X RAY SPEX Vinyl & CDs

Review: The Alternative Germ-Free Adolescents offers up a compilation of early demos and alternative studio takes of tracks from the seminal 1978 debut LP from London new wave punk heroes X Ray Spex. Featuring studio recordings from between 1977 to 1978, as half of the original album's cuts came from early singles and B-sides to begin with, the collection also comes stacked with soundboard lifted live performances from The Roxy in Los Angeles, while closer to home the Peel Sessions capture endlessly enigmatic frontwoman Poly Styrene at the dawn of her frenetic prowess; rawer, more energetic and infectious than any mere words can do justice.

Review: The sophomore and final studio album from punk icons X-Ray Spex. The highly sought-after album received a very limited CD-only release in 1995 on Receiver Records, and has been officially unavailable for the past 27 years. The album reunited the iconic X-Ray Spex vocalist Poly Styrene with original saxophonist Lora Logic and bassist Paul Dean, as well as guitar from Kula Shaker frontman Crispian Mills (as Red Spectre). Conscious Consumer was an upgrade of the classic debut with a same punk rock urgency and themes of consumerism, but with a poppier edge and a more considered wisdom gleamed from the ups and downs of life from the perspective of an older, wiser, Krishna devotee. This reissue includes the original and expanded artwork, as well as previously unpublished lyrics and original sleeve notes from Poly.