Thomas Leer & Robert Rental - The Bridge

Thomas Leer and Robert Rental made this at home on eight-track equipment across two weeks in the summer of 1979. The sleeve is blunt about the method: all blips, clicks and unseemly noises were generated by refrigerators and other domestic appliances, and are intrinsic to the music.

Both men were Scots who had moved south and fallen in with the circle around Daniel Miller and Throbbing Gristle. Rental met Miller at a Throbbing Gristle show and the pair toured together as the Normal. The Bridge came out on Throbbing Gristle's own Industrial Records in December 1979 and climbed to number 9 on the UK independent chart the following year.

Nine tracks split between actual songs and long instrumental weather. "Attack Decay" and "Six A.M." sit at one end, the eight-minute "Interferon" at the other, and the record moves between them without much warning. It stands as one of the foundation documents of British DIY electronics, and original Industrial Records copies do not surface often.

Original 1979 UK pressing on Industrial Records, catalog IR0007, pressed by Orlake.

Used copy: VG+ vinyl / VG+ sleeve