Minimal Wave Records

Minim­al Wave is proud to pre­sent our 35th re­lease, a full length LP re­lease en­tit­led “Clean T­ables Have To Be Burnt” by UK legends Hard Corps, a band we’ve been long time ad­mir­ers of. Aside from their re­leases on Sur­viv­al and Polydor, Hard Corps gained some notoriety for their uni­que and un­compromis­ing live shows throug­hout the 1980s. It was the jux­taposi­tion bet­ween their hard edged in­dustri­al sound and the fragile and en­ig­matic voc­als of French frontwoman Re­gine Fetet that created an un­usu­al di­chotomy, lend­ing to their strength of charact­er as a band and thus al­low­ing them to stand out from the rest.

A 12” white label, re­leased by Sur­viv­al Re­cords, con­tain­ing the ham­mer­ing rhy­thmic at­tack of Dirty and the soft­er, melodic, pulse of Re­spir­er (To Breat­he) was cir­culated around Lon­don’s dance floors. In no time a wave of at­ten­tion hit them and throug­hout 1984 and into 1985 they dominated the in­depen­dent pop charts.
John Peel cham­pioned them on his in­fam­ous late night Radio One show and they head­lined at his ICA Rock Week in the Mall, Lon­don. By 1985 Hard Corps had sig­ned with major label giants Polydor. This en­ab­led the band to work with a co­u­ple of their favoured and re­spec­ted pro­duc­ers, Mar­tin Rus­hent (known most­ly for his ex­cep­tion­al work with the Human League) and De­pec­he Mode pro­duc­er and Mute Re­cords sup­remo, Daniel Mill­er. These sess­ions pro­vided the pub­lic with just one single due to the labels non-promotion, Je Suis Passée, a sweep­ing ar­range­ment of breathtak­ing be­auty, com­bin­ing pump­ing sequ­ences and sheer power of em­o­tion of Re­gine’s voice.
The band went on a major tour with The Cure in 1985 and De­pec­he Mode in 1988, be­fore fin­al­ly dis­in­tegrat­ing.

Now for the first time ever, rare un­released vers­ions of Hard Corps tracks from the 1980s have been re­mas­tered and are being made avail­able. “Clean T­ables Have To Be Burnt” is a 180 gram vinyl pre­ss­ing li­mited to 999 co­p­ies with doub­le sided inner sleeve featur­ing a be­auti­ful group shot and all of Re­gine’s lyrics.