New Math - Gardens [Remastered & Expanded] [CD]

First-Ever CD & Wide Vinyl Release of Rochester, NY’s New Math’s Lost 1984 Album “Gardens”.

This long-lost final release from the cult post-punk outfit New Math is now remastered & available on CD. This expanded reissue restores the band’s moody, genre-defying swan song that never had its proper moment. Originally intended for release in 1984, the New York-based indie label Brain Eater Records folded just before the album’s release, leaving shrink-wrapped copies stranded in boxes and never shipped to stores. While some copies reached U.S. college radio stations, most fans never had the opportunity to hear or purchase the full album.

New Math’s "Gardens" is a moody, gothic-laced, Neo-Psych, synth-tinged cinematic, genre-bending farewell recorded during a moment of creative reinvention. After turning down a modest major label offer from Columbia Records in early 1983, the group doubled down on their vision. Trading in the power-pop of early single “Die Trying” and the polished new wave aesthetic of the previous release’s “They Walk Among You,” the band pursued something more introspective and surreal. After a tour supporting the Psychedelic Furs and inspired by Kenneth Anger films and American Gothic imagery, Gardens was recorded at PCI Studios in Rochester and captures a haunted, transitional moment as the band unraveled and reshaped itself.

This Expanded Edition of Gardens includes: All 8 original tracks, fully remastered + 5 bonus tracks: including 4 live recordings from Rochester’s punk mecca Scorgies

The release also marks the beginning of the group’s transformation into The Jet Black Berries, whose track “Love Under Will” (first heard here) went on to appear on the iconic "Return of the Living Dead" soundtrack. With the resurgence of interest in early post-punk, psych-rock and shoegaze, this long-overdue reissue will hopefully be a found buried treasure for old fans and new listeners alike.