| A1 | – | "Wait Here I'll Be Right Back..." | ||
| A2 | – | Sector Wars | ||
| A3 | – | Closet Bears | ||
| A4 | – | Pyrenees | ||
| A5 | – | Hösé Annå | ||
| A6 | – | Bowling Balls Theme | ||
| B1 | and – | Sunset In Hibernia | ||
| B2 | and – | The Manikin Shuffle | ||
| B3 | – | Ride, Rider | ||
| B4 | – | My Spys Lost | ||
| B5 | – | Andrea | ||
| B6 | – | The Last Pin |
My mother has told me about this particular record since I was 14 years old, not so coincidentally when I was getting into "punk" music. My definition of punk at that time was ugh NOFX and Rancid (forgive me) so needless to say when she informed me that her (boy?)friend from college had made the cover art for an Akron punk compilation it fell on deaf ears.
Luckily she stayed resilient through my "uninformed dark years"and continued to urge me to check it out. On my recent trip to Akron and more importantly Square Records she plunked down her own mula on this and told me it was a history lesson. Indeed it was.
Throw that punk label she gave this out the window! New Wave? Maybe. Who the HELL is Denis DeFrange? I had NO CLUE this is record was gonna sound like it sounds.
Starts off with The Waitresses's laying down a weirder version of " I Know What Boys Like" renamed "Wait Here, I'll Be Right Back...". Some serious squiggly synth burps all over this.
What comes next is totally unexpected: minimal synth. Mr. DeFrange could fill a whole side of this record with his contributions, the majority of, sounds as if 70's Klaus Schulze gave up all his synths except for one and recorded in someones basement or a vocal less John Bender. The track "Bowling Balls Theme" would fit right at home on The Forbidden Zone soundtrack.
Ralph Carney of Tin Huey fame on "Closet Bears" plays jittery retard R2D2 funk that would make The Residents squeamish. "Hose Anna" has this bizarre effect on the trap drums that flows in and out of the song making for one uneasy listen. Again reminds me of The Residents but if they actually knew how to play their instruments.
"Sunset in Hibernia" is Ralph Carney and David Thomas of Pere Ubu (sounding like a sadistic clown here) making toxic waste carnival music for vagabonds, complete with a "warning, warning, warning, dannnnnnnngerrrrr" invocation. Heavily phased bass and guitar on this one.
"Ride, Rider" by Haff Notz plays a kind of Cockney Rebel (without the glam) jam complete with violin, dinky keyboards and a Peter Hammill aping singer.
"Andrea" by Hurricane Bob is probably the most straight forward song on the entire comp that forsees the paisley underground. Chunky guitars churn over hammering drum beats with male/female singing and a blaring saxophone line by Terry Hynde (Numbers Band). Lovely cooing vocals at the end of this.
Fantastic document of the Akron music scene of the late 70's early 80's. If you can find it, grab it!
"...toxic waste carnival music for vagabonds". PERFECT!
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