TISM have continued their ongoing reissues campaign, announcing that their final releases of 2021 will focus on their 1986 EP Form and Meaning Reach Ultimate Communion, and their 1991 B-sides compilation, Gentlemen, Start Your Egos.
Originally released back in 1986, Form and Meaning Reach Ultimate Communion arrived just months after the release of TISM’s debut single, “Defecate on My Face” and showed off the sort of music the group were capable of making outside of their outrage-inducing single.
Initially intended to be released as a single, it grew to seven songs which (as per a press release) “constituted their short, somewhat arty live performance set from that era, plus the more experimental ‘Take Your Love'”.
Five years after its release, TISM had left Phonogram and signed to Shock Records, who reissued the EP alongside a number of early B-sides on a compilation titled Gentlemen, Start Your Egos. Now, 30 years on, both of these releases are seeing another release as part of the campaign spearheaded by David Roy Williams Entertainment.
Issued on vinyl and CD, the reissued version of Form and Meaning Reach Ultimate Communion collects the original tracks from the EP, and adds a number of bonus cuts too, including the tracks from the “Defecate on My Face” single, a number of demos recorded at Melbourne’s Aztec Studios (including the never heard “When You’re Happy And You Know It Kill Yourself”), and TISM’s 1985 set as part of 3RRR Battle of The Bands.
Meanwhile, Gentlemen, Start Your Egos also sees a similar – yet different – reissue, with the original EP tracks being excised to turn it into a collection of rarities from TISM’s late-’80s era. As such, it includes a number of alternative mixes (including the LP-only version of “Saturday Night Palsy”), and versions of tracks which previously been issued only on vinyl.
Meanwhile, digital versions of the album also include nine previously unavailable recordings of TISM Live at The Club from December 17th, 1986.
TISM initially launched their reissue series last year, kicking things off with a vinyl single of their cover of AC/DC’s “For Those About to Rock”, the completely silent Omni-Album, and a recording of the band’s final concert, titled On Behalf of TISM, I Would Like to Concede We Have Lost the Election. Since then, a seven-inch single was issued for Record Store Day, while some mostly-unheard ’80s material – by way of an original demo tape and a live rehearsal – was unveiled in July, while reissues of The White Albun and the Collected Remixes compilation were released last month.
Reissued versions of TISM’s Form and Meaning Reach Ultimate Communion, along with their Gentlemen, Start Your Egos compilation, will be released on November 19th, with pre-orders available now.
