T-Red Partie 1984–1985 LP
Active in Balen, Belgium from 1981–1985, Paul Dierckx, Frank Geys, Rudi Maes, and Walter Seigers made up T-RED, who may have only been known to those they toured in front of—until now. In 2024, the band recovered the recordings from their 1984 four-song promo cassette Partie, and remastered them for this release, with the subsequent eight tracks on this album coming from a 1985 demo. After 40 years on the shelf, T-RED’s version of post-punk/new wave feels bright and new and dark and moody and familiar. It feels exactly like it is: listening for the first time to a band contemporary to a scene whose catalogue of music you thought you’d exhausted. What else is out there lying in wait? This stands right up there with SAD LOVERS & GIANTS (who Dark Entries revived), or some of East Germany’s resurfaced bands from the Tapetopia project. While the first four tracks from the promo are definitely more polished, these songs don’t have the soaring production value/wall-of-sound that more major acts of the era showcased, but the pared-down, lo-fi plodding is irrevocably part of this band’s charm. For fans of all things ’80s post punk/icy new wave, I highly recommend this one for your collection.