Former Buzzcocks founder Howard Devoto left the seminal punk band after the release of its 1977 SPIRAL SCRATCH EP to form Magazine. Harnessing the energy and artistic spirit of punk and channeling it into darker and more elaborate productions (featuring synthesizers and dance rhythms), Magazine provided a key link between the more rudimentary stylings of punk's first flourishing and the later U.K. acts that would come to be known as New Wave.