Post Punk Dif Juz Sound
Sadly I seem to have missed this band back in the day, but what a good band they were, Dif Juz (a play evidently on the words 'different jazz'). They were an instrumental quartet who actually worked with some great names in the post punk scene, e.g. Wolfgang Press, This Mortal Coil and The Cocteau Twins as well as Dub innovator Lee 'Scratch' Perry.
The Huremics 12"
Catch the following tracks by them:
'Hu' ...followed by
'Re' ...then
'Mi' ...and finally...
'Cs' ...all of them at the youtube links.
Not a word sung! All the tracks are instrumental and are taken from the 12" E.P. by them called 'Huremics' released on the 4AD Record Label in 1981. They were to release another E.P. in the same year called 'Vibrating Air'. For some cool bass lines and dub sounds catch the track 'Heset' at the youtube link.
The full track listing for Vibrating Air 12":
- A1 Heset
- A2 Diselt
- A3 Gunet
- A4 Soam
Band & Formation
- Alan Curtis - Guitar
- Dave Curtis - Guitar/Keyboards
- Gary Bromley - Bass
- Richard Thomas - Drums/Saxophone
They formed in West London in 1980 firstly as band London Pride and were signed up to 4AD Records, evidently there was some link between Alan Curtis and Duran Duran which you can read about on the Duran Duran Fandom web page at the link.
They were to leave the 4AD Label and release a mini album on Red Flame Records in 1983 called 'Who Says So?'. Red Flame was set up by a former promoter at London's 'Moonlight Club' where Dif Juz had previously played. The label released for other artists as diverse as Carmel, Anne Clark, Artery, The Room and The Moodists.
Touring & Well Known Links
By '84 Dif Juz were off touring with The Cocteau Twins and Wolfgang Press, they resettled back with 4AD to release the L.P. 'Extractions' with contributions by The Cocteau Twin's Elizabeth Frazer and being produced by Robin Guthrie, the L.P. was to reach #11 in the UK Indie Chart in '85. They seemed to collaborate with the Cocteau's quite a lot, I think both bands love of reverb effects were possibly a common denominator.
They also worked on the Ivo Watts-Russel pet project for 4AD called This Mortal Coil. As a band Dif Juz seemed to cease activity in working together in 1986, although they didn't seem to formally announce a split, evidently some health issues plus it seems that Richard Thomas was quite a 'jack of all trades' musician and was happy working with many and varied artists.
Thomas would go on to work with the Cocteau Twins playing saxophone and tabla on the Cocteau's 1986 album 'Victorialand', catch the track from the album called 'Feet-Like Fins' at the link with him on tabla, he also contributed on the Cocteau Twins/Harold Budd collaboration 'The Moon & The Melodies' released in 1986 as well as eventually working as touring drummer for The Jesus & Mary Chain appearing on the the 1989 album 'Automatic' credited on the track 'Gimme Hell' and touring with them for live tour of the album, here below beating the skins for them through the fug of smoke...
For more post punk 4AD sounds you can catch my featured post Gathering Dust at the link or from the Featured Post on the menu alternatively catch the 4AD Tag link.