THE GIRLS-REUNION, LP, 1986, USA

This staggering and wildly high strung Boston based synth punk unit only managed to eke out one single (1979's Jeffrey I Hear You/The Elephant Man, produced by Pere Ubu's David Thomas) during their brief life span. What we have here is a document of a reunion gig circa '86, though sonically it's entirely of a piece with their initial output. Though the sound of The Girls is virtually definitive synth punk and can be aesthetically situated somewhere between The Screamers and Devo's earliest recordings, it might be more fitting to tag them as art rockers, considering that both guitarist Mark Dagley (who'd move to New York and form Hi-Sherrifs Of Blue after The Girls break-up) and bassist George Condo would both go on to have high profile careers in the visual arts world; particularly Condo, whose work can be found in the permanent collections of modern art museums worldwide, while Vocalist David Hild (whose vocals must rank among the most neurotically wound up ever) would follow his work here with a collaborative LP with Tin Huey's Ralph Carney and Shimmy Disc head honcho Kramer, and Robin Amos would proceed from here to the equally bent and synth punked outfit Shut Up! (available elsewhere on Mutant Sounds) before going on to found the superb Cul De Sac. Absolutely galvanizing shite that'll have you synth punk fanboys out there bouncing off the goddamn walls with idiot glee.

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