40 years after “The Garden”, John Foxx now releases the companion album “Church”, featuring B-sides and out-takes from the same period. Limited pressing on red vinyl.
Church is a sister album to John Foxx's The Garden (40th anniversary edition). Many elements of the original Church booklet, which was part of the original 1981 The Garden release, are integrated into the gatefold artwork. Church features singles, B-sides and out-takes from the same period, along with the Miles Away single when Foxx re-introduced more traditional instrumentation to his electronic template. The first track is "This Jungle," the B-side to "Europe, After The Rain." the first single from "The Garden." The tribal drum programming was as close a Foxx came to being musically trendy in the year of 1981 as the rise of Adam Ant had made the Glitteresque tribal drum sound hot once more the previous year. Both sides of the "Miles Away" transitional single where Foxx had transitioned away from the ice cold wave of "Metamatic" into something closer to Rock with the band Shake/Shake were here since they pointed the way dramatically to not only "The Garden," but also the Synth-Psychedelia which was to follow that album. Then the full "Swimmer" suite figured on side two of the new LP. "Swimmer I + II" were the B-side to the other single from 1981, "Dancing Like A Gun." The previously unreleased "Swimmer III+ IV" [as well as the closing "Fog" from side one] were unreleased tracks that only manifested for the first time in 2014 on Foxx's "The Virgin years" CD boxed set. These are now making their vinyl debut for very the first time.