‘Physical World’ captures Adrian Borland and his newly named group at a transitional point musically. Whereas Adrian’s previous group The Outsiders were informed by The Stooges (James Williamson’s guitar playing especially) and the Sex Pistols, The Sound were heavily influenced by Joy Division, a band Adrian had seen live numerous times and been captivated by. The Sex Pistols’ anger was aimed outwards; Joy Division’s was introverted and turned in on itself. On the enemy within.

For Adrian, The Sound was the sound of wiping the slate clean. A post-punk Year Zero. Gone was any punk sloppiness, replaced by a taut, spiky leanness. Recorded in 1979, between the home demos of ‘Propaganda’ and the first Sound album, ‘Jeopardy’, the ‘Physical World’ EP has a stabbing urgency. ‘Cold Beat’, a not so distant relation of Joy Division’s ‘Ice Age’, could almost be a calling card for the new post-punk movement (although of course it didn’t have this name bestowed upon it till years later), while ‘Physical World’ is all adolescent rush and ‘Unwritten Law’ exhibits a knowing weariness. Maybe even a prescient awareness of what was to follow?