‘Tis the season to peruse a bevy of numbered rundowns as websites undergo deserved holiday breaks. As it was with previous TVD Best of lists, the releases below aren’t an all-encompassing pronouncement from an overstuffed armchair on high; instead they are merely a hierarchy of loosely paired favorites assembled and presented with cheer as the calendar swiftly runs out of days.
10. Youth Brigade “Complete First Demo” and Bells Of “00/85” | Spawned from the breakup of Teen Idles and the Untouchables, Youth Brigade (Nathan Strejcek- vocals, Tom Clinton- guitar, Bert Queiroz- bass, Danny Ingram- drums) are maybe the most underrated of the breakout Dischord bands of 1981. Expanding upon their entries for the foundational hardcore compilation Flex Your Head, this EP, recorded by Don Zientara and Skip Groff at Inner Ear Studios, makes a strong case for their musicianship in a style that was rapidly debased with regurgitations of formula.
Taken alone, “Complete First Demo” may seem a bit slight for a year-end best list, but as the name Youth Brigade underlines, the hardcore experience was never really about being considered by one’s self. These eight tracks total less than nine minutes and combine exceptionally well with archival material from State of Alert, Government Issue, and of course Minor Threat to reinforce DC’s centrality to the whole hardcore shebang.
By 1985 HC was mostly kaput. DC’s Revolution Summer was an exercise in creative rebirth, leaving behind close-mindedness and violence for liberating energy. Rites of Spring, Gray Matter, Beefeater, and Embrace were the main participants in a tight-knit uprising; “00/85” clarifies that others were taking part.
Formed by 17-year-old guitarist Lawrence McDonald (formerly of Capital Punishment), Bells of’s initial singer was Alec MacKaye (ex Faith). His departure brought McDonald into the vocalist spot; recorded by Zientara, “00/85” represents Bell of’s earliest work, unreleased until 2015. It’s a swell taste of the art-infused introspection partially defining the second half of the Dischord ‘80s, though Bells of’s later output has been long associated with the Teen Beat label. Folks having worn out copies of the cornerstone Revolution Summer platters should welcome this trim blast of post-HC.
9. Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll and Amara Touré 1973-1980 | Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten is the soundtrack to John Pirozzi’s fine documentary elaborating upon the flourishing culture of Cambodia prior to the Khmer Rouge-instigated genocide. While there’s been no shortage of coverage of ‘60s-‘70s Asian pop and rock over the last few decades, this 20-song set is distinguished by a sequence smartly outlining the developments of its era.
Included are numerous tunes from versatile vocalists Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Serey Sothea (once in duet), and illuminating selections from singer Pen Ran and surf-guitar band Baksey Cham Krong; nearer to the end Yol Aularong’s “Cyclo” offers a nicely bent slab of psych-rock grooving as the guitar in Serey Sothea’s “Old Pot Still Cooks Good Rice” gets nasty. As a highly listenable extension of the film, Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten lends clarity to music once shrouded in mystery.
Like the practitioners of Cambodian pop, vocalist-percussionist Amara Touré specialized in hybridization, specifically in the Afro-Cuban style; hailing from the West African country of Guinée Conakry, he was already a veteran of Le Star Band de Dakar before waxing these ten songs with two different groups across the span comprising the title of Analog Africa’s enlightening compilation.
Opening with the three singles Touré cut with the Ensemble Black and White between ’73 and ’76, the other four tracks represent the celebrated 1980 LP he made with L’Orchestre Massako. This session is sonically broader and expansive as the singles are more intense in their humid intimacy, but 1973-1980 wields focus and drive as it undertakes the necessary endeavor of collecting Touré’s complete output in one place.
8. Departmentstore Santas, At the Medieval Castle Nineteen 100-Year Lifetimes Since and The Fall, The Wonderful and Frightening World of… | A fair number of archival releases inhabit an outsider universe of varying friendliness, but the sole disc by the Santas, recorded in ’81-‘82 in La Mesa, CA and hitting select retail centers sometime thereafter, exudes a prescient and quite inviting oddness.
Led by Joseph D’Angelo, the Santas definitely share aspects (almost certainly coincidental) with Brit DIY of the same timeframe and by extension interestingly foreshadow the disheveled ambition found in the lo-fi corner of the following decade’s u-ground rumpus room. Severely loose stylistically and oozing intelligence, its jacket design reinforces an album seemingly made for the sheer fuck of it. Once too cultish an item to be widely influential, Superior Viaduct’s out-of-nowhere reissue may change that.
Right around the time At the Medieval Castle was settling into cut-out bins The Fall was commencing a fruitful relationship with Beggars Banquet; extant through the end of the ‘80s, the association produced six full-lengths. The first two were returned to print on vinyl earlier this year alongside a pair of compilations corralling singles, EP and Peel sessions. The Wonderful and Frightening World of… tops the bunch, edging ‘85’s This Nation’s Saving Grace by a whisker; the comps round up worthwhile addendum that will be familiar to many from preceding cassette and CD issues.
Due to the participation of Brix and/or rising commercial tendencies that hit an apex on ‘88’s The Frenz Experiment, some disdain (or at least show tempered enthusiasm for) this era of The Fall. To these ears the Beggars years have aged pretty well, though there’s not much that’s accurately pegged as blatantly mersh about Wonderful’s LP edition, and in documenting the end of the two-drummer lineup it remains a special installment in a formidably voluminous discography; starting here would not be a mistake.
7. Scientist, Introducing Scientist – The Best Dub Album in the World… and Singers and Players, Revenge of the Underdog | No, Scientist doesn’t actually deliver on his bold titular claim and yet the ten succinct tracks here endure as an impressive feat sans hitch, serving as the masterful debut from the undeniably youthful Hopeton Brown, a mixer having studied under the dub visionary King Tubby.
Recorded at Channel One studio with Sly & Robbie and mixed at Tubby’s joint, Introducing Scientist isn’t dub at its most outlandish (it’s still plenty strange), but it does cohere into a remarkably assured statement unwinding minus any noticeable missteps. And while some may find its 27-minute running time a tad meager, its brevity has long registered to this writer as a plus.
The immediate difference between Scientist and Singers and Players is the presence of deejays Bim Sherman, Prince Far I, Jah Woosh, and Lizard of Creation Rebel. This ’82 platter is their second collaboration with producer Adrian Sherwood as members of Roots Radics, the Slits, and Glaxo Babies augment the personnel; it’s an inviting affair offering deep, earthy warmth.
It’s also an eye-opener, emitting nary a trace of friction, tentativeness or fumbling betwixt the Jamaican and UK sides of the equation; “Follower” is a truly warped plunge into dub atmospherics and “Thing Called Love (Don’t Fight)” is a sweet slice of bass-heavy funk. It does feel likely to goose heavy dub heads more than post-punkers however, and those enticed by Revenge of the Underdog should look into the “War on Version” 10-inch, which collects four unreleased cuts from the same period.
6. Ellen Fullman, The Long String Instrument and Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Press Color | The title of Ellen Fullman’s album describes the device of her creation; 70 feet long and anchored to a wooden resonator, its metallic wires are tuned in just intonation and as depicted on the sleeve, played with fingers covered in rosin (another of her instruments, the Water Drip Drum, is also utilized).
Deriving from a 1985 residency at Het Apollohuis in Eindhoven, Holland featuring the contribution of artist Arnold Dreyblatt, The Long String Instrument’s five selections offer a considerable immersion into potent yet welcoming drone waters, and its first time vinyl repress is a simply outstanding reality for lovers of avant-garde/New Music; the chances of stumbling onto an affordable original copy is basically nil.
Currently based in the San Francisco area, Fullman was born in Memphis and studied sculpture in Kansas City, but she unsurprisingly landed in NYC for a time. So did the multitalented Lizzy Mercier Descloux, the early Franco-punk catalyst relocating to the land of Smith and Hell to play an important role in the city’s burgeoning No Wave scene.
A sometimes overlooked role in fact, though Light in the Attic’s reissue of Press Color, a 2LP expansion including Rosa Yemen, her formatively vigorous duo with Didier Zhilka, has helped to introduce Descloux to a fresh audience. Unlike the aural severity of much early No Wave stuff, the sounds shaping Press Color are a more approachable organism, its chic qualities retaining a crucial edginess; Rosa Yemen serves as a beautifully tense art-imbued prologue. For post-punk fans it’s an essential acquisition.
