The Monochrome Set - White Noise: Early Recordings

I feel like I should've known more about these guys.. I mean from the moment you stick on this seven track slab of early recordings (dating from the mid-late 1970s) it's completely apparent that they've played a really important part in indie rock history, even if they don't seem to have quite had their due for it. I guess their low-key proto-New Wave sorta style, along with the laconic delivery of their frontman, doesn't make a desperate grab for your attention so maybe that's why they seem to have remained relatively unsung? Their influence is striking me as a bit of a weird one too, as they sound totally English in many ways but I'm feeling like it was probably felt even more over the pond, from the K Records lot to the lo-fi slacker-y 90s stuff to slowcore and beyond. An enlightening history lesson for me and cracking listening purely on its own terms..