This Is Like A Dream / Total Pleasure

Minty (named after the Polari word for ‘snooty’) was formed in 1992 around legendary designer, performance artist, and muse for painter Lucien Freud, Leigh Bowery. Alongside friend and designer Richard Torry and club promoter, musician, and filmmaker Matthew Glamorre, Minty was conceived to present ‘actions’ on the fringes of music, art, and fashion and to explode (sometimes literally) in the face of growing homogenization.

Inheritors of the Post Punk and New Romantic scene, Bowery and crew led a vicious and uncompromising charge, challenging values, morality, and mainstream culture itself. After his premature death in 1994, Leigh and his conceptual art lived on as the remaining band members continued his legacy, releasing the cult album Open Wide and playing many live shows including supporting Pulp on their 1996 Common People Tour.

Bowery’s life and work are currently the focus of a major retrospective at the Tate Modern in London, the largest exhibition yet curated. It would certainly have been a dream come true for him, so it seemed pertinent to produce an artifact featuring two rare, unheard, and unreleased songs. This limited edition, quality, 7” vinyl pressing has been on sale exclusively in the Tate Modern shop for the first month of the exhibition, becoming an immediate collector's item.

The never before published cover shots, by legendary club photographer Dave Swindells, make this a unique piece for any follower of the alternative, underground, and avant-garde. "Like a Dream" Richard’s synth recording for the original 1993 ‘electro disco’ mix was inspired by dreaming of Leigh on the dance floor of the nightclub Heaven in 1983. With arrangement, production, and vocals from Glamorre, extra production and mix by Noko 440 (Apollo 440).

"Total Pleasure" Richard Torry’s home cassette recordings of Leigh and Nicola’s vocals and his original music from 1994 form the basis of the A side of this special release. With arrangement and mix by Glamorre.