Recluse: Propaganda repaired

The wonderful Propaganda album from Devon power trio Recluse is the latest of our Archive recordings to be restored here at Wud Records and added to our collection at SoundCloud. Propaganda is the first of two stunning albums by Recluse, the other being Ride That Fantasy, which is still broken. We aim to restore it in the next few days and when it is done it shall be announced in our News service.

Back in the day we were lucky enough to catch a few live performances of Recluse, and they were all outstanding. Their live shows were full of captiviting songs and precocious instrumental virtuosity, all from three young musicians who were utterly charming, well spoken and polite. They seemed an unlikely band of troubadours when we met them for the first time as they arrived to set up for a soundcheck at a venue in Torquay. Our jaws dropped in wonder at the show that followed from Recluse, who were the headline act on that night and on several subsequent occasions. We saw them perform live about five or six times and each performance was a fabulous experience.

Propaganda was released in 2000 and features eight songs by frontman, singer, guitarist and the main driving force behind the band, Alex Painter. He also plays bass, saxophone and cello on the album. This eclectic collection ranges from raw hi-energy nu-metal/post-punk (Let Me In, Until the Summer Comes, Parasite) to gutsy blues (Signals) to the beautiful, wistful and melodic (Reactions, We All Survive) to classic progressive live favourites (Shameful Smile, Chosen Few).

Sadly for the universe, Recluse seemed to grind to a halt when Alex went to University in Salford to read a music degree. We are lucky to have the memories of them playing live and these few recordings of some of their songs, which you can now enjoy too.

If you would like to listen to Propaganda by Recluse here at Wud Records, you can do so by clicking here.

If you would prefer to listen over at SoundCloud instead, please click here.