Now I know this album just got re-released with the upgraded packaging and an explanation as to why Stapleton decided, after declaring this album was total shit, to release it again. This post isn't really reviewing the newly re-released version, but the ripped version I found years ago of the original vinyl that was released in '81 on United Dairies.
The album starts off with a metallic slam which creates a kind of feedback, and this basically leads you to believe that this opening track might be a drone type field recording. Soon after this thought has settled, there is lots of clanging and noise to bring you back to reality. The rest of the track is a beautiful collage of sound and the destruction there of.
The second track, Absent Old Queen Underfoot , is another sound collage...a bit less harsh, more subdued but equally interesting.
The final track is Mutilés du Guerre which has some great brush goings on from Trevor Reidy with distorted amp noises and trashy sounds that creep in and out as the drummer plays with his brushes with out a care for form or reason. Near the end, there is a wonderful tape loop that plays over and over with a female sounding voice saying something I can't understand...it sounds like it is being scratched off of some old vinyl. It is lovely and fits in perfectly against the sick sounds that Stapleton is destroying your ears with. The sounds of old squeeky metal or coil springs fight against an odd screaming and deafening tone just below all of it.
Over all I love listening to this mess of an album. I can see how Stapleton could intially reject it though...but given time, it is quite a great representation of the sound collage work with tape looping and what not that was going on back in the 70s/80s. Definitely worth at least one listen.
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