Biography
Shoc Corridor emerged in the early 1980s as a minimal wave outfit based in West London. Across that period the band issued two albums along with several singles. Their material typically relied on sparse, midtempo rhythms generated by drum machines alongside icy, atmospheric synthesizer textures, frequently paired with unsteady vocals. Although a few pieces employed straight 4/4 pulses that anticipated techno, the overall aesthetic remained too airy and fragile for club play. Vocalist Paul O’Carroll, guitarist Chris Davis, and synthesizer players Andy Garnham and Nogi Prass assembled the group at the start of the decade. They inked a deal with the London independent Shout and delivered the 12-inch EP A Blind Sign in 1982. The following year brought their first long-player, Experiments in Incest. Davis and Prass subsequently departed, making way for Paul Humphries and Sarah Panton. Under this revised configuration the band put out the 7-inch “Holding Treasure” on Shout, then moved to the Quiet imprint for the 12-inch “Fever” and the more approachable second album Train of Events, both appearing in 1984. Humphries took his own life later that same year, after which the group disbanded. In 1993 the Belgian imprint Classix Records assembled the catalog onto compact disc as Anthology. Another Belgian concern, Testtoon Records, issued a 12-inch remix of “Artificial Horizon” in early 2013. San Francisco’s Dark Entries label reissued the debut album in 2015 and, two years afterward, re-released A Blind Sign.
Albums
