Biography
Paul Haig first gained recognition as the lead singer of the Scottish post-punk outfit Josef K, whose solitary official album helped shape the C-86 movement that emerged several years after the band dissolved. In the decades that followed, he sustained an active career through solo releases and a series of joint projects. The early-’80s dissolution of Josef K also prompted him to set aside earlier anti-commercial principles while forging alliances with an array of stylistically diverse artists.
His output proved especially abundant in the period right after Josef K ended, yielding numerous singles and albums issued both under his own name and via the Rhythm of Life imprint. The 1983 effort The Rhythm of Life, a synth-driven set tracked in New York, enlisted Pere Ubu’s Anton Fier, Parliament/Funkadelic’s Bernie Worrell, and the Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey. Echoing the Human League and the British Electric Foundation, the album favored polished pop over the urgent, guitar-led sound of his prior work and consequently distanced many longtime listeners.
Two 1984 singles involved Cabaret Voltaire and Bernard Sumner, after which Haig formed a more sustained partnership with former Associate and onstage collaborator Alan Rankine. Label complications kept a completed album unreleased, yet the subsequent material appeared as 1985’s The Warp of Pure Fun, again featuring Rankine’s electronic and production contributions. Also issued that year was the big-band and torch-standards project Swing in ’82, which had remained unreleased for three years. In 1988 European Sun collected singles and additional tracks spanning a six-year period. The self-financed Chain, recorded with Rankine in 1988, was acquired by Virgin affiliate Circa and finally surfaced in mid-1989.
Circa financed the next project, which brought in Lil’ Louis, Mantronix, and the Chimes. A single from those sessions failed to register in clubs or on the charts, leaving the album Right on Line unreleased until Crepuscle secured the rights and issued it in 1993 as Coincidence vs. Fate. Haig subsequently founded his own Rhythm of Life label, on which he released a second volume of Cinematique and several posthumous Billy Mackenzie recordings, most prominently the 1999 collaboration Memory Palace. LTM reissued and remastered both Coincidence vs. Fate and The Warp of Pure Fun in 2003, adding fresh liner notes and bonus tracks.
His output proved especially abundant in the period right after Josef K ended, yielding numerous singles and albums issued both under his own name and via the Rhythm of Life imprint. The 1983 effort The Rhythm of Life, a synth-driven set tracked in New York, enlisted Pere Ubu’s Anton Fier, Parliament/Funkadelic’s Bernie Worrell, and the Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey. Echoing the Human League and the British Electric Foundation, the album favored polished pop over the urgent, guitar-led sound of his prior work and consequently distanced many longtime listeners.
Two 1984 singles involved Cabaret Voltaire and Bernard Sumner, after which Haig formed a more sustained partnership with former Associate and onstage collaborator Alan Rankine. Label complications kept a completed album unreleased, yet the subsequent material appeared as 1985’s The Warp of Pure Fun, again featuring Rankine’s electronic and production contributions. Also issued that year was the big-band and torch-standards project Swing in ’82, which had remained unreleased for three years. In 1988 European Sun collected singles and additional tracks spanning a six-year period. The self-financed Chain, recorded with Rankine in 1988, was acquired by Virgin affiliate Circa and finally surfaced in mid-1989.
Circa financed the next project, which brought in Lil’ Louis, Mantronix, and the Chimes. A single from those sessions failed to register in clubs or on the charts, leaving the album Right on Line unreleased until Crepuscle secured the rights and issued it in 1993 as Coincidence vs. Fate. Haig subsequently founded his own Rhythm of Life label, on which he released a second volume of Cinematique and several posthumous Billy Mackenzie recordings, most prominently the 1999 collaboration Memory Palace. LTM reissued and remastered both Coincidence vs. Fate and The Warp of Pure Fun in 2003, adding fresh liner notes and bonus tracks.
Albums
The Wood
2018
The Lost Album
2014
Kube
2013
Trip Out the Rider
2010
Electronik Audience
2007
Reason / Maybe
2007
Then Again
2004
Chain
1989
Swing in 82
1985
The Warp of Pure Fun
1985
Singles
