The third single from this Icelandic band. A 12" E.P single.

Recorded in 1982, there is a slight Killing Joke feel to the sound on all these tracks, not surprisingly as Jaz Coleman and Geordie from Killing Joke were constant visitors to Iceland at this time, and early supporters of the Icelandic music scene.

Jaz Coleman decided to move to Iceland along with guitarist Geordie, with the ambition of resurrecting the Icelandic rock scene.

While there, Coleman and PEYR, formed a new band originally called Iceland, but later named Niceland.

After rehearsing for weeks Niceland was ready to record five songs in 1983, but two of them were never finished; the three songs recorded were: 'Guess Again', 'Catalyst' and 'Take What’s Mine'.

But as PEYR decided to write their own songs, Jaz moved away and returned to England to reestablish Killing Joke.

The songs recorded by Niceland remain unpublished.

PEYR, toured Scandinavia.

With the tour, the band gained more popularity and even managed to appear on radio and television in Denmark, they also went to a studio and recorded a few songs which were released on the 12" E.P single, 'The Fourth Reich', in memory of Wilhelm Reich whose books had been banned by the Nazi regime.

The sleeve depicts Wilhelm Reich, a psychiatrist, psycho-analyst and writer, who was labelled a Communist Jew by the Nazi Party, so he escaped from Germany in 1934 to settle briefly in Scandinavia.

During the Nazi period of German history all of Wilhelm Reich’s books were destroyed, and subsequently banned. The writer made it to the U.S. in 1939.

In 1947, following a series of critical articles about orgone in The New Republic and Harper’s, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A) began an investigation into his claims, and won an injunction against the interstate sale of orgone accumulators.

Charged with contempt of court for violating the injunction, Reich conducted his own defense, which involved sending the judge all his books to read. He was sentenced to two years in prison, and in August 1956, several tons of his publications were burned by the F.D.A.

He died of heart failure in jail just over a year later, days before he was due to apply for parole.

It must be noted that the PEYR sleeve artwork has not got a swastika on it. The armband shown on the cover contained the symbol of the orgone physics, which represented duality and its origins in unity, referred by Reich as functionalism.

On 'The Fourth Reich' the use of percussion and rhythmical efforts were far more important than in earlier works. In this respect, the song “Zen” was particularly important due to its marked rock style, but did not have the impact of earlier works because the music was less accessible.

The Icelandic version of this E.P was released by label MJOT which had been created by Magnus from PEYR.

PEYR had two albums and a handful of singles released during the band’s lifetime, these of course are no longer available.

All early Icelandic singles are very rare, this 12″ E.P single being no exception.

Two of the members, eventually formed KUKL with Bjork towards the end of 1983.

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