Vazz

Formed in Glasgow amid the 1980s, the post-punk duo Vazz developed an otherworldly sonic approach that anticipated dream pop. The project centered on multi-instrumentalist Hugh Small alongside vocalist Anna Howson. Their first outing arrived via the cassette-only Whisper Not in 1982, a seven-track demo captured at the Hellfire Club. Belgian imprint Operation Twillight had planned to include the material on the Antelopes & Alligators compilation, yet the project stalled and just 100 copies of the cassette ever circulated. Two years afterward the track “Silver” surfaced on the Pleasantly Surprised label’s Glasgow compilation Dreams and Desires, which also contained material by the Cocteau Twins and Wolfgang Press. Over the ensuing years Vazz placed several further releases with Cathexis, among them the 1986 mini-album Your Lungs and Your Tongues. Forced Nostalgia reissued six tracks from Whisper Not on vinyl in 2011, while the remaining track plus an unreleased piece appeared as a digital single the next year. In 2013 the same label assembled the complete Vazz catalog on the compilation Chronoillogical. Small later resumed recording, issuing electronic instrumentals under the name Reluctant Participant throughout the 2010s.