Index for Working Musik emerged from the depths of an East End bunker in 2023 with Dragging the Needlework for the Kids at Uphole [Tough Love], a “Heroin Country” affair, followed by the experimental Indexe’e. 2024 saw the release of Purple Born, an 8-minute track that channels the likes of John Fahey and Polvo—leather boys, leather girls, and silly cuckoo clocks—and served as the first signal of the future to come with the pending release of second album, Which Direction Goes The Beam, out April 4th via Tough Love.
In this post Sounds world, the boundaries of Post Punk have not only broadened but splintered. And over the course of (now) four releases, Index For Working Musik have seen to using the sprawling boundaries to great effect, flexing a polyglot of styles to convey the language of the moment.
“On Which Direction Goes The Beam, the murky, distant ambience that was 2023’s Indexé has been fleshed out, incorporating everything from the Brian Aldiss laced, ground lightning shudder of Dome, to the chamber-like arrangements of This Kind Of Punishment. There’s even a candle flickering in the window for Think Fellers Union Local 282 that warmed these ears. And if you’re a fan of the great Dutch band, Trespassers W (who isn’t?), the collective consciousness IFWM enunciates on here is a similar testament of a band growing more sure footed in the pursuit of not only knowing all the ways in, but carving a few of their own on the way out. And it’s discerning releases like Which Direction Goes The Beam that keep us in the hunt. Long may they forge.” – Tom Lax
“Sexy and contagious” – Sounds of violence
“It’s original and atmospheric stuff that sounds like something that might have been recorded in The Factory and discovered decades later in a dusty corner of Warhol’s archive; all that’s missing is a surprise visit from Valerie Solanas…” – Tim Cooper
“Their sound brings to mind John Cale’s drone effects on the early VU albums and the pink noise of the Jesus and Mary Chain” – Louder than War
Territory : UK & EU