Tuxedomoon Desire

To celebrate the 45th anniversary of its release,TUXEDOMOON are happy to present a special edition of their landmark album : DESIRE
Coming out on November 21, on vinyl, CD and digital, DESIRE - 45th Anniversary Edition was remastered from original tapes, and comprises three previously-unreleased tracks, two rare cuts, live versions (see track list below), and recollections written by Steven Brown, Gareth Jones (engineer and co-producer), John Foxx (who was involved in the recording process), as well as notes written by Blaine Reininger and Peter Principle in 2015, photos and other memorabilia.
A milestone in post-punk experimentation, Desire captures Tuxedomoon at their most cinematic and atmospheric. Its mood of haunted romanticism and its category-defying blend of music have kept it influential among generations of musicians exploring the intersections of rock, electronic music, cabaret, minimal, jazz and classical music.
Desire was written just before the band’s relocation from San Francisco to Europe. It was recorded in the UK and released in 1981 on Ralph Records, The Residents’ own label, before being reissued in 1987 on CramBoy, the imprint created by Crammed Discs to host the band’s output.
Tuxedomoon’s considerable body of work (16 albums to date, with a new one currently in the works) remains unique, as relevant today as it’s ever been, thanks to the band’s visionary ability to transcend genres, and to the romantic, rebellious and imaginative spirit which illuminates their music.
About Tuxedomoon and Desire:

They were an anomaly from the beginning. Much of their work seemed to be soundtracks for non-existent films noirs. Sometimes they sounded distant and alien, sometimes they created melodies of great warmth and sophistication. But whatever they did it was always intelligent, beautiful and provocative. Glenn O'Brien (in Andy Warhol's Interview magazine, 1982)
A landscape of cinematic tension, chamber-music melancholy, and smoky electronic pulse. Desire wasn’t so much recorded as conjured, from half-memories and distant radio signals. Desire feels like a fever dream captured on tape — a postcard from a band in flux, reaching across continents and genres to find a language all their own. Gareth Jones (co-producer, 2025)
We were young and stupid, fearless and convinced of our own immortality. We have this classic record to show for it. Blaine L. Reininger (2015)
TuxedoWorld is urban and spectral. You get operatic subway rides and shattered songs from passing cars. It’s romantic, torn and gorgeously disturbing. This is music operating in a strata entirely of its own, with all the damaged magic of found film. That’s what makes it marvelous. John Foxx (2025)
The missing link between Joy Division and Radiohead. They’re cinematographic composers par excellence. Nova Mag (FR, 2005)
Tuxedomoon is a monstrous and beautiful thing to behold… Imagine Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter jamming with A Certain Ratio with some Charles Ives-like intertextuality at work. Wire Magazine (UK, 2008)
If anything, their playfully adventurous soundscaping —imagine Weather Report jamming with Can— seems better suited to the modern world. Q (UK, 2008)
They’re creating the music of tomorrow. Tuxedomoon go on a space and time conquest mission, with this sophisticated primitivism which has always been their trademark. Les Inrockuptibles (FR, 2005)
>> The Story of Tuxedomoon
Cult legends Tuxedomoon are a welcome exception in today's over-formatted musical world.
 
Born in 1977, in the heady atmosphere of San Francisco’s postpunk golden age, the band soon became a central part of New York's No Wave scene (as documented in the recent "Downtown 81" film, centered around Jean Michel Basquiat and featuring performances by Blondie, James Chance, DNA and Tuxedomoon). No Tears, their 2nd single (1979), has remained an electro punk club classic to this day.
 
The band went on to sign to The Residents' Ralph Records, and released two seminal albums, Half Mute (1980) and Desire (1981) which soon got them overseas exposure.
 
Fleeing Reagan's America, Tuxedomoon moved to Europe in the early '80s, and stayed there throughout the decade. Although their ability to crystallize a certain dark and romantic zeitgeist quickly turned them into one of the most influential bands around, their music transcended all genres and included impossibly wide parameters –rock, electronics, minimal music, classical, jazz, Gypsy music and pop were all simultaneously consumed and transmutated into a quasi-prescient blend.
 
After releasing a string of albums on CramBoy (the imprint they set up with Brussels-based label Crammed Discs), the band stopped recording together in 1988, and the various members pursued solo careers, becoming as disparate geographically as sonically, with Steven Brown (vocals, keyboard & saxophone) living in Mexico, Peter Principle (bass, electronics) in New York, Blaine L. Reininger (vocals, violin, guitar) in Greece, and Luc Van Lieshout (trumpet) & Bruce Geduldig (films/visuals) in Brussels.
 
After a long hiatus, Tuxedomoon got back together since 2003 to write and record the awesome Cabin In The Sky (2004), Bardo Hotel Soundtrack (2005) and Vapour Trails (2007) albums, which found them in absolute top form, as romantic, rebellious and boundlessly imaginative as they ever were. They appealed equally to fans of contemporary cutting-edge avant-rock, electronica and jazz. They were warmly welcomed by the media, and a wildly eclectic array of references sprang from the pens of reviewers trying to describe Tuxedomoon's music (Charles Ives, Radiohead, Philip Glass, Miles Davis, German electronica, Tom Waits, John Cage, Kurt Weill, Tortoise, Can…).
Two further releases came out during the 2010s: Pink Narcissus, an original soundtrack written for the eponymous film, and Blue Velvet Revisited (containing music they wrote and recorded with Cult With No Name for the soundtrack to Peter Braatz's documentary on David Lynch's movie).
Several tracks from these records -as well as some others- were recently used in films and TV series, and became catwalk favourites, having been used by leading fashion designers such as Yohji Yamamoto, Prada, Bodega Veneta, Hermès and others.
If anything, their recent albums revealed that Tuxedomoon were never connected to a particular period: they had become '80s cult figures simply because that's the period in which they happened to develop and rise to fame… but the band have always been evolving in their own space, and their music is as relevant and fresh today as it was then.
The band’s activities somewhat slowed down since 2017, after band members Peter Principle and Bruce Geduldig sadly passed away. They’re currently planning to work on a new album in 2026.
Track listing for Desire - The 45th Anniversary Reissue

Original, remastered tracks
East / Jinx / ... / Music # 1
Victims Of The Dance
Incubus (Blue Suit)
Desire
Again
In The Name Of Talent (Italian Western Two)
Holiday For Plywood
bonus tracks
Dark Companion (single from 1980)
Beauty Killer (Previously unreleased)
Ice Benign (Previously unreleased)
Sordide Elemental (Previously unreleased)
59 to 1 (1980 Remix)
In Heaven (Live in Eindhoven, 1980) (only on the vinyl version)
Desire (Live in Eindhoven, 1980)(only on the vinyl version)