James Chance and the Contortions

James Chance and the Contortions formed in New York in the late 1970s, led by saxophonist and vocalist James Chance, who fused no wave's confrontational energy with a genuine, tightly rehearsed funk rhythm section — a combination that made the band's music simultaneously more danceable and more aggressive than most of its no wave peers. Chance's live performances were notorious for direct physical confrontation with audience members, an extension of the music's own combative relationship with the listener.

Buy (1979), the band's debut album, brought that fusion of funk precision and punk hostility to its fullest studio realization, its tight rhythm section and Chance's skronking saxophone establishing a template that would later be cited by a generation of dance-punk and post-punk-funk revivalists. James Chance continued performing under various names in the decades that followed, but the Contortions' brief, combustible run remains the clearest statement of no wave's funkier, more danceable wing.