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Death-FOR THE WHOLE WORLD TO SEE CD-R burn (Drag City)

Remember a few months back when this whopper hit the underground music market resulting in a huge ka-FAW!??? I'll tell ya, not since the MUSIC OF BULGARIA album has such a platter crept into the crannies and crevices of hotcha punkitudenal Ameriga and taken 'em by the toolies into the realm of hosannas recited in unison by the remnants of the hipster brigade! And yes, this disque was consered to be so sacred and crucial to the high energy credo in us all that even a few nabobs out there dared chastise me for not being in the vanguard of the forefront or whatever it's called these days in getting a copy of this collection of mid-seventies proto-punk high energy sounds before the rest of the breed! (As if I had some sorta duty to clue the blank-minded masses as given to me from up on high, though last time I talked with God I forgot to ask him if this were so.) To which I must say "who do you think I am...J. P. ROCKEFELLER OR SUMPTHIN/?????"...I mean, true I like these kinda hotcha Detroit-rock spasm and have for a longer time than many of you readers have fingers and toes, but I have other priorities to think about. Like buying up old PLASTIC MAN collections and watching Pixie and Dixie whenever I have the chance. I can't just go around whooshing up ever record, tape or Cee-Dee that looks even slightly interesting even if I would want to, and since I've been kicked off just about every promo gravy train that there is out there (which is no great shakes considering the state of "music" 2009) I gotta cough up the long green to buy (remember that word?) these things. Sheesh, you'd think that by this point in time people would send me everything and anything under the sun because I am Christopher Stigliano and I deserve these things just for being glorioski ol' me, but that ain't the case sweetie!

But now I have this Cee-Dee, or actually, Cee-Dee-Are, that was burnt for me by Brad Kohler precisely because he thought I should give it a listen, and y'know what? FOR THE WHOLE WORLD TO SEE is certain a "nice" disque. It's not trembling earth-shattering or anything like that, but it's good enough to keep me from recycling this one into a Christmas ornament. These Hackney brothers who recorded it did a pretty nice job at emulating their Detroit high energy roots, and this Cee-Dee, albeit pretty short in the time department, is a fancy enough representation of what just about another hundred or so groups of the same time strata were doing in their garages during the transitional year of 1975. Yeah, Rocket From The Tombs, the Imperial Dogs or even any edition of Umela Hmota with or without their un-tuned anti-bourgeois guitars could have whomped their butts in a battle of the bands, but if I hadda choose between seeing Death at a showplace on one side of the street and the Doobie Brothers on the other side, it's Death all the way...viva la Death!!!

Musically these Hackneys do have their Detroit style down pat. Maybe they ain't that high energy Detroit rock, but I think they cut a swath through some of the late-seventies practitioners of the form Detroit or otherwise who really didn't fill any bills w/regards to keeping up with the proud tradition that the sixties generation of bands shocked mid-Ameriga with. I do find Death a lot more palatable than a lotta those Detroiters who claimed eternal Stooge worship but couldn't find it in themselves to kick the jams outta their soul-less pre-conditioned poses. Maybe I gotta give 'em credit for that even when they tend to carouse in the same mire of predictability that ruined many a promising record, let alone act, way back in those bleary days between punk rock victory and post-rock pretension.

Upon further listening I felt that "Politicians in my Eyes" (a-side of the group's original '75 single now worth mucho astral credits) actually sounds a lot like Castle Farm's "Jewels of Fire", a side which Death in no way would have had the chance to have heard but since various similar innovations have been happening across the globe @ the same time w/o their participants knowing of each other I wouldn't consider this some sorta strange kozmik whooziz like some of your readers might, but I thought it wouldn't hurt pointing this out to you.

So whazza final verdict? Death were a pretty hot power trio group that thankfully are finally getting their posthumous due, and although they ain't what I would call top notch proto-punk I'm sure you'll find that dishing out bargain prices for a used copy (which, as some commenter mentioned, is a relatively easy task) would be worth your while. But when it comes to Death the version I'd prefer hearing would be yet another group with the exact same name from around the exact same timespan, these Deathsters being the ones from Milwaukee that not only featured future Contortionist James Chance on sax and organ but were so wired to the heart of the sacred o-mind that they actually would perform WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT and FUNHOUSE in their entirety for jaded brewery workers well before Chance felt the call to go to New York City and give them a lesson in what for. Now I'll bet those guys woulda been able to hold their own in a battle against Rocket, the Imperial Dogs and Umela Hmota no matter how outta tune they were, so all I gotta say is where is Dog Meat records when you really need 'em!