PARAPHILIA TRASUMANAR

Perhaps unsurprisingly the band appeared to prematurely implode under the weight of their own power, splitting in 1981 just as established post-punk and New Wave sounds were being absorbed by the mainstream to spawn a series of synthpop-oriented derivatives. Not one to rest upon his laurels, Mark Stewart seized upon the split as an opportunity to explore further uncharted terrain. He promptly enlisted with esteemed dub producer Adrian Sherwood as part of the newly established On-U Sound “conspiracy of outsiders.” Camped within this diverse network of punk, reggae and jazz musicians from the UK and Jamaica, Stewart began a pursuit of intensive collaboration with a variety of radically different players, an approach that has defined his post-Pop Group output. It was here that he also began to utilise the mixing desk as a compositional tool and performance instrument, allowing him a greater degree of autonomy and making possible much of the technical innovation displayed on future records. Released under the collective moniker of Mark Stewart and the Maffia, 1982’s Jerusalem EP and its fulllength 1983 follow-up Learning to Cope With Cowardice showcased these new techniques to devastating effect. Weaving in and out of dense soundscapes that are both infectiously grooveladen and menacingly opaque, Stewart’s voice wails, drones and chants a series of imperative contemporary narratives that find his passion and conscience undiminished. Thirty years later these releases remain fresh to the ear, like the sound of the 1980s being reflected starkly back at itself through the prism of the present.

As the decade progressed, Stewart incorporated conspicuous shades of hip-hop into his work, having become occupied with the genre during his tours of the United States. His next album, As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade, was released in 1985 under his own name exclusively and exhibits the blend of hip-hop beats and industrial noise elements that would be pushed to further extremes in his eponymous 1987 album and 1990’s Metatron. This informal trilogy of records has since come to be regarded as a holy trinity for acts as diverse as Portishead, Tricky, Nine Inch Nails, and Ministry, all of whom have cited Stewart as a significant influence. In following his restless muse from one new territory to the next, Stewart had variously prefigured and inspired core elements of industrial music, trip-hop, and dubstep.

Having cemented this legacy in the following decades with records like Control Data (1996), which married soul and R&B melodies with contemporary club sounds, and 2008’s belligerent electro-bruiser Edit, Mark Stewart and his oeuvre have remained vital in the twenty-first century. Little wonder that filmmaker Toni Schiffer felt compelled to document Stewart’s achievements in the comprehensive 2010 documentary On/Off – Mark Stewart: From the Pop Group To The Maffia. Clearly a thorough attempt to assess and fully digest the feats of this career was long overdue.

Perhaps fitting then that Stewart himself opted for a retrospective of sorts at this time. In May 2010 it was announced that The Pop Group would be reforming for a string of live performances. An official statement from the band themselves declared: “There was a lot left undone. […].we were so young and volatile. […] Let’s face it, things are probably even more 104