2025 Stock. 180g vinyl with insert. Ossification is like an amazing party held at This Heat's Cold Storage studio, with friends like Felix Fiedorowicz, Tom Cora, Tim Hodgkinson, Bill Gilonis, Zeena Parkins, and Catherine Jauniaux creating one of the most unusual, pleasurable and character-filled "pop" records you'll ever hear. Recorded at Cold Storage in Brixton between 1983-84, this debut album from Mick Hobbs' project stands as a timeless anomaly: fourteen songs that contain the spirit of pop, rock, classical, medieval, avant-garde, R.I.O., and more, synthesized into something that sounds like nothing else.

The output contains the spirit of The Work, Family Fodder, This Heat, Look de Bouk, Henry Cow and more, yet refuses to be pinned down to any single reference point. Hobbs, known for his work with The Work, assembled an astonishing roster of British and European experimental music royalty, including Tim Hodgkinson from Henry Cow, cellist Tom Cora, harpist Zeena Parkins, and vocalist Catherine Jauniaux. The instrumental palette is equally eclectic: bassoon, recorders, toy piano, Hawaiian guitar, clarinet, alongside conventional rock instrumentation, creating textures that shift from mock-medieval to post-punk to avant-pop within single tracks.

What makes Ossification remarkable is how it balances genuine experimentalism with undeniable melodic hooks, how it maintains playfulness without sacrificing sophistication. This 2020 reissue, mastered by Andy LeVien at RMS Studios from digital transfers by Dusan Jakovljevic, makes Hobbs' vision available again in multiple physical formats alongside digital versions with PDF cover and lyric sheet. For fans of the Recommended Records universe and anyone interested in what art-pop could sound like when approached with genuine wit, invention, and refusal to follow rules, Ossification remains essential listening nearly four decades on.