08/11/2025
An amazing discovery of missing post-punk genius!
Via the same fellow, Umbridge, who introduced us to ex-Siouxsie & the Banshees guitarist John McKay, whose debut album of “lost” and unreleased studio tracks we unveiled earlier this year (and which went on to make the UK Top 40 Album charts comes Umbridge’s own former band, ENTRACTE and their decades-belated debut, 'Imbalance'.
The band developed from within Manchester’s fertile post-punk scene in the late ‘80s and recorded loads of fantastic material, but despite the excellence, beauty charm and mystery of what they did, they never released a single note of it until now.
Entracte experimented with a wide range of rhythms and sounds, likely due in part to the then-current explosion of access to African and Middle Eastern musical forms. Their sound is immediate and stunning, with a unique flair we can’t describe succinctly enough to fit on this post! 'Imbalance' embodies the influence of the musical forms, art and personalities in Manchester, a vital breeding ground for genius at that point in time.
Much of the band’s history is a tangled mystery of comings and goings, but essentially, they were based around Umbridge on guitar, singer Sharon Quinn and drummer Graham “Dids” Dowdall. Dids (who passed away last year) played with many greats - Nico, Cabaret Voltaire, Pere Ubu and John McKay among them - and importantly Ludus, the avant-garde brainchild of artist Linder Sterling, whose visual art many punk fans will recognise from the infamous sleeve on the Buzzcocks' Or**sm Addict 7” single, among other works. Linder and Vincent became friends far back in post-punk’s early days (alongside a young Steven Morrissey!), and Tiny Global Productions is delighted and honoured to announce that Linder has contributed the image that fronts this package, a truly sterling 1930’s-inspired piece called “Irina”.
This package contains a full-length CD and a many-paged booklet with loads of history and detail that you won’t want to miss. We’re already working on a second volume, and we should mention that this is a very limited-edition package which (a day after announcing it) has surprised us with hefty sales and even fan mail!
Order here:
9 track album