You're looking at a comprehensive document covering the recorded work of this Chicago 3-piece from the mid 1980s – with no less than 8 "bonus" tracks derived from 4 or 5 different sources, one being the newly minted "Anniversary Mix". Seemingly engaged in the street theatre sensibility and general art school wackiness of The Residents, the Blitzoid's work is actually pretty much its own thing, with veins clogged by influences that reach from the negligent indifference of post punk through the no-man's land of industrial to the nearly smooth calm of new music minimalism.
So what have we got? Is The Blitzoids cover of "Theme from a Summer Place" as moving as The Bonzo Dog Band's seminal version of "The Sound of Music"? No, it's not. Are the theatrical outfits and costumes as convincing as demanded by Ralph Records' AR men? Apparently. But what comes to light some 20 years on is that thing that is still so lacking in music prepared for general release, and that is some profoundly eclectic sensibilities that are utterly loath to commit to a single style. Playing forward and back through the 25 pieces it is obvious that there is an interest in sound, in social comment and in instrumentation that are all allowed to adapt to the best possible expression of each subject. In this sense, The Blitzoids resemble art rockers like Faust, but with a typically American bent, using sound and studio as instrument to some greater effect. As brittle and jagged passages yield to periods of remarkable, even reflective calm, the sense of a subliminal and interpretative agility comes just within earshot. But the other thing, the other sad thing that comes well into earshot – perhaps because we now are some 20 years on – is the awareness that for all the stylistic sophistication on display here there are periodic and deep collapses into good ol' juvenilia. And that sadly undercuts some remarkably genuine and original work.
Track Listing
Disc 1
1) The Beard of Percy
2) No Time
3) Middle of Nowhere
4) Sing
5) Chance
6) (PL-93-531)
7) Left or Right?
8) Lobotomy
9) Try And Stop Us
10) Pup Tent
11) Summit Rain
12) Chair
Disc 2
1) 13 Dog 23 Nite
2) Look Up
3) Double O
4) Digitus Serpintinus
5) Good Vacation
6) Holes
7) Ever Since
8) Whither
9) Fire on the Mountain
10) Theme from A Summer Place
11) The Witch Doctor
12) Hell Hound
13) Anniversary Mix
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