Kleenex / LiLiPUT

Championed early on by John Peel (which is how I bumped into them), Swiss band Kleenex signed to Rough Trade in 1978 and, in a six year career, blossomed from scratchy art-punk primitives into angular, melodic adventurers. Given their chosen name, they can't have been altogether surprised when, in 1979, a solicitor's letter dropped onto the doormat, threatening legal action if they didn't re-brand themselves pretty damn sharpish. So, in 1980, after one of their occasional line-up re-shuffles, the group re-emerged as LiLiPUT and continued, undaunted, on their post-punk way. 

Kleenex/LiLiPUT released an EP, five singles and one LP between 1978 and 1982, with a second album arriving in December 1983, by which time they'd already split up. Since then there's been a 46 track compilation of their entire studio output and a CD/DVD collection of live rarities, together cataloguing every recorded moment of their existence.

Objectively selecting representative tracks by a group you love can be a fiendishly difficult business, so I've simply plumped for three personal faves. Single number four, 'Die Matrosen' from 1980, spotlighting that most under-used weapon in the post-punk armoury - the whistled chorus. Also from 1980, the brilliant 'Hitch-Hike', a song that, in a sane world, would've been a single, but instead was lost, hidden away on a various artist, Swiss music sampler album. And finally, the faintly unsettling 'Terrified', from that posthumous 2nd LP in 1983.