This Kind of Punishment, A Beard of Bees (side A)

By 1984, the notion of post-punk had fragmented in many directions.  As far as these records deviated from the original impulses of punk rock, they tended to keep at least some of its extroversion and propulsion.  While A Beard of Bees reflects the influence of so many records of the early '80s, it couples them with pure notions of understatement and introversion.  The resulting album feels far less shocking in 2011, when notions of "lo-fi" feel commonplace, than it must have new, or even in 1993 when my reissue copy was made.  The songs on A Beard of Bees combine a diverse array of ideas, many of which had some association with post-punk: analog synthesizers and drum machines, vocals that cross speech with singing, and falling apart chaos all make appearances alongside electric guitars and pianos.  The simple cover design is both stark and beautiful.  The remastering and pressing job from 1993 at least preserves the distinctiveness of this primitive creation.