Lummy, how those 30 years have flown since this first ‘proper’ debut from the Nyman band. It's now handsomely re-packaged with Nyman's own sleeve notes and two posters from the original vinyl releases here and in Japan (though who, pray, has a Nyman poster on their wall?). Neither Nyman nor his long-time collaborator Peter Greenaway had yet broken through to wider audiences with the extraordinary The Draughtman's Contract, but this debut finds the Nyman sensibility bristlingly present: American minimalism wrapped in a seaside postcard grin, Purcell all rocked up, and a nice scuzzy studio sound. And the results remain fascinatingly fresh all these decades on, not the least the irresistible madness of ‘Bird List Song’ (featured on Greenaway's still best if least appreciated movie, The Falls). Of course, it helps to have a band of like-minded souls who happen to be virtuosos: Harle and co. contribute that disciplined reedy tone, while Lucy Skeaping may now be queen of Radio 3, but then no-one laid down a killing cassowary call better than her. This heady brew of (faux) amateur stylings, bonkers yet virtuoso performance and tight writing comes together on ‘Waltz’ which jazzers at least will appreciate for Parker and Brötzmann's squawls. The massive ‘M-work’ may be the epic climax of the recording, but it's in the joyous detail of the soaring ‘Bird Anthem’ that Nyman and the band take flight and herald the special decades yet to come.