The Wolfgang Press: A biography

[hall%state.DEC@decwrl.dec.com (We can never be described)]

     Bruce Geryk's posting on nm-list, requesting a discography of THE
WOLFGANG PRESS, and all the other recent discussions about TWP, 4AD, Dif Juz,
This Mortal Coil, et al. on nm-list and Love-Hounds has prompted me to post
this biography.  I wrote it a few months back, and posted it on a music list
internal to Digital.  I've since modified it to include the latest LP and
three singles.

     I've enjoyed listening to The Wolfgang Press for a few years now.  Even
though their last tour supporting BIRD WOOD CAGE was kind of boring, I still
look forward to their recorded material.

     I'll follow this with a complete discography.

     Please reply to me if you see any errors or omissions in this biography,
or the discography.

Cheers,

-Dan Hall

                    -< WHO'S AFRAID OF THE WOLFGANG PRESS? >- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


     4AD was started by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent, the former a manager 
of 5 or 6 Beggar's Banquet record shops, and the latter working in Beggar's 
Banquet headquarters, over one of the record shops.  Most of the time when 
demos were brought into the shops, they would pass through either man's 
hands, who brought them 'upstairs' if they felt that they had something 
worthwhile.  In late 1979, the two men started 4AD as a vehicle for 
getting some of the stuff they liked produced.  One of their first 
singles was by Rema-Rema, a band formed by Mark Cox and Michael Allen, 
the nucleus of what would become The Wolfgang Press.  It was the fifth 
single they (4AD) produced, but the first that they really felt good about.

     Ivo Watts-Russell:  "The next thing that happened was Rema-Rema walking 
in - which was just unbelievable.  I mean, to realize that we could release 
something by them suddenly made me see that what we were doing was something 
serious.  So in addition to financing the first four records, Beggars' loan 
was also used to buy some recordings of this fifth group that had been financed 
by the Charisma label"  (from The Offense newsletter, a 4AD fanzine).

     Mark Cox and Michael Allen had met two years before, while Michael, who
goes by the name Mick, was the leader of a band in college.  That band, called 
The Models, included three other friends, Marco, Cliff and Terry, and produced 
one record, called FREEZE/MAN OF THE YEAR.  Mark Cox used to drive the lot 
around in his van, to rehearsals and gigs.  In 1977, the band took a change 
in direction, with Mick, Marco and Mark thinking one way, and Cliff and Terry 
another.  Mark had been noodling around with a synth at that point, making 
noise.  The two factions parted ways, then Mick met Gary Asquith, an old school 
friend.  Mick, Mark, Marco and Gary started a new band, Rema-Rema.  They used 
a drum machine at first, but that didn't work so eventually they tossed it 
and added Max on drums.  They intentionally didn't attempt to acquire a record 
deal, because they felt contempt toward the recording industry in general, and 
wanted to protect and shape their own ideas.  This band started to split too, 
with Mick, Mark and Gary drifting away from Marco and Max. Two days before the 
band was due to tour with Siouxsie and the Banshees, Siouxsie's guitarist and 
drummer took off, and so did Marco and Max.  Marco was asked to play for 
Siouxsie's band, which pissed off Mark, because he used to drive that band 
around in his van too, and considered them friends. He felt betrayed.

     Rema-Rema's EP was released by 4AD six months after the band had split. 
It had been a demo for Charisma that had been knocked off for one hundred 
pounds Sterling, in a small 8-track studio.  After the split, Mick, Mark 
and Gary got together and made some noises, found a drummer named Danny 
Briottet, and formed Mass.

     Mark Cox:  "We wanted to make music that would interest us and wasn't 
being made by anyone else at the time.  Dealing in moods and atmospheres 
and trying to put genuine and honest feelings into pieces of music. 
And thereby communicating and sharing feelings and experiences with people. 
Which is basically what we've wanted to do all along"   (Abstract #10).

     Mass put out an EP, CABBAGE/YOU AND I, and played a few places, not too 
successfully.  "The single had some good ideas, but they weren't very well 
executed."  Cox and Allen had felt for a long time that their success hinged 
on finding an engineer/producer who could work with the band, and was 
technically-minded enough to give them what they wanted.  An LP, LABOUR OF 
LOVE, was slaughtered critically by the press.  Mass continued to be ignored, 
and became not-very-productive because of the negativity they continued to 
encounter, from within the group and outside.  Mick and Mark still had 
some interest in what they were doing, but Gary and Danny didn't.

     While messing about musically at Mark's parents house one day, Mark and
Mick came up with a tune they thought had potential, called "Prostitute".  They 
brought it to Ivo and agreed to put up half the money if he would put up the 
other half and make a single out of it.  He agreed, and the two recorded 
"Prostitute" and "On The Hill".  Ivo liked what he heard and asked the duo 
to do an LP.  He told them how much they could spend, then left them alone. 
They took a year, and came up with the first album under the name The Wolfgang 
Press, called THE BURDEN OF MULES.  It was a complete change of approach for 
them - they "replaced the subtle lyrics and incidental music of Mass with 
blatantly obvious accounts of day to day problems, with more simplistic tunes
to bring the point home" (Abstract).  One tune, "Journalists", is a 
lyrically-scathing retaliation on the media for their attacks on Mass, though 
Mark claims it has a more general message.  As with previous efforts, Mark Cox 
likes THE BURDEN OF MULES, but feels that some really good ideas weren't made 
the best of. Tours supporting the album were well received.

     Cox and Allen teamed up with 4AD label mate Robin Guthrie, perhaps the
driving force behind The Cocteau Twins.  Here was the technically brilliant
producer they'd been searching for, one sympathetic to their cause.  They made
a considerable change in their approach to the studio and the sound they got
out of it.  The change was heralded by the release of the SCARECROW EP in 1984,
and then the WATER and SWEATBOX EPs in 1985.  The review of WATER in ABSTRACT
#10 calls it "a shambolic mess of rhythm-heavy bass lines, pounding drum and
the mad organist, with Mick's vocal clawing it's way to the crest of the wave." 
Andrew Gray plays guitar on these EPs, being fully credited as a member of 
The Wolfgang Press finally on SWEATBOX.

     Mark Cox:  "Our music is bold, it's not particularly subtle;  the records
have brightly coloured sleeves and you can dance to them.  In a way it is the
rhythm that is all important.  We try to make the lyrics and percussion merge
to the extend [sic] that it doesn't matter that you can't hear exactly what's
being said.  As long as some of the meaning sticks with you.  We never want to
get in the position when we start to define ourselves that blatantly" (Arrows).

     THE LEGENDARY WOLFGANG PRESS AND OTHER TALL STORIES was also released in
1985, and was basically just a compilation of the material on the three
previous EPs, minus the tunes "Muted" and "The Deep Briny".  It was followed
in early 1986 with their next LP, STANDING UP STRAIGHT, produced by The
Wolfgang Press and John Fryer, who engineered it and the previous four records.
It is their best work, in my opinion.

     Mark Cox:  "We've always felt that there's generally more worth in music
that does take a little more time to appreciate.  One way to preserve the
'quality' of "Standing Up Straight" was to produce a different account of what
is going on.  The lyric sheet gives a new presentation of the music, you can
read as you listen....or at any other time.  Unlike some chart songs that are
picked up and liked instantly, we felt the LP should not rely on that easy
accessibility. We believe the songs are lasting enough to be picked up five
years later" (Arrows).

     In 1987 4AD released TWP's BIG SEX EP, followed by BIRD WOOD CAGE in 1988.
The latter is the first TWP album being marketed in the U.S. by Rough Trade
Records.  It shows them heading in a different direction again, with three new
producers, and a set of obscure, seductive, and mesmerizing tunes that get
better with each listen.  The CD of BIRD WOOD CAGE has the four tunes from the
BIG SEX EP tacked on the end, as a bonus.  Three singles have been released
from BIRD WOOD CAGE:  "King of Soul", "Kansas" and "Raintime".

     Mark Cox and Andrew Gray have contributed to both albums from This Mortal
Coil, IT'LL END IN TEARS and FILIGREE AND SHADOW.  The whole band contributed
a song and a video to the LONELY IS AN EYESORE compilation.

     I've seen THE WOLFGANG PRESS live four times, and I fondly remember the
first time.  I was north of London, at a 4AD night at the Town & Country Club,
in Kentish Town, June 1986.  The featured bands were Dif Juz, Dead Can Dance, 
Heavenly Bodies, and The Wolfgang Press.  Seeing TWP intrigued me, the three of 
them, hardly moving, with two tape machines providing the drum tracks on some 
tunes, and the bass tracks for others.  When they consented to do an encore, we 
had to wait for them to rewind the tape and do a song a second time.  They got 
me interested in them in a big way.  If I had to compare them to someone, I'd 
say they sound like Talking Heads with an attitude.  Arthur Parker, in his 
commentary about the band in the booklet included with the LONELY IS AN EYESORE 
limited edition set, brings up the Heads too:

     "The Wolfgang Press, take my word for it, are a bizarre looking bunch,
but no bananas......although, since their debut album, THE BURDEN OF MULES,
they've gradually peeled off a few thick skins in public.  Someone once
suggested that if you filled a room with Talking Heads fans, got them drunk
and played a few Wolfgang Press discs loudly, the congregation would go ape
before they had time to rescue their cool.  That's conceivable, but hopeful.
This group have a touching collective faith in the inquisitive patience of the
average ear and that's probably what has made their progress in the pop
marketplace faltering to say the least.  Too bad......"

     Too bad, indeed.  This band makes sounds that get under my skin, but
it's a good irritation.  Let them irritate you too.

-Dan Hall
 Exeter, New Hampshire

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