Dennis Duck, Dennis Duck Goes Disco (side C)

Dennis Duck is the stage name of the great drummer Dennis Mehaffey, known for his work with the Dream Syndicate, Human Hands, Airway, and the Doo-Dooettes.  Here, instead of drums, he plays either a single turntable or a pair.  The turntables are mangled to perform actions that bear little, if any, resemblance to how a person would normally listen to a record.  His most frequent trick, which is documented in the liner notes, is to adjust the anti-skating to play backwards or leap incoherently.  Records additionally spin at the wrong speeds, and are sometimes tilted on the turntable.  The resulting tracks are funny, percussive, and surprisingly propulsive (sometimes even rhythmic).  At one level, they're hard to listen to, and at another level they're remarkably friendly, funny, and engaging.  Occasionally the records used as sources can be perceived, with bits of speech peeking out.  Most of the time, the turntable itself takes center stage.  Dennis Duck Goes Disco is a carefully-restored reissue from 2009 of a limited cassette that was originally created in 1977—it sounds incredibly clear for such a brutal construction process, and the gatefold packaging is impressive too.  The bright colors in the blurry cover image leap out—the packaging gives no hint of the music inside, but it's equally as engaging, intriguing, and unreferential.