''A Product of...'' (sometimes known as ''A Product of... Participation'') is the first studio album by the English pop group the

Thompson Twins Thompson Twins were an English Pop music, pop band, formed in 1977 in Sheffield. Initially a New wave music, new wave group, they switched to a more mainstream pop sound and achieved considerable popularity during the early and mid-1980s, scori ...

. It was released in June 1981 on the

T Records T Records was the record label imprint used solely by the Thompson Twins in the UK for their first 2 albums and corresponding singles. The band had previously released two 7" singles independently: "Squares And Triangles" (RANK1) and "She' ...

imprint, a label created by the band and distributed through the Fame/EMI label. At the time of its release, the band were a six-piece group that did not include later member

Alannah Currie Alannah Joy Currie (born 20 September 1957) is a New Zealand artist based in London. She is a musician and activist, best known as a former member of the pop band Thompson Twins. Career Born in New Zealand and trained as a journalist, Currie ...

(although she is thanked in the credits for "playing and singing" on the record). In comparison to the glamour of their later years, the group had a somewhat scruffy image during this period, because they were very poor and living in

squats Squat, squatter or squatting may refer to: Body position * Squatting position, a sitting position where one's knees are folded with heels touching one's buttocks or back of the thighs * Squat (exercise), a lower-body exercise in strength and co ...

in London. The self-produced album had a

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

sound that was heavily influenced by African rhythms and chants. The band had already built a strong reputation for themselves due to their live shows, where often members of the audience were encouraged to join the band onstage and pound along with them on makeshift percussion such as hubcaps and pieces of metal. All of the songs on the album were written by the band themselves, except for two ethnic traditionals, both arranged by Tom Bailey.

Release

"Perfect Game" is the first

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

taken from ''A Product Of... (Participation)''. It was released on 30 January 1981 on the

imprint, a label created by the band and distributed through the Fame/EMI label. The B-side to the single is the single mix of "Politics". In September 2008, the band's first two albums, ''A Product of...'' and ''Set'', were released as a double CD. This version included their earliest singles, non-album tracks, and extended remixes.

Critical reception

Contemporarily, ''Harlow Star'' critic Roger Fulton commented on the album's numerous influences, including

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1975.Talking Heads

, but believed that "thoughts of the Thompson Twins merely being an amalgam of other people's sounds are quickly dispelled by some of the wildest rhythms this side of

the Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

", praising the band for writing "thinking, thoughtful songs" (such as "Politics", "Perfect Game" and "Slave Trade") in addition to "invigorating rhythmic excursions" like "Oumma Aularesso" that are "adventurous and completely engaging". However, he did believe that the band's live shows were "even better" than the album. ''

Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand ...

'' Ian Birch found Thompson Twins "More interesting for what they promise then what they deliver, the T.T.s are sometimes too ambitious. When variety is this diverse, the group's identity takes second place" and that they "succeed best when they're as simple as in "When I See You"." Retrospectively, the album is regarded as the first of two

experimental pop Experimental pop is pop music that cannot be categorized within traditional musical boundaries or which attempts to push elements of existing popular forms into new areas. It may incorporate experimental music, experimental techniques such as m ...

records that the Thompson Twins recorded before moving towards a more mainstream sound.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

writer Evan Cater commented that ''A Product Of... (Participation)'' was drastically different than the group's later pop records, being "more

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

and more guitar based than the keyboard dominated hits of '' Into the Gap'' and '' Here's to Future Days''", as well as favouring "murky tuneless noodling" over the pop hooks they were later known for. He noted the album's international theme, exemplified by the artwork, the heavy influence from

African music The continent of Africa is vast and its music is diverse, with different regions and nations having many distinct musical traditions. African music includes the genres like makwaya, highlife, mbube, township music, jùjú, fuji, jaiva ...

(most notably on "Slave Trade" and "Oumma Aularesso (Animal Laugh)," the latter of which was a traditional

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

song rearranged by Bailey), as well as the reinterpretation of the

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek language, Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed main ...

"Vendredi Saint" as either "an Asian or African chant (it isn't entirely clear which)." Ira Robbins of ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who, Dave Schulps, and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...

'' noted that in addition to playing their primary instruments, all six musicians contribute percussion. However, he notes that the "cleverness and variety of the tracks ... eliminate any potential monotony that might have resulted from the heavy reliance on rhythm. And although the music is designed to incite maximum motion, there isn’t one track that skimps on lyrical, melodic or structural depth." He concluded that while the record is not "uniformly wonderful", its textures and sounds "make it pleasurable and energizing."

Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British music writer. He founded and was the editor-in-chief of ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. Along with the ten-volume encyclopedia, Larkin also wrote the book ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'', and edited th ...

wrote in '' The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' (1997) that, despite the group's invigorating,

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

-esque live shows prior to the album, in which they invited audience members to beat rhythms to their songs, ''A Product Of... (Participation)'' "showed a band struggling to make the transition from stage to studio". Also negative in his reappraisal,

Dave Marsh Dave Marsh (born ) is an American music critic and radio talk show host. He was an early editor of '' Creem'' magazine, has written for various publications such as ''Newsday'', ''The Village Voice'', and ''Rolling Stone'', and has published num ...

rated the album two stars out of five in ''

The Rolling Stone Album Guide ''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'', previously known as ''The Rolling Stone Record Guide'', is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. Its first edition was published in 1 ...

'' (1983). Referring to the album as "a conglomeration of pop,

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

and African rhythms", he concluded that the music is "engaging but lacks real substance."

Track listing

All tracks composed by Thompson Twins; except where indicated

Original album

# "When I See You" # "Politics" # "Slave Trade" # "Could Be Her...Could Be You" # "Make Believe" # "Don't Go Away" # "The Price" # "Oumma Aularesso (Animal Laugh)" (Traditional from

; arranged by Tom Bailey) # "Anything Is Good Enough" # "A Product Of..." # "Perfect Game" # "Vendredi Saint" (Traditional

; arranged by Tom Bailey)

2008 re-issue bonus tracks

# "Squares and Triangles" # "Could Be Her...Could Be You" (original version) # "Weather Station" (written and recorded by Bailey for the independent film ''The Onlooker'') # "Modern Plumbing" (written by Bailey; recorded by the Blankets, a separate group that included him) # "She's in Love With Mystery" # "Fast Food" # "Food Style" # "Oumma Aularesso (Animal Laugh)" (original remixed extended version) # "A Dub Product" # "Make Believe (Let's Pretend)" (extended version) # "Lama Sabach Tani"

Personnel

* Tom Bailey –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

, keyboards,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

reed Reed or Reeds may refer to: Science, technology, biology, and medicine * Reed bird (disambiguation) * Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times * Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales * Re ...

s * Chris Bell –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

* Peter Dodd –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

Joe Leeway Joseph Martin Leeway (born 15 November 1955) is a British musician and songwriter, who is best known as being a member of the pop music, pop band Thompson Twins, joining the band in 1981 after being one of their Road crew, roadies. Leeway was b ...

–

congas The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are stave (wood), staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (drum), quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), an ...

* John Roog –

* Jane Shorter –

;Technical *Steve Dewey – engineer, mixing *Alan O'Duffy, John Hade, Tom Bailey – mixing *Jonathan Phipps – cover art

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Product of, A 1981 debut albums Thompson Twins albums Albums produced by Mike Howlett EMI Records albums Experimental pop albums Post-punk albums by English artists