As a discerning muso, you are no doubt well aware of Rip It Up & Start Again: PostPunk 1978-1984, Simon Reynolds’ swell book (finally issued in America via Penguin two months ago) on one of the most exciting periods in pop music history. Now V2 Records has issued a companion CD, curated by Reynolds, and while the disc has much to recommend it, I’m especially ga-ga over the inclusion of “The Devil Lives In My Husband’s Body” by Pulsallama.

A sprawling all-female percussion ensemble, whose ranks at various times included Ann Magnuson and one of NYC nightlife’s most charismatic characters ever, Wendy Wild (R.I.P.), Pulsallama only issued two 12-inch singles on the Y label, but they opened for The Clash, and their high-spirited pop cacophony is highly recommended for fans of the Raincoats, the Slits, and ESG.

“We’re percussive but we don’t play like other percussive bands. We don’t even have a guitar. On one of our songs the bassist, the singer and the drummer all do the exact same thing. That’s a taboo in music. People aren’t supposed to do that sort of thing. We do weird things like that because we’re not musicians. We really don’t know the right ways of making music and maybe that’s why we sound the way we do.”—Min “Bonefinder” Thometz (bongos, bass, vocals), from Future Pop by Peter Noble (Delilah Books, 1983)

You can download or listen to mp3 files of Pulsallama’s other three single sides—the rowdy “Ungawa Pt. 11 (Way Out Guiana),” “Oui-Oui (A Canadian In Paris),” and “Pulsallama On The Rag”—at this micro-site.