Deceit

I've had the first This Heat album for about fifteen years. Eventually I've got around to getting their second, of which I've read nothing but good reviews. I must say I wasn't disappointed. More of a straight forward record than the experimentation of the first. You can see why it has been cited as a very influential record. Amazing to think its over thirty years old, it still sounds very fresh today.

Excellent packaging, prompt delivery. Intriguing music contained therein. Record has satisfied my curiosity about this band.

A hint of Throbbing Gristle and Test Dept but more gritty. I wish I had discovered this band at the time but better late than never!!

Deceit by This Heat remains one of the most interesting and overlooked albums to come out of the post-punk movement. It's an incredibly difficult album to explain thanks to its extremely varied sound which includes elements of punk, noise rock, free jazz, ambiance and industrial music. It may sound like there is too much going on, but it works wonderfully in creating a haunting and thought-provoking experience.Make no mistake though this isn't an easy listen, even compared to other post-punk bands. The lyrics deal with nuclear anxiety and destruction, painting a bleak and often brutal picture. The lyrics are in fact a highlight, with very smart references to history, politics and disease. Its not pretty, but its very effective. The vocals range from eerie chants to vicious growls and main vocalist Charles Hayward sounds so aggressive without it seeming forced. The guitar riffs are always spidery and intense. The drums are given room to improvise and sound suitably heavy.The underlying themes and images created keep everything linked, but it is the variety that gives the album its strength. Tracks like 'Paper Hats' and 'Makeshift Swahili' have apocalyptic meltdowns midway through that are both euphoric and disturbing. 'S.P.Q.R' races through its running time and produces some beautiful Roman imagery, while 'Cenotaph' is a fantastic reflection on World War II and is surprisingly moving. Even shorter tracks like the almost tranquil 'Sleep' and 'Shrink Wrap', with its loops and barked phrases, are gripping. The pounding 'A New Kind Of Water' and the creepy 'Suffer Bomb Disease' end things on a high note.Its a massive shame that This Heat have not got the recognition they deserve. The music is ahead of its time and its subject matter is too important to ignore. Every song is unpredictable and interesting in its own right, while the topics discussed are arguably more relevant now than ever. Deceit is a dark and intense masterpiece from an extremely creative band at their peak.

I'm listening to the album right now. It is scary, melodic, and angular post-punk! What more can you ask for? Get this album as soon as you can and be prepared to get your mind blown away.

This Heat's 1982 masterpiece Deceit brings to mind many sounds: Public Image Ltd., King Crimson, CAN, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Throbbing Gristle, and Lee "Scratch" Perry just to name a few. It is one of those few albums that is so genre-less, so thematically and musically universal that it would be impossible to pin a certain time and place on it. This Heat's post-apocalyptic quasi-industrial-progressive sound is quite unlike any other; their music is akin to late-era Talk Talk and Slint as far as its uniqueness is concerned. Deceit is criminally under-noticed--although critics certainly have paid attention and showered This Heat with a deserving amount of praise. If you have an inclination towards post-punk, prog rock, or experimental music in general give Deceit a listen. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

To whom that cross this page will never come back that same route again. This music will either make you jump the cliff or it will become your bible. Nothing truly comes close to this one. you thought metal box was strange, or the bermuda triangle, or even rupaul...well you haven't listened to deceit. Cover art explains it all...its face the represents all the little unorthodox elements yet to hear and compresses them whole to make a face. this face obviously has much personality...which is almost undescribable....all you can say is its an anxious, uncomfortable expression, screaming out epiphanies of sorrow, joy, pain, pleasure and of course...deceit. Recommended for ANYONE who's into the krautrock and post punk scenes of the 70's and early 80's THIS IS THE CROSSROAD of both those great genres...and if not definitely the mecca of all thats organically obscure. A true original and possibly the best album ive ever heard, buy it immediately!

Words cannot describe what Deceit means to me. It is easily one the greatest albums of all time, a lost classic, and certainly my all-time favorite. The music itself is beyond concepts of time and space. Call it prog without pomposity or punk with a tame sophistication or post-rock a decade before the genre even existed or avant-garde without pretention. For a band that matches the sheer intensity of Joy Division, the complexity and brilliance of Can or Faust and the taut musicianship of King Crimson, none of these descriptions will give this dark, timeless and magical music any justice.The lyrics are cryptic and loaded with political and literary references about nuclear destruction and imperialism. In fact, this album is possibly the last truly great political album, due for the most part to its subtlety. The lyrics are perfectly complimented by a diverse palette of sounds, from Stockhausen-esque musique concrete and sound collages to the pouncing rock bombast of "SPQR".The intensity and precision of This Heat's sonic and lyrical attack are what is truly lacking in music today. They treated music as a work of art, and were anally perfectionist about what they created. Perfection is rare, but I dare say they somehow did it, and as far as I know, it has not been matched since.If life was fair, this album and all of their catalog would be reissued and everyone would say their name in the same breath as Joy Division, Talking Heads, Wire and Gang of Four. Instead, This Heat will probably remain a tragically overlooked footnote in musical history.

Bizzare post-punk with a clear Krautrock influence, mainly descending from Can in the firmly percussive elemnts and the shimmering, occasionally atonal guitar lines. This album is more song based than their awesome debut, although no less devastatingly experimental. More, there are firm melodies and even some stabs at structured songs, but each is interspersed with odd, chanted stlye vocals, random instrumental meltdowns and claustrophobic, oppressive production. Something like a missing link between German experimental rock and UK post-punk, this awesome record transcends the (loose) boundaries imposed by either categorie to generate something unique and utterly engrossing.