Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong

U.K. cult band WOO’s 1982 debut album released today as an expanded edition

 Independent Project Records (IPR) announced that today U.K. cult band WOO have reissued their debut album, Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong (originally released in 1982) as an expanded edition. IPR has signed an agreement with the band to manufacture and market the expanded album on their The Sunshine Series Records imprint.

The remixed and remastered expanded edition of Whichever Way You Are Going-You Are Going Wrong includes new album cover art (a collaboration between the band’s Clive Ives and IPR’s Bruce Licher) and ten previously unreleased bonus tracks presented as a bonus album. It’s available on both black and limited edition clear vinyl, as well as Special Edition CD and digital formats. This genre and time-defying selection of songs marked the public’s first exposure to the wild sonic experimentations that Mark Ives and Clive Ives would be known for over the following decades.

Shape-shifting musical directions

In 1982, as brothers Mark and Clive Ives first opened the doors to their home studio in South London, the world met WOO – a duo that escaped genre and definition, making music that was proudly unrestrained, constantly mutating and always surprising. From its very title, debut LP Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong asserted the brothers Ives as tireless explorers of multifarious shape-shifting musical directions – the album blended kaleidoscopic jazz and analogue electronica, free-flowing pop and unearthly muzak, retro fun and futuristic adventures. “WOO can sound as soft as a Martini ad, as sharp as a stab of conscience and often, brilliantly, both,” the Melody Maker noted at the time. 

Finally remastered and reissued in a sumptuous package, Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong proves to be not only out of time but timeless. It comes with a bonus mini-album of rare recordings from the late ‘70s and ‘80s, assembled by the brothers with the same spirit that informed the making of their first groundbreaking release.

This is the second WOO release affiliated with Independent Project Records since IPR relaunched in 2020. As Flood Magazine said in 2024 of the IPR release of the two-album Robot X and Xylophonics package, “WOO—unlike fellow travelers such as The Durutti Column or even Brian Eno at his most intense—has a tendency of coloring their avant-garde, ambient-based blends of music in bright, colorful tones rather than dark, shadowy synths.”

About Independent Project Records

Known for their unique musical sensibilities and extraordinary artwork & design, Independent Project Records is a favorite of record collectors and music fans alike for their bespoke packaging and attention to detail. Grammy-nominated founder Bruce Licher’s graphic design and his hand-letterpress packaging have been a mainstay in music circles since 1982’s Tragic Figures from Savage Republic. Since that time, the label has released seminal albums and singles from artists as diverse as Savage Republic, Alison’s Halo, Human Hands, Kommunity FK, Camper Van Beethoven, Scenic, For Against, Deception Bay, Half String, Autumnfair, The Dentists, Tone, WOO, Stereolab and more.

Since the label’s relaunch in 2020, IPR has released new music, lost albums, reissues with bonus tracks on digital, compact disc and vinyl formats for a variety of artists including A Produce, Afterimage, Alison Clancy, David J, Half String, Bruce Licher, Greg Lisher, Jeffrey Runnings, The Ophelias, Red Temple Spirits, Savage Republic, Scenic, Shiva Burlesque, Springhouse, Torn Boys, WOO and multiple various artist compilations. Coming up later this year and in 2026 are new titles from WOO, David J, Driveway Ceiling, and the official soundtrack album for the award-winning documentary film Louder Than You Think (A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young & Pavement).

*Huge shoutout to It’s Alive! Media & Management. Check out their website at ItsAliveMedia.com.