Hiss And Shake Records

Exclusive Cargo Direct Bundle includes:

1.  Essential Logic – ‘Prayer For Peace’ 7”
Side A ‘Prayer For Peace’ (Full Album Version)
Side B ‘Beyond’ (Full Album Version)

2 . Essential Logic Limited Edition Silver logo and hand screen printed Tote Bag

Hiss and Shake Records to release ‘Logically Yours’ – a limited edition, 5 x LP boxset of 50 essential recordings from seminal post-punk icon Lora Logic including 2 classic Essential Logic albums, early single releases, EPs, B-sides, rarities, vinyl exclusives + first new Essential Logic studio album in 43 years!

Includes the classic Rough Trade Records releases ‘Beat Rhythm News (Waddle Ya Play?) + ‘Pedigree Charm’ + 2 retrospective compilations of early single releases, EPs, B-sides, rarities + vinyl exclusives ‘Aerosol Burns & Other Misdemeanours’ + ‘No More Fiction’ + new studio album ‘Land of Kali’ (first in 43 years) + 20 page booklet with introduction from Celeste Bell + Lora Logic Q+A.

Susan Whitby, aka Lora Logic was one of the most distinctive talents from the post-punk era known for her intoxicating, rough-around-the-edges, yet exhilarating sax playing and haywire vocal style. Her offbeat, occasionally arresting lyrics tackled alienation, sexism, poverty and urban isolation, and with a complete disregard for convention, she carved her own path not only in her short-lived music career but also personal life.

She was still in her teens when she answered an ad in Melody Maker “Looking for young punks,” and in 1976, with her friend Marion Elliot (aka Poly Styrene), she formed the punk band X-Ray Spex and acquired the pseudonym, Lora Logic. The duo soon achieved notoriety with the irresistible feminist protest single, ‘Oh Bondage Up Yours’ (1977) – Logic arguably stealing the show with her thrilling punk sax.

“X-Ray Spex was my first band, I happened to be accepted, It happened to work, I happened to get famous overnight. I’d been playing sax in a cupboard in my room; I thought I better do something.” However, just prior to recording 'Germ Free Adolescents' (1978), X-Ray Spex's debut album, she found herself unexpectedly ousted from the band. With abundant enthusiasm and encouragement from Geoff Travis, founding director of Rough Trade Records, she went on to form Essential Logic, creating some of the most liberating and exciting music of the early post-punk era, not only as Essential Logic, but also as a solo artist.

Hiss and Shake Records are pleased to present a limited edition boxset of 50 essential recordings from the irresistibly engaging Lora Logic archive, allowing for a new generation to become aware of her incredible creative output. Across 5 LPs, ‘Logically Yours’ includes in their entirety, the classic Rough Trade Records releases ‘Beat Rhythm News (Waddle Ya Play?) (1979) – Essential Logic’s sole studio album, and Lora’s solo album, ‘Pedigree Charm’ (1982) – her last studio album before turning her back on the music business, sad and disillusioned and fighting drug addiction, which saw her turn to a Hare Krishna lifestyle, alongside Poly Styrene, embracing a fresh new chapter.

This totally absorbing and definitive collection also includes two retrospective compilations; ‘Essential Logic – ‘Aerosol Burns & Other Misdemeanours’, which comprises early single releases, B-sides and oddities including the gloriously chaotic ‘Aerosol Burns’, the essential punk/disco ‘Music Is A Better Noise’, and ‘Fanfare In the Garden’, showcasing Lora at her most pop. In addition, ‘Essential Logic – ‘No More Fiction’; contains 10 vinyl exclusives, including ‘Do You Believe in Christmas?’, recorded with the Krishna Kids Choir in 1985, alongside tracks recorded circa 1997, with Martin Muscatt, Dave Farren (Bad Manners) and Gary Valentine (Blondie), forming the basis of what would have been Essential Logic’s third studio album, ‘No More Fiction’.

Having recently returned to the studio refreshed and rejuvenated, ‘Logically Yours’ also includes ‘The Land of Kali’ (co-produced by Youth), the first new Essential Logic studio album in 43 years, and features the forthcoming new single ‘Prayer for Peace’, a re-imagining of the X-Ray Spex track from the tragically overlooked album, ‘Conscious Consumer’ (1995) on which Lora also played sax. “Poly Styrene and I were living in a Krishna community in Worcestershire in the early 80s. We came together for the first time musically after X-Ray Spex to record the original version of this song. In 2019, I decided to record my own take as a tribute to the special times we shared. I hope Poly likes this new version too.”

The 7” release of ‘Prayer for Peace’ is exclusive to the boxset via The bands DTC site and features a picture of Lora and Poly together during their time living at the temple. Further tracks penned for release from the album include the dystopian, lockdown-inspired ‘Alien Boys’ and ‘Sky Rocket’, written with daughter Malini, about the fairground of life.

Despite her short-lived career in the music business, Lora still managed to perform and appear on releases with many artists including US experimental rock band Red Crayola between 1978 and 1981, and also appeared on recordings by The Stranglers, The Raincoats, Kollaa Kestää, Dennis Bovell, Swell Maps and later, Boy George.

Undoubtedly an iconic figure of the UK post-punk scene, Lora Logic’s boldness, adventurousness and sense of fun can be seen as an influence on numerous female artists today including Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Peaches and St. Vincent among others.

Tracklisting:
Essential Logic ‘Beat Rhythm News (Waddle Ya Play?)’ (1979)
A1 ‘Quality Crayon Wax OK’
A2 ‘The Order Form’
A3 ‘Shabby Abbott’
A4 ‘World Friction’

B1 ‘Wake Up’
B2 ‘Albert’
B3 ‘Alkaline Loaf in the Area’
B4 ‘Collecting Dust’
B5 ‘Pop Corn Boy (Waddle Ya Do?)’

Lora Logic – ‘Pedigree Charm’ (1982)
A1 ‘Brute Fury’
A2 ‘Horrible Party’
A3 ‘Stop Halt’
A4 ‘Wonderful Offer’
A5 ‘Martian Man’

B1 ‘Hiss and Shake’
B2 ‘Pedigree Charm’
B3 ‘Rat Allé’
B4 ‘Crystal Gazing’

Essential Logic – ‘Aerosol Burns & Other Misdemeanours’
A1 ‘Aerosol Burns’ (1978) – Debut single
A2 ‘World Friction’ (1978) – ‘Aerosol Burns’ B-side
A3 ‘Eugene’ (1981) – Single
A4 ‘Tame the Neighbours’ (1981) – ‘Eugene’ B-side
A5 ‘Music Is A Better Noise’ (1981) – Single
A6 ‘Moontown’ (1981) – ‘Music Is A Better Noise’ B-side

B1 ‘Fanfare In the Garden’ (1981) – Single
B2 ‘Stereo’ (1982) – ‘Wonderful Offer’ single B-side
B3 ‘Rather Than Repeat’ (1981) – ‘Wonderful Offer’ single B-side
B4 ‘The Captain’ (1979) – ‘Fanfare In The Garden’ B-side
B5 ‘Soul’ (1983) – Previously unreleased on vinyl
B6 ‘Stay High’ – Previously unreleased on vinyl

Essential Logic – ‘No More Fiction’
A1 ‘Essential Logic’ (1991) – Vinyl exclusive
A2 ‘On The Internet’ (1998) – Vinyl exclusive
A3 ‘Under The Great City’ (1997) – Vinyl exclusive
A4 ‘No More Fiction’ (1998) – Vinyl exclusive
A5 ‘Love Eternal’ (1997) – Vinyl exclusive

B1 ‘Barbie Be Happy’ (1998) – Vinyl exclusive
B2 ‘Not Me’ (1998) – Vinyl exclusive
B3 ‘The Beautiful and the Damned’ (1997) – Vinyl exclusive
B4 ‘Marika’ (1997) – Vinyl exclusive
B5 ‘Do You Believe in Christmas?’ (1985) with the Krishna Kids Choir – Vinyl exclusive

Essential Logic – ‘Land of Kali’ (2022)
A1 ‘Prayer For Peace’
A2 ‘Alien Boys’
A3 ‘Mother Earth’
A4 ‘Never Know’
A5 ‘Charming Every Cupid’

B1 ‘Sky Rocket’
B2 ‘Serious’
B3 ‘Fallible Soldiers’
B4 ‘Land of Kali’
B5 ‘Beyond’