Various Artists
Post Punk Chronicles: Going Underground
Rhino Records

You'll probably wonder what post punk is when you listen to this musical trilogy from Rhino Records. Is it simply any piece of music that was released after Johnny Rotten uttered the words "Do you ever feel like you've been cheated?" at the Sex Pistols' last gig at Winterland in San Francisco?

While most of the tracks on these CDs (with the exception of Pere Ubu's 1976 track "Final Solution") fit that description, this genre's music was the next step in an evolution from punk rock's "hey go let's go" to something artier, more complex and more interesting.

While groups like Minor Threat and Dead Kennedys took punk and made it faster and louder, bands like Wire and Magazine slowed the music down and made it more subtle.

Yet the Post Punk bands were not as commercially successful as their compatriots like Blondie, the Talking Heads and Devo — bands who were dubbed "New Wave" by the record companies to distance themselves from punk's violent imagery of punk. Only a few of the 48 groups represented here went on to become famous, but nearly every one of them had a profound influence on the music scene, particularly on the musicians who went on to create what has come to be called Alternative music.

The best place to start in this series is Left of the Dial. Leading off with the original version of R.E.M.'s "Radio Free Europe", this is easily the most accessible of the three albums, also featuring tracks from New Order, Modern English, and Thomas Dolby (yes he wrote more than one song). It is also the most consistent of the three in terms of quality and sound. Jim Neill, who compiled these albums, chose not to order the tracks chronologically or to group them by genre. Instead, he arranged them as he might have done on his college radio show. If this is true, Left of the Dial would have been a hell of a show. Highlights include Joy Division's "Transmission," The Chameleons' "In Shreds" and The Raincoats' "No One's Little Girl."

In sharp contrast is Going Underground, which would have been a very bizarre radio show. Poppy groups like The Smiths and The Teardrop explodes are juxtaposed with the noisier sounds of Pere Ubu, Sonic Youth and Throbbing Gristle; the lo-fi indie rock of The Lyres; and representatives of the "paisley underground," Green On Red and The Rain Parade. There are some great songs here like Gang of Four's "To Hell With Poverty" and Billy Bragg's "A New England", but the album as a whole doesn't flow as well as Left of the Dial.

Scared to Dance appears to be the only disc with any sort of a theme or genre, albeit a loose one. While you might find it difficult to dance to The Pop Group's dissonant and extreme "We Are Time," you might find it difficult not to dance to "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thing" or the funky brass infused "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag" by Heaven 17 and Pigbag respectively. For the more prog-rock oriented there is Ultravox's Hiroshima Mon Amour" and OMD's "Enola Gay" (a pairing one could only get away with on college radio). Other gems include the pre-metal Cult's "Resurrection Joe", Magazine's "The Light Pours Out Of Me" and the title track by the Skids.

The Post Punk Chronicles is a very thorough compilation, though it is missing some key players, Bauhaus and The Fall in particular. However, Neill notes that he hopes to include missing bands in future volumes. It should also be noted that in addition to the solid lineup of bands, these discs have some excellent cover art and liner notes from college radio DJ's, record collectors, band members and other personalities who were there when this music first came out. For the musical historian this collection is indispensable. For the novice who wonders what bridged the gap between Nevermind the Bollocks and Nevermind, this is a fine introduction to one of the most productive and creative eras in underground music.

— Nicholas Coleman (ncoleman@wesleyan.edu)