#256
Second Layer was a side project from The Sound for Adrian Borland and Graham Bailey. Their only album World of Rubber came out on Cherry Red in 1981. Sounding very different from the main project of these Londoners, whose second album as The Sound came out at the same time, it’s one of the finest examples of post-punk coming together with drum machines and elements of early electronic music. ”Distortion” is almost a clarion call for what we now know as synth-punk.
The album was reissued by Cherry Red long ago, but the first vinyl reissue happened thanks to Dark Entries in 2015 – together with five unreleased tracks. Since that one sold out and became hard to find, reissue label 1972 put it out again in 2023.
The album had been preceded by two EPs in 1979-80 on the small label Tortch Records, who also released music by The Sound (their debut 7”) and Scissor Fits. These two had been added to the Dark Entries release (which was a double-vinyl) but 1972 packed them as Courts Or Wars, also in 2023. The name came from one of the tracks, which had actually been sampled by The Chemical Brothers. 1972 also added two more unreleased tracks, one of which had been used as intro music for The Sound on early tours.
There’s a great interview with Graham (Adrian committed suicide in 1999) that mentions Second Layer a bit over at Arcane Delights.
