Thompson Twins - Quick Step & Sidekick and Into The Gap (Edsel)

It’s nothing short of a travesty that the past couple of decades have seen the Thompson Twins back catalogue - eight albums across three distinct eras - completely overlooked by the record industry and media alike. They’ve been relegated to endless budget singles compilations while many bands who reached no greater heights than supporting them on tour have had the deluxe box set reissue treatment.
Sure, big hair went to the Twins’ heads for a while, but they did go from seven-piece squat-based indie band to US stadium tours in less than five years. And along the way they never spotted making pop music that was as experimental as it was commercial. Doctor! Doctor! was nothing more than an OK single, but they day I played the B-side, Nurse Shark, and heard a half-speed instrumental dub version of the A, I knew there was more to this band I had first thought.
Edsel have tackled the Twins’ two biggest selling albums with aplomb, adding scores of rare 12” and cassette remixes to build both into double CDs. The former, 1983’s Quick Step & Sidekick features Grace Jones and is the best synth-dance album to come out of Nassau, if only the world-at-large hadn’t been thrown off course by the inclusion of novelty hit We Are Detective. The latter is 1984’s Into The Gap where the highlights are the remixes, pointing the way to Tom Bailey, the musical Twin’s, highly accomplished future work in downtempo, dub and ambient house.