Social Climbers :: Chris & Debbie
A big thank you to Yoga Records and Drag City for teaming up for this excavation, getting their hands a little dirty together in the desolate graffiti-haze of NYC no-wave 1981. I'd have a large, one-man privately-drunk dance-party-sized hole in my life without their hard work putting this one out. What you've got here is a group of blue-collar mid-westerners with jazz credentials waking up in the much-less-interesting-than-history-remembers punk scene of the Lower East Side, just as the guitars were suspect of not making your dreams come true. In fact, you'll find very little six-string on this, an addictive cycle of bass grooves, hiccuping drum machine, and denim-colored Farfisa. The inclusion of three or four instrumentals reinforces the musicality of the group, at once hypnotic and stabbing, sensual and violent. But leader Mark Bingham's half-man half-gremlin freak-outs are perfectly welcome, evoking Can trapped in a calculator. Pick up a copy for yourself... I've found myself making more and more friends with each consecutive spin.
