KILLING TIME-BOB-CD, 1986, JAPAN

Following my post of their LP "Skip" (which I'd erroneously stated as being their debut...it's actually their second release), here's their actual debut dispatch, originally released as a three track 12" EP and subsequently reissued in 1988 as an expanded edition with five bonus tracks appended, which is where the confusion stemmed from. I nearly exhausted myself trying to find the words to frame the post-everything art rock madness present on Skip and as was the case with that gem, "Bob" (don't ask me what the deal is with their titling albums with common American names; Bill and Irene are the albums that follow suit and they'll both be appearing here shortly), this is part and parcel of that trajectory of the 80's Japanese underground that takes in Haniwa Chan/Haniwa All-Stars, Wha Ha Ha and the like and as is the case with the work of those mind-bending mavens of the weird, the sonics here bedevil any attempt at easy analysis. The Zappa cum Gentle Giant-isms that the excerpted review I'd included in my post of Skip alluded to are certainly present, as is a certain soaring upfullness (at least on the lengthy first track) that brings to mind Sven Grunberg's work in Mess, but they never last long before their perverse streak destabilizes the proceedings with dizzying disjunctions. That said, they're just as prone to tear off at a tootlingly mawkish and fruity ultra-melodic right angle and/or drift off on a tide of new-agey syrup without warning. It's an approach that 90's J-prog savants Tipographica would run for the hills with and it's a tendency thats even more pronounced here than on Skip, which largely sidestepped some of the schmaltzier tactics deployed here, though their propensity for littering their dementia with pit stops in the land of the namby makes a certain sort of sick sense once you finally start to come to grips with the uber-ludicrous ethic that underpins their aesthetic.

***************NEW LINK POSTED SEPTEMBER 2012***************

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