The Land Of Yrx - Coming Forth In Light & Nadir And Eventual Decay & Termination Point (2020)

Inventive and unclassifiable (let's call it: space-rock meets indie/post-new-wave meets synth music) outfit from Shrewsbury. Formed by David Gate and Robert Andrews in 1982 after the demise of Aerie. They released many cassette albums between 1981 and 1993 and have since released two CD-Rs on their own label.

Another new Auricle tape that is a ‘compilation of remixed, old and live recordings...’, to quote from Auricle Music’s latest catalogue, and a pretty good collection it’s turned out to be.
The 8 tracks are varied and among some of the best recorded by the band. With one or two exceptions the accent is mainly on the more rock/synth oriented side of David Gate and Robert Andrews’ output. The latter’s neat guitar playing is put to admirable use on tracks such as Destroying The Beauty Of Fragile Objects which is a "cool" jazz/rock-style piece, and Unfruchtbarmachung Der Ungelernt, a dense and gritty slab of slow urban blues. The 17 minute long Das Begrabnis, extracted from the original side-long piece that graced their Cerebration tape showcases the more experimental nature of Land of Yrx and features some interesting synth lines swooping and swirling in, out and around the march-like percussive backdrop. No Peace For The Alchemist is a melodious and emotive track with some fine sax playing and complementary synth and guitar work, a 9 minute gem of a piece in fact. Beschneider Erich which closes the album displays a weird mixture of dramatic synth playing and offbeat surrealist humour which works well.
A highly enjoyable collection of music from a band that deserve to be heard more widely. Well worth investigating.
Review by Peter Harrison, from Audion #5, page 25 (July 1987)

This release proves most web reviews about The Land Of Yrx wrong. If you have a listen to Unfruchtbarmachung Der Ungelernt - a heavy fried blues that fuses the sound of early Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle with Heldon a la Zind and Zind Destruction, and Beschneider Erich - a rather breezy track that blends such diverse elements as Ashra, Richard Pinhas and Mike Oldfield (and there are many more surprising diversions with the other 6 tracks) you'll soon realise that The Land Of Yrx were no mere synth band, but much more than that.

Reissue of the Land Of Yrx Products cassette (BASL 23) © November 1984. A rare cassette from Shrewsbury's unclassifiable synthesizer and space-rock band, which showcases how the mixed up influences as diverse as Kosmische Krautrock, the French electronic rock as typified by Heldon, elements from the new wave and their passion for prog too.

Reissue of the Auricle cassette. Here we have the very memorable set at U.K. Electronica, Sheffield, 24 August 1985, one of the high points of the band's "career" - a high flying trip! After that we have the suite that encompassed side two of the cassette, recorded live at Quarry Park, Shrewsbury, 12 May 1984 - with a 5 piece line-up also featuring Mark Jenkins: synths, keys.