Photo credit: Harry Stafford
Manchester post-punks, Inca Babies, are dropping their new album, Reincarnation, on Friday November 28th, via Black Lagoon Records. The record is a collection of re-recorded and re-invented back catalogue classics, recorded and mixed at 6Db Studios with producer Simon ‘Ding’ Archer (The Fall, PJ Harvey). Keep reading below to find out more.
Pre-order Reincarnation here: https://incababies1.bandcamp.com/album/reincarnation
Band leader Harry Stafford shares, “Once upon a time, music was both a tune on the radio and a physical product. Ultimately all the songs from the radio were released on vinyl and collected by a hungry youth culture. For many, music defined their cultural identity and owning the songs allowed them a sense of belonging to that culture. As fashions subsided and more products came out, either no longer required or out of demand, they were discontinued and ‘deleted’. Although there always existed vinyl in collections all over the land, so the records and the music never actually disappeared. Indeed, the vinyl collection is a hard copy of their memories. But not all of this ‘deleted’ music is available online. In the 1980s, the Inca Babies released four LPs, eight singles and various tracks on compilations, most of which are no longer available but for the wonders of charity shops, car boot sales and the excellent Discogs.”
Inca Babies were a vibrant part of Britain’s early postpunk / death-rock scene, amassing a steady following through five intensive years of touring, six singles and four albums, all of which entered the UK Indie Charts. After four BBC John Peel sessions in 1984-1988, the band called it quits, reforming in 2007. Recorded and mixed over two years at, with Ding also contributing sonic and dub flourishes, this new album was mastered by Marco Butcher at Boombox Studio in North Carolina.
Inca Babies’ journey since their formation in 1983 in Manchester’s now-legendary deck-access flats of Hulme was highlighted in the 2024 documentary The Making of Ghost Mechanic Nine. Since reforming, they’ve released four albums and toured three continents. Continuing to explore goth, punk, death-rock and jazz-blues, the Incas now also include guitarist Jim Adama, bassist Dave Carmichael (Rat) and long-term member Rob Haynes (The Membranes, Goldblade) on drums and percussion.
“Looking through our back catalogue, it occurred to me that there were tracks that should again be made available in some manner and others that would benefit from reinvention. Last year’s ‘Ghost Mechanic Nine’ album was an opportunity to create new music for our fans, who would like this music in the form of digital downloads and, for the truly hardcore, as a 12” Vinyl Album,” says Harry Stafford. “But it was also a realisation that we could invigorate old tunes. We already had a ‘best of’ compilation in ‘Plutonium’, released in 2006, so we embarked upon a new quest, to inject new life into our favourite back catalogue. This whole project was to be an Innovative re-imagining of old tunes: re-invented for contemporary consideration. All of them Re-awakened and ‘Re-inca-rnated’.”
In the lead-up to the album, the Incas shared A-side/ B-side formats of singes “Candy Mountain,” with its hypnotic bass line, contemporary groove and electronic sequencing, and “Two Rails To Nowhere” with its original uptempo 1988 version featuring Inspiral Carpets‘ Clint Boon. The expanded Gun Club-esque version, featuring guitarist Vincent O’Brien, tells a more spacious heroic tale.
Reincarnation tracklisting:
01 Candy Mountain (from ‘This Train’ album, 1986)
02 Buster’s on Fire (7” Single on Constrictor Records, 1987)
03 Daniella (from ‘This Train’ album, 1986)
04 Two Rails to Nowhere (from ‘Evil Hour’ album, 1988)
05 Jerico (from ‘Big Jugular’ 12” EP, 1984)
06 Devil in my Room (from ‘Opium Den’ album, 1986)
07 Phantom Track (from ‘Death Message Blues’ album, 2010)
08 The Diseased Stranger’s Waltz (from ‘Rumble’ album, 1985)
09 Damnation (from ‘The Stereo Plan’ album, 2014)
10 Thirst (from ‘Opium Den’ album, 1986)
11 Superior Spectre (Extra B side of ‘Scatter’ 12” 2014 For Record Store Day)
12 Cowboy Song (B side from ‘The Judge’ 12” single, 1984)
Follow Inca Babies:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1DYKtxhhvh/
https://x.com/incababiesuk
https://www.instagram.com/stafford2838/
https://m.soundcloud.com/incababies
https://youtube.com/@harrystafford2970
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3NkkhvAPseRnDkBcY73Vu8
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/inca-babies/153916805