The Ex Tumult LP

While awaiting the release of Dignity Of Labour, The Ex headed back into the studio in early 1983, this time with a new friend - The Mekons' Jon Langford - helping produce.

Originally released in April 1983 (only a month after Dignity Of Labour), Tumult marks a major evolution in The Ex sound. Opener "Bouquet Of Barbed Wire" emerges snarling out of post-punk atmospherics with Terrie Ex's glacial guitar, Bas Masbeck's loping bass and cascading tom-toms from new recruit Sabien Witteman, while "Fear" and "Survival Of The Fattest" bring to bear the rhythmic core of the band, their signature angular style.

Lyrically, the songs on Tumult cycle through a series of familiar concerns: animal rights, squatters, the working class, punk's penchant for radical chic and the creeping fascism of nationalist sentiments. G.W. Sok's voice is squalling and perfectly wry throughout.

Tumult remains a high-water point of early Ex, serving as both developmental guide and way station. The next 18 months would see the departure of Bas and Witteman and the arrival of long-serving bassist Luc Klaasen and drummer Kat Bornefeld (whose supple rhythms propel the group to this day). The album stands as one of the most compelling and unique documents of early '80s DIY exploration. If Mark E. Smith had only one favorite Dutch punk band, then it would undoubtedly be The Ex. This vinyl reissue comes with 28-inch x 39-inch full-color poster.

...1983's Tumult, the group's fourth album, its musical merit is at least partially due to the fact that Jon Langford of the Mekons and the Three Johns produced. Langford gives the band a slightly more structured sound, which turns out to be to their advantage; in so doing, Langford minimizes the group's obvious points of comparison (singer G.W. Sok sounds more than a little like the Fall's Mark E. Smith) and makes them sound more like their own band. The seven-minute opener, 'Bouquet of Barbed Wire,' builds slowly from a hypnotic guitar riff, adding instruments one at a time before exploding into an intense post-punk roar. The rest of the album continues in this defiant style, with the declamatory 'Squat!' a musical and sociological high point, through the rest of this generous 13-track album. The closing 'Island Race' ends with an industrial clanging that predates the early records by Test Department and Einsturzende Neubauten.