Essential Logic

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Susan Whitby was 15 years old and had been playing saxophone for a little more than six months when she joined her friend Marion Elliot (aka Poly Styrene) and formed the great English punk band X-Ray Spex in 1976. At this juncture, Whitby renamed herself Lora Logic and brought her honking and squawking to X-Ray Spex’s guitar-propelled punk rock, staying in the band long enough to record the seminal feminist-punk single “Oh Bondage, Up Yours!” Prior to the recording of their debut album, Logic abruptly left the band to follow her own quirky songwriting muse and formed the wonderfully named Essential Logic. Eschewing fast and loud guitars for off-kilter rhythms, “bluesy” sax playing, and forays into dissonance and atonality, Essential Logic created some of the most liberating, exciting music of the early post-punk era. Along with her primitive, exhilarating sax playing, Logic displayed a wildly imaginative vocal style that conflated the subtle eroticism of Patti Smith with the epiglottal spasms of Yoko Ono. Singing, braying, and screeching her implicitly (at times explicitly) feminist lyrics while her backing band crashed and bashed in the background, this was almost a punk version of that most despised of genres, art rock. And while the subjects of most of her songs were serious (alienation, sexism, poverty, urban isolation), there was a bratty tongue-wagging raffishness to Logic (and band) that placed them a cut above the rest. After one album as Essential Logic, Lora Logic disbanded the group to go solo.

Tagged as:

post-punk, new wave, female vocalists, punk, post punk
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blowyrgourd wrote:
17 days ago

better than xrayspex

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rodoxo wrote:
August 2009

excelente banda new wave post punk su musica es atemporal igual que lora logic

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YesMother wrote:
August 2009

<3

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Freelove_ wrote:
August 2009

Join my group: Post-Punk.

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Mynoreti wrote:
June 2009

i don't know what to think!

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Grotessque wrote:
June 2009

I want the fanfare album to be played at my funeral.

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nimimerkillinen wrote:
March 2009

Alkaline Loaf In The Area is surprisingly low in the charts

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nimimerkillinen wrote:
March 2009

Recommend me something similar to The Raincoats, The Slits and Essential Logic. Cheers!

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moorct61 wrote:
November 2008

oh yeah!

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sergiomanxera wrote:
September 2008

No more fiction (8)

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vietnow wrote:
August 2008

One of my absolute favourite bands evar

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Reincremation wrote:
July 2008

since x-ray spex and whitehouse are two of my top bands ever, it's no surprise that this rules.

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Natetronic wrote:
May 2008

The Way Laura Logic sings in combination the sax, and how the the rhythm jerks back and forth makes a great combination they are one of my favorite post-punk bands

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modality wrote:
September 2007

you better pay attention to detail!

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Danimod wrote:
August 2007

Cool

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mumbaikar wrote:
June 2007

Strangely enough, I actually prefer Essential Logic over the X-Ray Spex.

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julietippex wrote:
April 2007

James Chance on tour this spring in Europe ! Gigs list > www.myspace.com/julietippex wicked ! xJ

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h-crimm wrote:
April 2007

we smuuuuuhhhashed the hidden tyraniieeeeeeeeee! we are born in flames! (go and see the film the song was written for)

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Paap_Floyd wrote:
April 2007

Just discovered this and I love it!

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gnatware wrote:
March 2007

This stuff is incredible.

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