How terrible is that album cover? Would you ever randomly just buy any album with a  cover like that? it looks like something that a middle school science teacher with a crappy bar band would do for their $5 demo debut CD-R. I however did buy this album for a whopping 99¢ almost ten years ago when i stumbled upon it. But truth be told I recognized the band’s name, had I not I would have never bought this album, even for a measly 99¢ based on the cover alone.

pragVEC were one of countless London based post-punk bands in the late 70s. They’re best known for housing one-time member Jim Thrilwell who played keyboards and did some vocals on their only album No Cowboys. Thrilwell would shortly thereafter go on to for Industrial giant Foetus. That isn’t pragVEC’s only connection with the industrial and EBM world as their drummer Nick Cash would eventually join Frank Tovey in Fad Gadget.

Despite all of these industrial connections, pragVEC themselves were a pretty traditional sounding post-punk band from the time. They wrote excellent songs and had a great frontwoman in Susan Gogan. I’d liken them to an artier X-Ray Spex or a more accessible Malaria!… less confrontational but more apt to experiment especially with synths which shouldn’t be a surprise considering who was playing keyboard for them). It’s a shame they’ve been mostly forgotten over time.

I’m not really sure when this CD compilation was put out or by whom. Judging by the bubble-jet printed disc art sticker I’d think it was perhaps homemade or a promo for something that never released. The CD oddly takes the first track from their 1979 S/T 12″ and placed it first before going into the entire 1980 No Cowboys album before ending with the rest of their S/T 12″. I’ve re-sequenced everything back to how it was on the original releases and between the two this is the entire recorded output by pragVEC before disbanding in 1982. One interesting side note: When originally released, all of the tracks on No Cowboys were credited to different bands, as if it were a compilation album. Their name on the cover was only added for this CD comp.

pragVEC – No Cowboys & S/T 12″