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Disturbance

by Test Dept

supported by
Simon Gould
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Simon Gould Twenty-years too late but welcome nonetheless, Test Dept's new album is a familiar yet fresh mix of their clangorous origins and the technoid direction of later albums. Slow to start, this weighty and dense album really picks up in menace and atmosphere as it progresses. A surprising success after so many years of silence. Favorite track: Gatekeeper.
dauvit
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dauvit Test Dept. have always sounded like Test Dept. and nobody else sounds like Test Dept.
Another fantastic release.
Jozef V.VODA
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Jozef V.VODA Not a case of sentimental cash-out reunion call, quite the opposite. This record will keep you pushed to the edge of your comfort zone, and true to the title, it will leave you disturbed - in the best possible way - as a wake up call from your apathy and ignorance back to action.
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Roy
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £5.99 GBP  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Single black vinyl in gatefold sleeve with artwork designed by David Altweger

    Includes unlimited streaming of Disturbance via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      £17.99 GBP or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CD in 6 panel digipack with artwork designed by David Altweger

    Includes unlimited streaming of Disturbance via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      £8.99 GBP or more 

     

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about

In an ideal world, Disturbance, the new album from industrial pioneers Test Dept, would not exist. It wouldn’t need to. Britain would not stand divided by xenophobia. Working class communities would not be under siege. Capitalism would not have created a climate change crisis pushing the planet towards a dangerous brink. And the Thatcherite ideals that Graham Cunnington and Paul Jamrozy spent Test Dept’s early years raging against would not be so terrifyingly back in political vogue.

Back in1981, Cunnington, Jamrozy and a revolving door of talented artists from disparate disciplines and backgrounds formed Test Dept, forging an incendiary new sound from a squat in New Cross that made them underground heroes, landing the group under surveillance by the British government. 37 years later, on Disturbance, that sound is as incendiary as ever.

“It began with a project to do with our archive,” recalls Cunnington. It was the early 2010s and Test Dept had been dormant for years. The pair wanted to sort through Test Dept’s old recordings to “re-establish our history and get our music out there again” after record label red tape left many of their 14 albums out of print.

When attention turned to the “next logical step of a new album”, an idea emerged – taking germs of ideas from old songs and turning them into new, sledgehammer-heavy sonic experiments full of powerful protest poetry. Politics had come full circle. It felt fitting to do the same with their music.

The result is an album that at once peers into the past and roars into the future, across eight tracks that conjure the raw power of Test Dept in their original, 1980s incarnation while adding new elements. “We’re different people now – not spring chickens anymore,” laughs Jamrozy. “We’re still angry but it’s tempered by a slightly different wisdom. We tried to upgrade the sound, to soup things up further.”

“Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer to shape it,” the poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht once wrote. It’s a mantra that continues to drive Test Dept. who return to their past on this eviscerating new album in order to move into a bold new future. They hope Disturbance can soundtrack a society doing the same.

credits

released March 1, 2019

Graham Cunnington - Percussion, Electronics, Vocals

Paul Jamrozy - Percussion, Electronics, Vocals

Zel Kaute - Drums

Lottie Lou - Electronics, Live Sound

David Altweger - Visual Director

Rob Lewis - Additional Drums

Ashley Davies - Bass / Percussion

Laura Thompson - Additional Vocals on 'Gatekeeper'

Roz Corrigan - Piano on 'Debris'

Michelle Outram - Cello on 'Truth'

Jordi Blanchar & Ilenia Bombardi - Additional Vocals

Recorded:
Flesh & Bone Studios, Hackney
The Shed, Nunhead

Mixed & Produced: The Shed
Engineered: Lottie Lou
Mastered: Giovanni Versari at La Maestra Mastering, Tredozio (FC)

GBH84 Is dedicated to The Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign

Artwork by David Altweger
Photos by Michael Kötter

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all rights reserved

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about

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Test Dept London, UK

Sonic material handlers, investigative agitators, authentic industrialists, utilisers and recyclers of society's debris.

The core of the original group has re-emerged to engage with the current cultural and political climate, exploring new ways of expression in a strategic programme of actions ... more

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