With a new album due out in January and a U.S. tour set for February, reunited post-punk icons Gang of Four this week teased fans with a free three-track digital EP of unreleased material, including a re-recorded version of “Glass” off the band’s 1979 debut Entertainment!
The EP — initially offered exclusively at Guardian.co.uk, but now available below in exchange for an e-mail address — features a new version of “Glass” recorded in 2005, presumably during the sessions that yielded that year’s Return the Gift CD of re-recordings; a new song called “Sleeper” that won’t be on Content, due out Jan. 25; and a remix of Content track “I Party All the Time.”
As for why they re-recorded “Glass,” bandmember Andy Gill told the Guardian that he and Jon King had “been confused” about the song for years, feeling “the music was great but not right — it seemed too busy and kind of old fashioned.” So in 2005, they decided to take another stab at it: “We did a simple stripped-down thing that matched the ultra-minimalism of the words. That was it — confusion over.”
“I Party All the Time” is now the second track off Content — the band’s first album of new material in more than 15 years — that Gang of Four has previewed for fans; you can still download a free MP3 of “Never Pay for the Farm” here.
Download Gang of Four’s free EP after the jump…
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Gang of Four sets 13-date North American tour in February supporting ‘Content’
- Download: Gang of Four’s ‘Never Pay for the Farm,’ off forthcoming ‘Content’
- Gang of Four releasing ‘Content’ in January with vials of band members’ blood
- BBC releasing Peel Sessions, live sets from Gang of Four, PiL, The Specials
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Thanks guys! I’m a longtime fan.
is there any reason why I [down under] can’t ever download files from these links?