Sorry For Laughing (+ the TV Art Demos) ［LP+CD］

Sorry for Laughing was scrapped by Postcard head Allen Horne for sounding too slick and not being representative of the Josef K sound. The band later confessed that the guitar sound was unnecessarily muted and that the bass and drums were too high in the mix. Despite this, roughly 20 test pressing copies somehow left the label's office, spurring a swarm of bootleg copies and high prices paid for the originals. Ten years later, it saw official issue through Les Temps Modernes on a disc containing their proper debut and lone official LP, The Only Fun in Town. The underground mania surrounding Sorry for Laughing was well-warranted, and it's apparent years later that the decision to put the kibosh on its release was more a result of perfectionism than plugging a hole in a dam. It picks up successfully from their initial trio of singles, sounding like a less doomy Joy Division with more pop instincts. Nothing here eclipses four minutes -- most of the songs are brief, spastic shards of over-caffeinated post-punk with skittish vocals on the verge of spinning out of control. ~ Andy Kellman