Deceit

This Heat, This Heat | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 10, 1996)
• Label: These Records
• ASIN: B000005BE6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #101,032 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Utter Perfection, April 19, 2004

By 

War of Nerves (Asheville, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Deceit (Audio CD)

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.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GOOD NEWS!!!, July 5, 2001

By 

M. Sommers (Athens Greece) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Deceit (Audio CD)

For anyone interested, a new, re-mastered version of this wonderful, frightening record is due out on "These Records" in about 6 week's time from today (06/07/01). Just as well, because I only had it on tape, and my tape is just about worn out. Music to make your hair stand on end in its scary intensity, but also incredibly humorous, especially the likes of "Paper Hats" and "A new kind of water". Why is no one doing stuff like this anymore?

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FIVE STARS? HELL, MAKE IT SIX!, July 5, 2004

By 

50 "mksonic50" (hermitage, pa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Deceit (Audio CD)

Twenty-one years ago, I bought this album solely on the basis of a few interesting words in a catalog description, and I've never been luckier. The other reviewers here have already done this music reasonable justice but I still feel compelled to add my own unqualified praise. If this isn't my all-time favorite recording, it's certainly in my Top Five. If you have a taste for the unusual, you'll be hard-pressed to find anything better. What "Sgt. Pepper's..." was to the '60's, this SHOULD have been to the '80's (and beyond): an explosion of creativity unlike anything being done by anyone else at the time. Unfortunately, they were a little-known band released on an independent label, and we all know how THAT goes. I've never known anyone familiar with this recording who didn't think it was absolutely amazing.