Artistry and Distinction in Record-Making since 1980
JEFFREY RUNNINGS
“They’ve never quite gained the audience they've so richly deserved over the years,” Ned Raggett wrote for Pitchfork. “They deserve recognition for their early-adapter approach to post-punk, as well as for sticking with it until and after everyone finally came around.”
Habit would like you to hear angular rhythms and moody bleakness and start picturing grey-toned UK cities caught somewhere between the demise of the ‘70s and the dawn of the ‘80s. First coming together in 1984, For Against were an exemplary exception to the rule – overlooked yet essential purveyors of the post-punk sound, their sound was emanating not from Manchester but from the unlikely underground of Lincoln, Nebraska. The major catalyst for this lucky anomaly was the encounter between two members of local group Glue, Harry Dingman and Greg Hill, and Jeffrey Runnings. As a high school student, Runnings had started collecting singles and albums coming from the other side of the ocean – the more obscure the better – opening his ears, mind and heart to groundbreaking sounds brought to him by instant favorites such as Factory, 4AD, Polydor and Rough Trade.
The influence of seismic favorites such as Joy Division and The Comsat Angels could be already traced in For Against’s debut single, the mesmerizing Autocrat, released in 1985. That same year Runnings, ever the keen collector and generous correspondent, wrote a letter to Independent Project Records founder Bruce Licher. “Please send me any information on how I may increase communication with IPR…,” he penned right at the beginning. Communication between the two would indeed increase: just two years later Independent Project Records released For Against’s first album, Echelons. A cult classic of moody '80s post-punk, thanks to Licher’s sublime design Echelons even gained a nomination for Best Album Package at that year’s Grammy Awards.
Whilst For Against went through a few line-up changes (with Runnings being the only constant member), the group’s relationship with Independent Project Records proved stable and fruitful. 1988 saw the release of a fan favorite such as December, while 1990 saw For Against dive in coldwave waters with the In The Marshes EP. 1991 brought with it a reformed and reshaped group, as well as a more melodic, dream pop-indebted sound, first heard on EP Don’t Do Me Any Favors. Aperture and Shelf Life followed in ‘93 and ‘97 respectively.
Some forty years after Runnings and Licher’s correspondence and friendship began, Independent Project Records finds itself in the bittersweet position of releasing Piqued, Runnings’ last album, finalized shortly before the artist passed away at 61 due to Stage 4 cancer. A posthumous release that’s also a celebration of the artist’s lifelong quest for a sound that, stripped to the bones, is all the more powerful and cathartic for its restraint, Piqued was recorded by Runnings at home on an old 8-track cassette machine. It plays just like a late '80s mixtape, lovingly compiled to showcase the beautiful emptiness of post-punk’s more eloquently quiet peaks. The favorites of a lifetime – from Section 25 to The Comsat Angels, from Young Marble Giants to early 4AD singles – are conjured as Runnings’ final songs play. Stark and deadpan on the surface, this is electric guitar music in its most human and vulnerable form. Piqued will be released on July 11, 2025 – available on vinyl (black or transparent magenta), Special Edition CD and digital, it comes with a 4-track EP of rare recordings from the late '80s (two of them previously unreleased). ​​​
"Heretofore" is the second single from the album:
As Bruce Licher noted,
“Jeffrey Runnings was not only a good friend and an outstanding musician & songwriter, but someone whose life revolved around music. Jeff was always enthusiastically sharing music that he thought his friends would enjoy, and for years he would send me handwritten letters often accompanied by records he thought I should have, or a mixtape he’d made that he thought I should hear. Even now, in the middle of the second decade of the 21st Century, when he sent me his new album to hear for the first time, it was on a cassette tape that he mailed through the post. I couldn’t have asked for anything more special. His unique voice will be missed on so many levels.”
For Against appears on IPR's outstanding compilation CD, Source. Listen to "The Pennines":