Vinyl Reviews

Reviews: Six Finger Satellite | Tuxedomoon

Robert Ham

07 Jan 2026 — 9 min read

Happy Wednesday all. I trust this finds you as well as you can be considering, you know, everything. Today we are continuing to corral some of the stragglers from 2025 that we weren't able to cover until now. Trust us, we'll be getting deep into the weeds of the stuff dropping this year soon enough.

Before I let you dive into reviews of recent reissues of work by noise-rockers Six Finger Satellite and darkwave outfit Tuxedomoon, I want to remind you that we have a new vinyl giveaway this month. Just as we did in December, we are offering up some killer free wax to one of the wonderful people on the paid subscriber tier.

Last month, it was a Neil Young box set. This time around, we are giving away a set of test pressings for the amazing, all-analog one-step pressings of REM’s Chronic Town and Murmur from Universal’s Definitive Sound Series.

As the lucky guy who got to review this set, I will reiterate that these sound jaw-droppingly good. We'll be sending out a message to paid subscribers with all the details on how to enter the giveaway very soon, but if you don't want to miss out—and you want to continue to support this scrappy, two-person operation—consider clicking the button below and upgrading your subscription.

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And with that out of the way, let's get to the reviews. Enjoy!

Six Finger Satellite: Severe Exposure: Deluxe Edition

With so many major labels dominating the conversation when it comes to vinyl reissues, it’s heartening to see some of the indies getting in on the fun as well. Well-known imprints like 4AD, Touch & Go, and Beggars Banquet have been digging deep into their archives and pulling up some serious gems and giving them the proper archival upgrade.

Another imprint taking its own share of the action is Sub Pop. The Seattle label is still meeting the demand for fresh represses of grunge classics by Nirvana and Soundgarden, but more recently they’ve been cooking up some sweet treats from their back catalog. In 2024, Sub Pop gave a serious sonic overhaul to Copacetic, the debut album by DC dreamgaze group Velocity Girl. And in 2025, the label issued remastered versions of two albums by punk quartet the Gits, one of which we covered for the newsletter.

Last year also saw the release of a double-LP set combining the 1994 EP Machine Cuisine and 1995 album Severe Exposure by noise rockers Six Finger Satellite. The noise-rock outfit from Providence was a core part of the Sub Pop family throughout the ’90s, landing a deal with the label after slipping a demo to label co-founder Jonathan Poneman at the New Music Seminar, a SXSW-like showcase for up-and-coming bands held in New York City. Early on, the quintet’s sound was direct and slashing in the vein of Scratch Acid and Big Black. But by the time they set out to record Machine Cuisine, they used Sub Pop’s advance money to set up a studio in an industrial space in their hometown and buy cheap modular synthesizers.

The DIY approach and rough quality of their equipment (according to singer/keyboardist Jeremiah Ryan, the Moog Rogue they bought was partially fire-damaged) helped inspire the ragged, overdriven sound of Machine and Severe Exposure. The former was made almost entirely using their synths, with the band tapping into their love of post-punk outfits like Chrome and Kraftwerk to inspire a tense, unsettling sound. Some tracks would work well as fodder for a dance-punk DJ set, but the rest, especially the songs where Ryan processes his voice to sound like a dying robot, are uniquely disquieting. Initially released as a 10-inch, Machine Cuisine gets a welcome upgrade on this new pressing, with the eight tracks stretched comfortably over a 45 RPM 12-inch. It does wonders for the low end and adds some depth of field to even the most rude and preposterous synth bleats.

Severe Exposure finds a middle ground between Six Finger Satellite’s modular playtime and the agitated rock of their first recordings. The mix is caustic, electrifying, and fairly appropriate for the fraught period the band was enduring. By the time of the sessions, guitarist Peter Phillips had left the group, the other guitarist John McLean had gone through a stint in rehab, and bassist Kurt Niemand had died from a drug overdose. Combined with Ryan’s reading list at the time, which included plenty of dystopian cyberpunk writers like K.W. Jeter and Philip K. Dick, and the band’s dodgy recording gear, the album plays like an alternate score for films like Hardware or Tetsuo: The Iron Man that envision a gristly fusion of human and machine. McLean’s guitars often sound like sparking, fraying wires and the rhythm section like the spin cycle of an industrial washing machine that’s running slightly off-center.

While I don’t have an original pressing to compare this to, it’s obvious that mastering engineer JJ Golden had a strong handle on how to treat these recordings. The knotted-up feel of these songs is tight to the point of constriction, but Golden loosens the knots just enough to give every desiccated bit of sound its due. Most of all, the music sounds big on the coke-bottle colored pressing I heard. At the right volume, it takes on an almost quadraphonic quality, with noises coming at me from all angles.

As a longtime fan of Sub Pop, my mind reels at what other treasures the label is going to mine for future reissues. Already on the docket this year is a remastered edition of Velocity Girl’s second LP Simpatico out next month and represses of two albums by Oakland indie rockers Rogue Wave arriving in March. And if those are handled as thoughtfully as this Six Finger Satellite reissue, we have a lot to look forward to.

Sub Pop 33 RPM LP coke bottle vinyl & 45 RPM EP orange translucent vinyl
• Remastered reissues of 1994 EP and 1995 LP
• Jacket: Direct-to-board single pocket packaged in thin cardboard slipcover
• Inner sleeve: White paper
• Liner notes, insert, or booklet: Four-panel insert with photos, album credits, and tracklist of bonus digital material
• Source: Unknown, likely digital
• Mastering credit: JJ Golden, Golden Mastering, Camarillo, CA
• Lacquer cut by: JJ Golden, Golden Mastering, Camarillo, CA; “GOLDEN” stamped in deadwax of each disc
• Pressed at: Record Technology, Inc., Camarillo, CA
• Vinyl pressing quality (visual): A
• Vinyl pressing quality (audio): A

Tuxedomoon: Desire (45th Anniversary Edition)

Outside of serious students of post-punk and experimental pop, Tuxedomoon aren’t terribly well-known. The Bay Area–born ensemble’s name tends to only come up regarding “In a Manner of Speaking,” a ballad from the group’s 1985 album Holy Wars that was covered by both Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore and Nouvelle Vague.

Yet, for a brief window in the early ’80s, the band, formed by multi-instrumentalists Blaine Reininger and Steven Brown, had a short gust of wind in their sails. The New York scene embraced them for a time, landing Tuxedomoon in Downtown 81, a vibrant art film starring Jean-Michel Basquiat, and in the pages of Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine. The band also had some support from fellow San Francisco freaks the Residents, who used their boutique label Ralph Records to release the first two Tuxedomoon albums, 1980’s Half-Mute and 1981’s Desire.

All of that exposure didn’t gain them a huge number of fans here in their home country, but the tastemakers of Europe appreciated the influence of avant-garde composers like Luc Ferrari and John Cage, freeform ensembles such as Faust and Musica Elettronica Viva, and even disco producers like Giorgio Moroder on Tuxedomoon’s work. The feeling was mutual as, after some successful overseas tours, the band, which by this time also included vocalist Winston Tong, multi-instrumentalist Peter Principle, and visual artist Bruce Geduldig, moved to Brussels.

But before their mass relocation, the quintet had what Reininger dubs their “English adventure in 1980,” descending upon London at the behest of fan and Ultravox member John Foxx to record Desire. The hope was to work with Foxx in the studio, but he begged off, recommending instead his friend Gareth Jones. The whole gang left London for Jacob’s Studio in Surrey and commenced making use of every one of the 24 tracks at their disposal, “filling every available track, often doing submixes to make room for more sound,” as Reininger writes in the liner notes for this expanded reissue of the album.

Such was the ambition of this still-young group, who had honed the Desire material on the road but expanded upon it in the studio. Each track is packed with incident, agitation, and nudging humor. (The final track, “Holiday for Plywood,” is a goofy easy-listening pastiche that included Raincoats member Vicky Aspinall on viola and cellist Ali Robinson.) The seamy darkwave sound they were creating at the time works equally well in a Berlin cabaret, a San Francisco leather bar, or the Bang Bang Bar in Twin Peaks.

While I only have a CD copy to compare it to, this new vinyl edition of Desire, once again on Crammed Discs, the Belgian label that initially re-released the album in 1986, gives a clarifying polish to the original album tracks. Mastering engineer Benjamin Savignoni brings a welcome brightness to the music, emphasizing Brown’s saxophones and keyboards and drawing Tong’s dramatic vocal turns further out of the shadows.

The reissue does an impressive job fleshing out the details of this point in Tuxedomoon’s trajectory. The paper inner sleeves feature new liner notes from bandmates Reininger, Brown, and Principle, as well as Foxx and Jones, who all provide fascinating insight into the creation of this album. Desire also comes with a second disc of equally great material from the same time period, including both sides of the “Dark Companion” single, three stunning unreleased tracks, and two songs recorded at a gig in Eindhoven, Netherlands. I was particularly taken with the Cabaret Voltaire–like sting of “Ice Benign” and the band’s lovely live rendition of “In Heaven,” the David Lynch song featured in Eraserhead.

A high-quality vinyl reissue of Desire feels long overdue. (It was last released on wax in 1986.) It’s the perfect entry point into the vast catalog of Tuxedomoon and the solo work of its various members, and its potent, sensual influence can be heard in recent work by artists like Cigarettes After Sex and Beach House. The English adventure continues, 45 years after it began.

Crammed Discs/PIAS 2-LP 33 RPM black vinyl
• Remaster of the 1981 album with bonus LP of rarities
• Jacket: Direct-to-board gatefold
• Inner sleeve: Printed paper
• Liner notes, insert, or booklet: Liner notes from band members and other personnel that contributed to the album
• Source: Unknown, likely digital
• Mastering credit: Benjamin Savignoni, Translab Mastering, Paris
• Lacquer cut by: Benjamin Savignoni, Translab Mastering, Paris; “Ben.S” in deadwax of each disc
• Pressed at: Optimal Media, Germany
• Vinyl pressing quality (visual): A
• Vinyl pressing quality (audio): A
• Additional notes: None.