27. Swell Maps - Read About Seymour

1. Read About Seymour
2. Ripped & Torn
3. Black Velvet

Read About Seymour was the first single by Swell Maps, one of those influential yet widely ignored groups. I'd only ever heard of them through Television Personalities' Part-Time Punks, which mentions this single - three songs and five minutes later and I'm already in love with this band. Given that this single was recorded and released before Shot By Both Sides, you could say it was proto-post-punk, and Swell Maps went on to do some weirder, more avant-garde stuff. All three of their Peel sessions are on Youtube, here, here and here, as well as their entire second album, here. The brothers who formed Swell Maps (Epic Soundtracks and Nikki Sudden - not their real names) are both dead, but bassist Jowe Head continues to release solo material and joined Television Personalities for a while in the eighties. That's all I got, enjoy your 90 second art punk.

1977, Rather Records

Thanks to @HodgkinsonJohn for the suggestion