Off-kilter music for the disaffected...

Originating from the invasion throes of 1970s British punk and landing befittingly into an energised DIY indie setting came Mex, releasing several recordings from 1980 until 1984, thereafter taking a hiatus until the twenty-first century.

For the two decades afterwards, Mex was locked away and immersed in almost anonymous studio productions that have seen him associated with an assortment of bizarre artists, including the likes of sadly departed pop supremo George Michael, to the avant-garde of ex-Soft Machine member Robert Wyatt. Re-emergence as an artist in his own right struck in 2014, with the release of Dr Jekyll & Mrs Hyde, an album featuring Porcupine Tree’s Colin Edwin and amongst others, ex-Dr Feelgood Gordon Russell.

It all began after several ‘70s punk skirmishes, whereby Mex’s sound started to disconnectedly find itself with the debut release of Alternative Pop Music in 1980. The recording preserves the anarchic free spirit that surfaced from punk, but with art sound-scapes and experimental textures akin to Krautrock, mixed with an alternative funk dub. For all these years that album has remained a firm favourite on the underground scene to the disaffected in the know-how.      

1981 saw the follow-up Intense Living with its collage cut-up cold graveyard cover, set against a New York skyline and songs innocently depicting mankind’s dark future. The experimental textures remain, yet with a hefty wash of melody over the top. This was to be the last album Mex would release until the twenty-first century.

In the same year of ‘81, two immortal cuts Evil Creature and Functioning Fripp Girls appeared on the infamous Thing from the Crypt compilation album, re-released in 2013 by Dark Entries Records.

Other isolated tracks also featured on various DIY compilations around that time and it was during this period Mex created the musical atmospheres for the surreal independent stage play, Dark of the Moon.

1983 saw Lost Moment Records release a Mex vinyl 7” containing a satirical ‘60s style infused song entitled Happy Life, coupled with the sinister acoustic b-side, Veins.

The malicious Don’t Go Looking for Love made its presence on the 1984 compilation album, Colours of the Bastard Art, also issued by Lost Moment Records.

A collision of personal life events and underground interest for that past era enticed and inspired Mex to pick up where all was left off, resurfacing again as an artist with that old cliché saying springing to mind, ‘better late than never!’

Everything goes full circle... perhaps?