Felt

Britain's enigmatic Lawrence masterminded Felt, channeling a deep fixation on Tom Verlaine and Television into a body of spare, minimalist pop songs that earned the band enduring cult status. Lawrence recorded the debut single "Index" solo in his bedroom using only a portable cassette player; issued in 1979, its raw, impressionistic character clashed sharply with the polished restraint of new wave, an effect heightened by his widely noted "new puritan" stance that rejected alcohol, smoking, and drugs. The track drew intense critical acclaim, securing Felt a deal with Cherry Red.

Lawrence next recruited musicians, though Felt remained his singular vision; lore holds that he dismissed original drummer Tony Race largely because the player had curly hair. Following several lineup changes, guitarist Maurice Deebank and drummer Gary Ainge stabilized the group in time for the 1981 EP Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty. Deebank's classical training enabled guitar lines that echoed the dual interplay of Television's Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, while Lawrence's restrained singing invited comparisons to another New York figure, Lou Reed.

A second EP, 1984's The Splendour of Fear, preceded the long-planned debut album The Strange Idols Pattern and Other Short Stories later that year. Keyboardist Martin Duffy joined before the band cut 1985's Ignite the Seven Cannons with producer Robin Guthrie; fellow Cocteau Twin Liz Fraser appeared on the single "Primitive Painters," which became a major British indie hit. Despite this success, tensions mounted—Lawrence and Ainge once delivered a calamitous two-man improvisational festival set after Deebank and Duffy walked offstage—and Deebank departed permanently before 1986's Ballad of the Band EP, Felt's first release on Creation.

With the guitarist gone, the 1986 album Let the Snakes Crinkle Their Heads emerged as a concise instrumental set, yet its successor, Forever Breathes the Lonely Word, quickly gained recognition as the group's masterpiece. Mayo Thompson helmed the 1987 EP Poem of the River, while Guthrie returned for the austere mini-album The Final Resting of the Ark. Two contrasting LPs arrived in 1988—The Pictorial Jackson Review and Train Above the City, the latter recorded without Lawrence—before Felt disbanded after issuing Me and a Monkey on the Moon in 1989. Lawrence later fronted the 1970s-glam project Denim and later pursued novelty pop with Go Kart Mozart. Keyboardist Martin Duffy died at age 55 on December 18, 2022, after sustaining brain injuries in a fall at his home.