The Wolfgang Press Water 12'' (4AD, 1984/1985) is a highly regarded, 4-track EP showcasing the band’s signature early-80s blend of dark post-punk, industrial, and atmospheric noise. Known for its sophisticated, sometimes "brash" sound, the EP features "My Way" and is praised for its deep, 45RPM vinyl pressing that captures the band's peculiar, inventive, and moody, bass-heavy style. The EP represents the band's earlier, darker, and more industrial sound, characterized by brooding atmospheres, heavy bass, and distinctive, sometimes aggressive, sonic textures. The EP is noted for its "weirdness and noise," particularly on the track "My Way," which highlights their idiosyncratic approach to, and deconstruction of, conventional music structures. It sits between their early work and more refined later albums, often described as an essential "mini-album" for fans of 4AD's niche, moody, 80s output. It is frequently lauded as an essential, moody piece of 4AD history.
Here's a quartet of Wolfgang songs on a second extended Pressing. Discordant vocals yearn over a clatter of drums and bass ostinato. Yes, you're going to tremble, the lyrics invite. But what does the subtitle mean? "My Way" inverts Sinatra into some sort of noir catechism:
just rattle my bones
and watch me crack
in my way I did it your way
my bones don't tell no lies
The only way to listen is to let the atmospheres sweep you under. Wolfgang Press seem especially adept at this. Fryer/Guthrie apply techniques that unite this disk with others in the 4AD catalogue. (The reverb processing on instrumental "The Deep Briny" being an echo of similar on Cocteau Twins' "Head Over Heels"). Though that track is minor, "Fire-eater" is an important revision of gospel tropes ("take me to the river") that reveal important Wolfgang Press influences. But here the constituent parts are reconfigured into a deep, dark pool of gothic sensibility.
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