KAREN COOPER COMPLEX-SHINJUKU BOARDWALK, 1981, USA, UNRELEASED

Despite the fact that this album has already been featured on a handful of other sharity blogs ('cause I was evidently asleep at the switch when it was being proffered), it feels essential to mount this unearthed gem inside the Mutant Sounds vitrine, as it both extends from one of the more significant bands featured on the NWW list (namely Bomis Prendin, whom Karen Cooper Complex's Bill Altice played with before this) and approaches the medium of post punk from a completely screwy perspective. As would be expected, there's a degree of hangover from Altice's days in BP, but the vibe here, while undoubtedly art fucked is absent some of the hot house freakishness of the early era of Bomis Prendin that Altice took part in. The tip that this feels like it's coming off instead is one that shares some of the inscrutable lopsided charm of Tom Fazzini, the off the cuff wacky gal whimsy of The Inflatable Boy Clams and Y Pants and, when the freakiness is foregrounded, a whiff of Milo Fine's old Residents-damaged unit Teenage Boatpeople. Hopefully, some enterprising reissue label will snatch this one up, as it's too good to exist only in the ephemeral form of a download.

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