London singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Chris Pascoe, better known as SulkyMan, premieres “The Things I Said,” a rediscovered recording that offers a glimpse into the formative years of an artist whose music has consistently existed outside easy genre definitions.

Recorded around 1995 on a Yamaha MT50 four-track analogue recorder, “The Things I Said” comes from a larger collection of recordings that remained unheard for decades. Created while Pascoe was developing his own approach to songwriting, production and performance, the track captures the intimacy and limitations of analogue recording while revealing the instincts that would eventually shape the SulkyMan project.

SulkyMan pairs honest, sometimes raw lyrics with inventive melodies, creating music that can feel moody, introspective and atmospheric while remaining distinctly catchy. His songs move between vulnerability, dry humor, observation and darker shades of emotion, resisting the expectation to settle comfortably into a single genre.

That instinct for doing things differently goes back much further than the SulkyMan name. As a teenager, Pascoe played bass in Part 1, the early London anarcho-punk band formed in 1980. The band recorded its Funeral Parade EP when Pascoe was just 15, along with the LP Pictures of Pain. Both releases were later revisited and reissued through Sacred Bones Records, bringing renewed attention to Part 1’s music decades after its original release. The band has also been credited with helping lay the groundwork for a new strain of deathrock.

Part 1’s story was documented in Ian Glasper’s history of anarcho-punk, The Day the Country Died, while the band’s music was later included on Cherry Red Records’ five-CD collection Silhouettes and Statues: A Gothic Revolution 1978–1986. Their final gig before eventually reforming took place at London’s legendary 100 Club in 1983 with Subhumans.

Pascoe’s musical path continued through years of playing in different bands before eventually becoming a completely self-contained creative process. As SulkyMan, he writes, performs, records and produces the music himself, a philosophy reflected in his first two albums, MT50 (The Story Begins) and I’m So Strange (Lost Tapes 1). Both are part of a larger collection of material recorded entirely by Pascoe using vintage four- and eight-track analogue equipment, with every instrument and vocal performed by him.

“The Things I Said” provides another piece of that history, bringing a recording from the mid-1990s into the present while offering another look at the musical ideas that have continued to inform Pascoe’s work.

The track also sits within a much broader musical life. Alongside his work as a songwriter and producer, Pascoe became an established presence in London’s underground tech-house scene during the early 2000s, DJing alongside figures including Terry Francis, Eddie Richards and Dave String. His production work from the period includes the 12-inch vinyl releases Operation Deepfreeze, DogBite, Almost Beautiful, Cross the Eyes and Dime Solo.

Across these different chapters, Pascoe has consistently followed his own instincts rather than conforming to a particular scene. His formative influences include The Stranglers, Joy Division, Killing Joke, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Japan and Magazine, but SulkyMan’s work ultimately resists direct comparison.

As London Mastering Studio’s Francis Gorini puts it, “In a music business where too many artists have the tendency to play it safe by imitating whatever is going on in the mainstream, SulkyMan definitely stands out for his uniqueness.”

“The Things I Said” is another entry point into that uniqueness: a recording made with limited technology, preserved through time and now brought forward as another chapter in SulkyMan’s continuing story.

SulkyMan is the solo project of London singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Chris Pascoe. Honest, sometimes raw lyrics meet inventive melodies across a body of work that has been described as sulky, moody, introspective, catchy and deeply emotive. Working independently, Pascoe writes, performs, records and produces his own music, often using vintage analogue equipment and performing every instrument and vocal himself. His musical history stretches from London’s early anarcho-punk scene with Part 1 to the underground tech-house world and, now, his work as SulkyMan.

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