This Heat | Artist

This Heat was an English experimental rock band formed 1976 in Camberwell, London, by multi-instrumentalists Charles Bullen (guitar, clarinet, vocals), Charles Hayward (drums, tapes, vocals) and Gareth Williams (bass, tapes, keyboards, vocals). Hayward had previously been in the band Quiet Sun headed by Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera. The band was active throughout the punk and post-punk eras, but stood apart from those scenes due to an experimental, confrontational, and politically charged approach. Their commercial success was limited, but This Heat is widely considered a link between early 1970s music styles such as krautrock and later experimental genres such as industrial and post-rock. Their first radio airplay came in early 1977 from DJ John Peel, to whom they sent a demo tape recorded in the top room at Hayward's parents' house in Camberwell. Their self-titled debut album was released in 1979 and was characterised by heavy use of tape manipulation combined with more traditional instruments to create dense, eerie, electronic soundscapes. Their second album Deceit was slightly more rock oriented, having more coherent song structures and produced with help from noted reggae mixer Martin Frederick. Both albums This Heat (1979) and Deceit (1981) are now regarded as classics of the post-punk/industrial genre. Other standout releases include the EP Health and Efficiency (1980), Live in Krefeld (1986), Made Available: John Peel Sessions (1996), and the compilation Out of Cold Storage (2006). In reviewing the aforementioned compilation box, one ecstatic reviewer summed up the band's work as follows: "Though they are at times frustratingly inconsistent, and though they at times fall a bit too much in love with noodling experiments that don't really pay off...this is a band that has no match in terms of melding experimental spirit with post-punk, industrial, ambient, and several others styles of music I don't think have names to them yet. In terms of peak value, This Heat are on a short list of greatest bands ever" - a view shared by many a post-punk fan. The band folded in 1982 and Gareth Williams died of cancer in 2001. Between 2016-19 Bullen and Hayward reunited, playing under the name This is Not This Heat. Charles Hayward has released many solo and collaborative works, plus released the excellent The Ghost Trade album under the band name Camberwell Now.

Artist Website: wikipedia/This_Heat

Featured Albums: This Heat

Related Artists: Camberwell Now, Charles Hayward