
John Waddington speelde mee met Maximum Joy en was ook te horen op verschillende On-U Sound projecten, waaronder New Age Steppers en African Head Charge.
“They signalled the moment that punk mutated into something new and infinitely more ambitious, a chaotic merging of dub, funk, avant-garde noise with paranoid, often politically charged, lyrics. Their music spoke of a future free from the few already exhausted chords that rock’n’roll was built on.” (Sean O’Hagan in the Guardian, 2010).
De band kwam terug samen in 2010 (met Dan Catsis op bass in de plaats van Simon Underwood).
Mark Stewart en John Waddington overleden allebei in 2023.