STRANGE FRUIT ABIKU-SIN EATERS PICNIC, LP, MID-80'S, USA

This was a band whose name was tucked in the "must find" section of my collector brain for nearly 15 years before I managed to finally track down a copy of this exceedingly obscure release, as a review in an old issue of Option magazine once claimed that they sounded like "the Art Bears in a closet", a thumbnail description that seemed custom made to instill fascination in my fevered brain. Unexpectedly, their description squares not one whit with actual contents at hand. No...there's nothing remotely R.I.O. about the hermetic D.I. Y. 4-track post punk maneuvers at play here, though this is a decidedly odd kettle 'o fish nevertheless. As it happens, Strange Fruit Abiku turns out to be the first vinyl documentation of both Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Tim Foljahn of Two Dollar Guitar, certainly enticement enough for a certain sector of music fans out there, though there's nothing here suggestive of what would follow in either of their careers. Rather, Strange Fruit Abiku's conflation of the whacked and the dubious yokes frequently gripping de-tuned shambolic instrumental lurch and wobble of a decidedly claustrophobic cast (often cross cut with tape speed fuckery and shattered by primitive effects) to largely insipid girly vocalese in a way that practically defines the phrase chalk and cheese. As frustrating as it is revelatory, I'll leave it to you to be the judge...

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