Victorian Parents - Silence Follows (1981)

I usually save most of my revelatory finds for the end of the year, but what the hell.  And a major label release (Polydor) no less, but unless you snatched up Victorian Parents' Silence Follows as as an assumedly pricy import, this would have flown well below your proverbial radar.  Not only has it not been reissued since it's 1981 release, so far as I can tell this band has yet to be anthologized on any of the myriad of Cherry Red Records post-punk compilations that have cropped up in the last decade or so. Save for a YouTube digitization, Silence Follows hasn't made a showing on any of the usual streaming outlets, nor have any of it's songs made it into the sharity blogosphere.  Whomever saw the need to kill off the memory of this band was a bit too thorough, if you don't mind me venting.

Hailing from Lichfield, England, V/P's modus operandi was very much in league with contemporaries, The Sound, Modern Eon and Comsat Angels, especially the latter.  The quartet boasted both depth and artful tangents, while remaining almost wholly approachable, albeit there weren't many obvious hits or singles here - even for the one track that actually was appointed for 45 status, "All American Hero." At the end of the day, Silence Follows is still unmistakably steeped in post-punk affectations, minus any excessively droney ambience. C.S. Angels comparisons are inevitable on this album's most proficient offerings, "Uncommunique" and "No Response," but again, that band was a contemporary to V/P, so it's not very logical to cite them as a legit "influence," per se. Perhaps not through-and-through brilliant, Silence... is considerably effective, not to mention well above average, and far more deserving of the dim spotlight it enjoyed when the Parents were extant.  Yes, there were surrounding singles, but I'm not in possession of anything else by them.  I am however making this available in both MP3 and FLAC.

01. All American Hero

02. On the Border

03. Self-indulgence

04. Dead Red Grass of Home

05. Uncommunique

06. No Response

07. Wasteland

08. My Advantage

09. Endless Wire

MP3  or  FLAC