If one were to toss on any of the more straightforward tracks from either proper Swell Maps’ full length – A Trip to Marineville (1979) and Jane From Occupied Europe (1980) – it’d be difficult for the uninitiated to differentiate between what was being heard and the Adverts or some other first wave punk ensemble from the UK.

That could be taken as a compliment or a detraction as the punk scene, especially towards the end of its first wave, turned into a spate of nonsensical reworkings of the most simplistic musics. But Swell Maps were only a tangential figure in all of that. The band’s strict adherence to DIY ethics was a part of the connection with the punk scene. Of course, the fastest and most distorted efforts from A Trip to Marineville easily qualify the Maps as skewed punkers. But of the course of that disc and its follow up, there’d be an ever expanding palette serving to distance the group from its initial punk cohort.

Even by Marineville’s fifth track “Harmony In Your Bathroom” it became clear that supplemental sound effects – here bubbling water of some variety – was as important to the band’s conception of music as anything else. The pummeling piano chord, supplied by drummer Epic Soundtracks, moves the band towards droney, kraut territory or even back the Velvet Underground’s heyday.

In the eyes of a great many critics, though, the band and its experimental streak was relegated to anonymity because of these explorations. Opening its second album, Jane From Occupied Europe, with “Robot Factory” and its accompanying industrial noise didn’t do too much to push the Maps towards commercial viability. Krautrock’s influence has been endlessly overstated in the band’s sound. But on this first track, it really does get pushed to the fore. With repetitive rhythms, minimal melodic ideas and that noisome background, Swell Maps reaffirmed it’s stance as a group of players concerned only with exploring personal limits and possibilities in its own music. And before too long – even if the band’s second disc was a solid and well conceived if not broader in its inclusion of non-musical elements – Swell Maps called it a day.

Releasing a few singles prior to its proper album’s and those long players themselves, though, cemented Swell Maps’ importance off into the future. Each band member went on to perform in other settings – Epic Soundtracks, his brother Nikki Sudden and bassist Jowe Head, who’d join the Television Personalities remain the best known. But everything even remotely affiliated with this crew possesses at least a bit of intrigue.