The Shrubs, Full Steam into the Brainstorm (12" EP)

The heavier side of the mid-'80s English underground tended to lean heavily on the Gang of Four and Nightingales as primal influences. The Shrubs were a notable exception to this trend—they borrowed overtly from the Minutemen and the Birthday Party. 1986's Full Steam into the Brainstorm is somewhat more primitive than their later full-length Take Me Aside for a Midnight Harangue, which reminds me a bit of Slovenly. It sounds a bit smaller and thinner, and the experience just feels a bit more chaotic. The splattered blue and black cover is jarring, chaotic, and powerful.

Howard Riley, Synopsis (side A)

Pianist Riley is the least-known part of this trio, that also includes Barry Guy and Tony Oxley. 1973's Synopsis is a strong, if fairly typical, example of early 70s out improvisation from England. Guy and Oxley are credited with bass guitar and amplified percussion in addition to their usual bass and drums, but both of their playing is so abstract and textural that the differences are not jarring or obvious. Synopsis is notable to me for having been recorded by two women when the field was even more of an "old boys' club" than it is today, and it sounds quite good.

Piano Music of Erik Satie, vol. 1 (side A)

On these 1968 recordings, Aldo Ciccolini performs classic late-19th-Century Satie pieces. The "Trois Gnossiennes" and "Trois Gymnopédies" are the most famous pieces on here, and they reflect Satie's propensity for fragile and delicate. They sound modern today and deserve their classic status. Intriguing are some of the more dynamic and louder pieces that don't immediately come to mind when thinking of Satie. The piano playing and recording document the pieces well, but the cover art of Piano Music of Erik Satie, vol. 1 is bland and unmemorable.

The Scissor Girls, We People Space with Phantoms (side A)

While by the time We People Space with Phantoms came out in 1996, Kelly Kuvo was playing guitar, this album was recorded several years earlier and features original guitarist SueAnn Zollinger. As a result, it's resembles straightforward rock music at least a bit more than the Scissor Girls' later work. The album sounds pretty primitive and harsh, even though several professional engineers were involved with its recording. The SG's fragmented blare was already in full-force by this point, if not as reductionist and abstract as on the later singles and STATICLAND EP. The crazy drawings on the cover nicely reflect the chaos inside.

Liars, They were Wrong So We Drowned (side A)

Liars don't hint at where their influences are much at all. Occasionally, they sound a bit like 90s Touch n Go or old Dischord bands, but it's hard to tell if that's intentional, and the results resemble none of this at all. Their fractured, demented 2003 album They Were Wrong So We Drowned is a structural mess with strange percussion loops and lots of primitive sounds. It's a genuinely experimental record that rarely references other experimental records. Sometimes it works, sometimes it seems a bit lost, but it's still hard to believe that this was a commercially viable album at the time. The needlepoint design on the cover is remarkable, and even the 80s hardcore bands that thanked every band they'd ever met didn't put the list on the center sticker of the vinyl (as Liars did here)!

Black Orpheus soundtrack (side A)

The pulsing drums and energy throughout this movie obviously contributes to the beauty and immersiveness of Black Orpheus. Most of the soundtrack leaves this pulsing behind the music, even when tunes by Jobim and Luis Bonfa would also stand independently. The soundtrack includes percussive stretches, some tunes with the chaos surrounding them, and occasionally some stark and pretty songs. The cover art has a beautiful still from the movie, surrounded by a charmingly primitive design with far too many fonts and colors in far too little space. The cover also misspells Jobim's name, unfortunately.

The Velvet Underground, Another View (side A)

The Velvet Underground were obviously one of the most important rock bands of the 60s, so any collection of recordings is worth a listen. Because VU came first and collected the important out-takes, Another View is far less consistent. The inconsistency of material is to be expected, but for such an important reissue, more attention could have been paid to the technical side. Many of the tracks are then-new mixes from the 80s—some are creative, while others are overly slick (notably "We're Gonna Have a Goodtime Together"—did the mix engineer really think this would be a hit?). It's also a problem that the level of the 60s mixes was not brought up in mastering to match the new mixes. Even the packaging makes it obvious that this release was a bit of a low-budget afterthought, unfortunately. The Velvet Underground, even in their leftover out-takes, deserve better.