Stuff You Might’ve Missed – 70 Gwen Party

Inspired by the likes of Noam Chomsky and punk band Crass, British band 70 Gwen Party (a duo of Victor N’Dip and Lurgin Pin) used their music as a platform for dissemination of their political views. Their distrust of the press and overall non-friendless toward media resulted in an increasing interest from the same outlets that the band despised.

70 Gwen Party started out in the late 80s when N’Dip and Pin previous band called Isis broke up. Starting from the late 80s, they produced numerous singles and albums, most of which came out on their own label called Snape Records.

In their review of their final album “Anti Blue Nazi” All Music Guide website pointed out that the album’s inspiration was UK bhagra scene (as well as aforementioned Noam Chomsky, who received a whole track dedicated to him) and while the band never identified themselves with any particular genre, fans of techno, hip-hop and industrial music might find themselves enjoying it. AMG pointed out that some of the music on the album sound like bad horror movie soundtracks, but fortunately there’s also plenty of good material on the record.

In their review of John Peel Session that the band recorded for legendary BBC DJ in the early 90s, AMG pointed out that Peel featured the band on his show no less than four times and the band also added rare studio tracks to the collection. According to AMG, the band stayed away from Wax Trax label sound popular at the time and instead created their own sound which mixed electronic, punk and industrial influences.  On CD, the band also demonstrated some of their political leanings and the ideas about freedom from government/corporate control.

After the release of their 1996 album “Anti Blue Nazi”, “The Anti-Christ Has Spoken EP” and “The Killing Of Victorian Britan” 7″ single, N’Dip  stated that he wants to take a break from music business and thus by 1998 the band was finished.

Members:

Victor N’Dip
Lurgin Pin

Discography:
War, Track And Field 7″ (Snape, 1989)
Devil Wrapped & Ginsung Buried LP (Snape, 1990)
Helier Party 7″ (Snape, 1991)
The Psycho Beat 7″ (Snape, 1991)
Hysteria 7″ (Snape, 1992)
Knee Deep In Evil 7″ (Snape, 1992)
Scorching The Anti-Christ 7″ (Snape, 1992)
The Optical Glass Empire LP (Snape, 1992)
The Searl Brothers 7″ (Snape, 1993)
Howard Hughes 7″ (Snape, 1994)
John Peel Sessions 1,2, 3 & 4 CD (Snape, 1995)
Through The Heart Of Sunday 7″ (Snape, 1995)
Anti Blue Nazi CD (Snape, 1996)
The Anti-Christ Has Spoken EP Cass (Bandaged Hand Produce, 1997)
The Killing Of Victorian Britain EP 7″ (Snape, 1997)

Compilation Tracks:
“Merry Kilter Fire” on 7 Different Bands (Coop, unknown year)
“The Guilt And The Gallowmongers” on Neon Signs In A Dralon Sky (Fisheye, 1994)
“The Love Fried” on Impulse Vol. 7 (Impulse Magazine, 1995)
“The Love Fried” + “”The Guilt And The Gallowmongers” + “Unfinished” + “What You See” + “All Fall Down” + “This Has Not Happened” + “Flickering Time” + “Church” + “Just Watching Static” + “Ships All Around Me” + “Early Gene” + “Child At Work” on The Tex Dove Experiment (Snape, 1997)
“Freedom Of Speech” on Toothache 2/2 (K-RAA-K3, 1997)
“H. City Angels” on Ataraxia (Plastic Noise, 1998)
“Untitled” on RRR500 (RRRecords, 1998)