One of the lesser stars in the universe, were a mutant anomaly, a chance meeting of and - austerity. collects every single and the lone EP of the same title that they would produce. Few heard them in the early '80s when they were around, partially because they were stuck in the wasteland of , the Belgian little brother of the main operation in Manchester that never had the sway of its elder. It probably didn't help that spinoff group and labelmates were plying a similar fusion of rhythms and song structure, although neither produced an end result as intimate or insular as that of . 's chanteuse-whisper vocals provide one of the clues to the group's uniqueness, as do the pencil-thin synth lines and genteel drum machine patterns -- both of which sound out of place among their contemporaries, with the exception of , but have a revelatory quality in light of groups that have come since; think , , even . Added to the wonder of this rediscovery are great liner notes and a respectable package that harks back to 's heyday. ~ Wade Kergan