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This month’s free CD, Transmissions, showcases 15 classic tracks at the white-hot edge of post-punk.
Subtitled At The Interzone Of Post-Punk And New Wave, it’s available free with Uncut‘s October 2026 issue, on sale now.
Joy Division are on the cover of the issue, and a stunning, previously unreleased version of “Transmission”, recorded live at the Factory, Manchester, July 13, 1979, opens the CD.
It closes with the original version of New Order‘s debut single “Ceremony”, and in between there are a host of mind- and ear-blowing tracks from artists such as Echo & The Bunnymen, Buzzcocks, The Sound and Josef K.
The compilation also takes a look at the diverse ways that post-punk and new wave developed, from the ragged psychedelia of Robyn Hitchcock, Blue Orchids and The Cleaners From Venus, to the avant-garde storm of This Heat, The Fall and A Certain Ratio, and the polished, leftfield pop of Scritti Politti and Red Guitars.
Read on for the detailed lowdown on the CD…
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1 Joy Division
Transmission (Live The Factory, Manchester, 13th July 1979)
Where else to begin than with a selection from the new 14CD/2DVD Joy Division box, Eternal – Live? The Manchester quartet charted a path out of punk with their eerie, expansive studio recordings, but this ferocious cut, performed a month after Unknown Pleasures’ release, showed how ragged and thrilling they could still be on stage.
2 Buzzcocks
Hollow Inside
Released in September 1979, Pete Shelley and co’s third album continued their journey into a stranger, more ambitious world than their hit singles would suggest. This taut, heavy epic appears on the record’s second side, which climaxed in the seven-minute “I Believe”.
3 Blue Orchids
Dumb Magician
Departing The Fall after their debut album, guitarist Martin Bramah soon set up his own group. The Blue Orchids were as rough and ready as his former group, but headier and more psychedelic, as shown on their superb 1982 debut, The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain), and this lesser-spotted highlight.
4 The Sound
Winning
Led by Adrian Borland, these South London post-punks evolved from more straight-ahead punk outfit The Outsiders, and soon caught the ears of many. This track opens their second album, 1981’s well-received From The Lions Mouth – their star faded after that, but their stunning work is gathering more attention as the decades pass.
5 Robyn Hitchcock
The Lizard
Fresh from leading psychedelic Cambridge punks The Soft Boys, Hitchcock released his solo debut Black Snake Diamond Röle in 1981. A fine counterpart to his old band’s Underwater Moonlight, it boiled over with lysergic new wave and bad-trip nightmares like this.
6 Echo And The Bunnymen
The Cutter
Featuring visionary strings by Indian violinist L Shankar, the lead track from 1983’s Porcupine was the Bunnymen at their most cosmic and infectious. Evoking the restless fusions of The Beatles, it put the group in the UK singles Top 10 for the first time.
7 A Certain Ratio
Forced Laugh
Named after a line from Brian Eno’s “The True Wheel”, A Certain Ratio were Factory’s most rhythm-centred group. Inspired by funk, Latin music and world styles, they recorded their debut LP proper, 1981’s To Each…, in New Jersey with Martin Hannett. Here’s one of the peaks of that landmark record.
8 Red Guitars
Good Technology
While a lot of post-punk groups were snapped up by majors, Hull’s left-wing Red Guitars remained defiantly independent, releasing this sublime track as their debut single on their own Self Drive label in 1983. It’s a towering piece of work, one of the greatest tracks of an era not short on classics.
9 Josef K
Endless Soul
Here’s a song from the Edinburgh group’s debut, Sorry For Laughing, originally shelved by Postcard Records for sounding too polished. Over 45 years on, it now sounds like a holy template for funk-infused, scratchy post-punk of the kind that broke fully into the mainstream in the 21st century.
10 This Heat
Cenotaph
Charles Bullen, Charles Hayward and Gareth Williams were making music before punk hit, but their second and final album, 1981’s Deceit, found them accidentally in line with post-punk currents (many of which they’d predicted and inspired). “Cenotaph” is a wonderful example of their polemical, acerbic fusion of rhythm, improv and noise.
11 Scritti Politti
The “Sweetest Girl”
Released as a single in 1981, this was the first glimpse of former punk Green Gartside’s new “hi-fi” sound. Driven by a drum machine and reggae inflections, with Robert Wyatt on keyboards, “The ‘Sweetest Girl’” was quite unlike anything else – and it remains that way 45 years later.
12 The Fall
Iceland
Recorded in August 1981 in Iceland’s Hljodriti studio – complete with lava walls – this six-minute epic was almost entirely improvised on the spot. Subtle, melodic and gradually building, it demonstrates Mark E Smith and co’s enduring influence on a great deal of post-rock.
13 Crispy Ambulance
Bardo Plane
Another Factory signing, this Manchester group worked with Martin Hannett, and singer Alan Hempsall even filled in for Ian Curtis at one Joy Division gig. In 1982, though, they carved out their own sound on their sole excellent, exploratory LP, The Plateau Phase.
14 The Cleaners From Venus
Factory Boy
Wivenhoe’s Martin Newell had started out in a glam band, Plod, then a prog group, Gypp, before forming the Cleaners in 1980. Exemplars of the post-punk DIY culture, they recorded a series of jangly, lo-fi cassettes – including 1982’s Midnight Cleaners, which features this track – many of which have been rediscovered and revered in recent decades.
15 New Order
Ceremony
One of the final Joy Division songs to be written, this became New Order’s debut single in March 1981. With its major chords, rising melodies and propulsive drums, it was a step out of the post-punk gloom towards the celebratory, electronic music the group would pioneer.
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