Medium Medium

Less well known than contemporaries Gang of Four, Medium Medium was nonetheless an influence on a number of the dance-punk revival bands of the early 2000s. Emerging in 1978 out of punk/rhythm & blues band The Press in Nottingham, England, Medium Medium's second single, "Hungry, So Angry," released in February 1981 on Cherry Red Records, has become a minor classic of post-punk/funk. One of the first records to introduce slap-bass -- a technique borrowed from black funk music -- to a generally white audience, "Hungry, So Angry" reached the #48 spot in Billboard's Disco chart and has appeared on over a dozen compilations over the years. The band released only one studio album, late-1981’s "The Glitterhouse," but its stark, stripped-down dub and dance rhythms and chiming, funk guitar with occasional saxophone and other sounds failed to ignite a large following. "Guru Maharaji", one of the more interesting tracks on the album, has as its subject matter an Eastern religious movement, Divine Light Mission. The song was inspired by the involvement in the movement of a friend of the band who suffered a subsequent mental breakdown. The recorded version of the song is much slower than the original which had a fast punk sensibility. Lead singer/sax player John Rees Lewis left at the start of 1982 to form C Cat Trance with original drummer Nigel Stone, who had left shortly before the release of “Hungry, So Angry.” The remaining members, Andy Ryder (guitar/vocals), Alan Turton (bass), Graham Spink (offstage special sounds) and replacement drummer Steve Harvey, continued to tour and were later augmented by, first, Leslie Joachim Barrett (guitar/keyboards), then Julie Wood (keyboards).