Iron Curtain emerged in the early 80’s in the Santa Barbara area with the express purpose of “melding the melodic angst of The Cure with the electronic funk of Kraftwerk”. I would add Midge Ure-era Ultravox and early OMD to the reference list of well known idiomatic reference points as well. Given the soaring popularity of the posthumously labeled “Cold Wave”, Iron curtain have become one of the most collectible bands of the post-punk era. Their “Tarantula Scream” EP is on almost every want-list you will see – except mine! I was very fortunate to find a copy of this for a buck shortly after it came out. In those days, I was ravenous for this music, and scooped up *everything*. Because it was so shunned by the ears of the time, almost all of it appeared in used bins with the damning one-dollar price tag affixed to the upper right hand corner. I remember a few snobby record shop clerks snickering whenever I would bring these records to the counter to purchase. I’d say “Just keep putting them out for a buck. More For Me.” As an aside, I similarly purchased Zoviet France’s “Eostre” LP, and the clerk said to me “You don’t look like the sort of guy who likes Crass records!” And I replied, “Well, Number 1, I *am*. But number 2, *this* isn’t a Crass record.” And he looked at me incredulously and said “OK, dude, whatever you say…” Admittedly, it’s the one Zoviet France record that may *look* like a Crass record, but no. Anyway, I digress. The Iron Curtain EP is definitely mine. But that’s not why it is a Screamer today. And the fact that Pylon Records issued an anthology CD last year, Desertion 1982-1988, collecting the EP tracks plus others from the band’s oeuvre is neither the reason this was selected for today’s Screamer. The reason is that Pylon just released a facsimile vinyl edition of the EP that looks almost identical to the original, except that the back cover and liner notes have changed – specifically to differentiate it from the original pressing. It was released in an edition of 375 copies – 300 on black vinyl and 75 on black and white swirled vinyl. This new edition’s severely limited press makes it even *more* collectible than the first press of 1000 copies. The colored vinyl copy now gets between 50 – 100 bucks, even though it was just released.

But the original? Discogs.com lists one for sale at 700 Euros. That’s about $1000 US. So, the collector edition is a bargain at the moment. The image below shows the Iron Curtain EP, released in June of 1984.

But enough collector geekery. There’s a reason why Iron Curtain raises the collective giant-hardon of the collector community. The music. It was intelligent, sardonic and danceable; “Tarantula Scream” had a very brief dalliance at the clubs in Boston, and it was in tremendous rotation on my own radio program then as well. But tracks like “First Punk Wars” proved there was more than just a club attitude behind the band. Both tracks are featured here, along with “Anorexia”, which is from a seven inch single predating the other two tracks included.

Click on the links below to hear the tracks:

Tarantula Scream | First Punk Wars | Anorexia

What makes you scream? Let me know, and maybe it will appear in this feature of JukeboxHeart.com…

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