1982 proved to be a very busy year for the Virgin Prunes when their single “Pagan Lovesong”(1982) with its insistent bass line and sinister vocals quickly became an alternative dance floor hit. It was followed by “Hérésie”(1982) for the French label L’Invitation au Suicide the record being presented as two 10” singles packaged inside a box with 5 artistic booklets each loosely concerned with insanity and its connection to art and filth. Disc 1 was a soundtrack to these booklets whilst the second took the form of an in-concert recording of Virgin Prunes live at the Rex Club, Paris, in June 1982. The methods employed to create “Hérésie” account for much of its unusual atmosphere. All of the songs were written during the day and recorded in a Dublin studio at night, a process that saw the band go without sleep for 3 days. On “Hérésie” the band offer a wonderful counter-point to their dark experimental music by also including “Down The Memory Lane” a parody of a traditional Irish sing-a-long that provides a stark contrast to the heavier tones of tracks like “Rhetoric”, which prior to being edited for release, weighed in at a colossal 28 minutes.
