In the Beginning There Was Rhythm (album)

In the Beginning There Was Rhythm is a 2002 compilation album compiled by Stuart Baker and Adrian Self and released by Soul Jazz Records. The album consists of post-punk from the United Kingdom from the late 1970s to the early 1980s made in the United Kingdom.

In the Beginning There Was Rhythm
Compilation album by Various Artists
Released	January 28, 2002
Genre	Post-punk
Label	Soul Jazz
Compiler	Stuart Baker, Adrian Self[1]

Release

In the Beginning There Was Rhythm was released by Soul Jazz Records on January 28, 2002.[2] The album was released on compact disc and vinyl record.[3]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
The Guardian	[4]
Muzik	[5]
Pitchfork Media	(9.3/10)[6]

From contemporary reviews, Andy Kellman of AllMusic found that the album "does a spectacular job of combining the known with the not so known" and that the album showcased "post-punk's breadth, showcasing within the grooves, jabs, and rattling waves of static the style's influences (disco, funk, reggae, Krautrock, electronic experimentation) and the styles that the style influenced (indie rock, post-rock, almost every stripe of dance music that followed) at the same time."[2] Kellman felt that "one might bemoan the exclusion of Public Image Limited, Associates, the Normal, Magazine, or other bands crucial to the ideology, there's no denying that In the Beginning There Was Rhythm is a great gateway into this expansive, fruitful, trailblazing era."[2] Chris Dahlen of Pitchfork praised the album stating that "Every track on this album cooks with the excitement of musicians trying new things." and "doesn't have a single limp tune" while stating "If there's anything's wrong with the disc, it's that it's too short; the story of post-punk could take up several box sets. The disc comes with 35 pages of liner notes, but the record itself doesn't tell a story or connect the songs. Many bands got left out, and it would also be interesting to hear how the bands developed-- for example, to watch the early Human League with its craptronic keyboards and all-guy line-up grow into the band that created the synth-pop masterpiece Dare."[6] Garry Mulholland of The Guardian gave the album a four-star rating, stating "to the ranting agit-prop commitment of Gang of Four and Pop Group. In the Beginning is essential missing-link history - and body-rockin' fun".[7] In Muzik, ther reviewer "TM" gave the album a five out of five out of five rating, calling it "a choice selection [...] from the fertile post-punk period" when "bands thought nothing of combining politics and philosophy with imported dance rhythms and edgy industrial angst." concluding the album was "Fantastic. Listen and learn."[5]

Track listing

Track listing adapted from back of album sleeve and liner notes.[1]

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Credited Performer	Length
1.	"Shack Up"	J. Carter, M. Daniels	A Certain Ratio	3:16
2.	"Coup"	Alex Turnbull, Johnny Turnbull, Fritz Catlin, Peter Martin	23 Skidoo	4:10
3.	"To Hell With Poverty"	Jon King, Dave Allen, Andy Gill, Hugo Burnham	Gang of Four	4:57
4.	"Being Boiled"	Philip Oakey, Martyn Ware, Ian Craig Marsh	The Human League	3:50
5.	"In The Beginning There Was Rhythm"	The Slits	The Slits	5:35
6.	"24 Track Loop"	Charles Bullen, Charles Hayward, Gareth Williams	This Heat	5:57
7.	"20 Jazz Funk Greats"	Throbbing Gristle	Throbbing Gristle	2:44
8.	"She Is Beyond Good and Evil"	The Pop Group	The Pop Group	3:22
9.	"Sluggin For Jesus"	Richard H. Kirk, Stephen Mallinder, Chris Watson	Cabaret Voltaire	5:02
10.	"Vegas El Bandito"	Turnbull, Turnbull, Catlin, Sam Mills, Tom Heslop	23 Skidoo	2:56
11.	"Knife Slits Water"	Donald Johnson, Martin Moscrop, Jez Kerr, Peter Terrell, Simon Topping	A Certain Ratio	9:40

Credits

Track listing adapted from back of album sleeve and liner notes.[8]

• Stuart Baker – compiler, sleeve notes
• Adrian Self – compiler
• Jon Savage – editing
• Pete Reilly – mastering
• Duncan Cowell – mastering
• Sir Dan Flea – design
• B.Uttocks – design
• Pierce Smith – repro man
• Angela Scott – licensing

References

Footnotes

1. In the Beginning There Was Rhythm (Media notes). Stuart Baker. Soul Jazz Records. SJR CD57.CS1 maint: others (link)
2. Kellman.
3. "In the Beginning There Was Rhythm". Soundofhteuniverse.com. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
4. Mulholland, Garry (January 25, 2002). "One in a Milian". The Guardian. p. 17. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
5. TM 2002.
6. Dahlen 2002.
7. Mulholland 2002. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFMulholland2002 (help)
8. In the Beginning There Was Rhythm (Media notes). Stuart Baker. Soul Jazz Records. SJR LP57.CS1 maint: others (link)

Sources

• Dahlen, Chris (February 14, 2002). "In the Beginning There Was Rhythm". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
• Kellman, Andy. "In the Beginning There Was Rhythm". AllMusic. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
• Mulholland, Garry (January 24, 2002). "One in a Milian". The Guardian. Archived from the original on June 13, 2014. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
• TM (January 2002). "Compilations". Muzik. No. 80. p. 71.