BLOG TO COMM

Smegma-33 1/3 CD (Important); NATTERING NABOBS OF NEGATIVITY CD (Harbinger Sound, UK)

Ju Suk Reet Meate-1978 + 1979 CD (Destijl...all three of these CDs are available through Forced Exposure)

Wow, was it really an entire year since I last reviewed a bunch of these Smegma disques just brimming with exciting aural innovations of both an old and new variety? Why, it seems like just like a mere 365 days ago! But what better way to get into the Christmas Spirit than with these recent Smegplatters that are also brimming with tasty soundsplats that teeter-totter between pure punkism and addled mindless noise guaranteed to piss off all of those seventies fanablas you used to come across who only discovered Zappa after he went fusion and never really did cozy up to the more atonal aspects of the quest.

No Meltzer here, but that don't mean this trio of puerile popsterisms is a total waste of time, energy and moolah! Far from it...in fact, I'd rate all three as prime echelon Smegma even if The Master is not present in any way shape or form. And if you were one of those late-seventies specialty shop boppers on the hunt for the likes of these Smegs and a whole passel of ripe underground scronkage, well this batch will take you back to those long gone and sainted days of "hey kid, are you just looking around or did you come here to buy somethin'???"

33 1/3 (that how long they've been togedder!) is the latest Smegma studio extravaganza which spots a neat sleeve featuring one of those old-timey "make-your-own-record" discs that you still come across in Goodwill shops and flea markets nationwide (I was always tempted to pick one of those up thinking there might be some rare garage band treat in store but more likely some doof in the armed services sending his mother a personal plea for more moolah!). Such cheapazoid nostalgia all mangled up for cynical seventies consumption has always been an integral part of the Smegma makeup (remember all those ventriloquist dummy heads and babydoll body parts cluttering up their post-Cal Schenkel album covers???) and you kinda get the drift that even this far down the ol' timey line the Smegsters still get into that great cheap basement gulcher with alla them crazy voice crackups taken from 1950s educational films and the like. The rest is, as the sticker sez, a "tribute to their 20th century avant-garde and out jazz influences" and who can argue with that even if this would just sound like another batch of kids clanking the kitchen pots and pans when played for a "serious" jazzbo, ifyaknowaddamean... Not as thick as GLAMOUR GIRL 1941 but it will do especially after hearing some of that new blare that passes for what used to pass for brave and innovative music. Unfortunately I couldn't dig out the embedded visuals from this disque but if I ever do, I will let you know what I doth encountered.

I was hoping that NATTERING NABOBS OF NEGATIVITY was going to be a tribute to BLOG TO COMM fave Spiro Agnew but other'n the title there's no ref to the former vice-prez anywhere here. Not even a sound clip which you gotta admit woulda come off great amidst the usual Smegma carnage extant. Well, all I gotta say is SO WHAT because no matter how you slice this one up and down NATTERING NABOBS OF NEGATIVITY is a great dunce winner that originally came out back in the dark days of '87, but don't kick yourself too bad if you're only getting it now like I am. Loads of sound as pure non-structure here along with some interesting musique-concrete asides, some free jazz mooshings and other typical Smegdonia...I was particularly struck by the one track which I believe is called "Spring Flowers", where a baby's sighs and gurgles and the like were re-edited into actually coherent free melody while the band played on! This also comes with the MORASS 12-inch EP from a year later with more of the Smeg rarities being served up for your displeasure, more of the typical LAFMS sound as it was being laid out for you on a whole slew of limited-edition wares only now getting the reissue red carpet.

If you still aren't smegged out by the above offerings you might wanan try this solo release that originally came out way back inna day by longtime member Ju Suk Reet Meate. On 1978 + 1979 Meate plays it the solo route, complete with hot guitar riffing and various horn and tape mangipulations tossed into an obvious cassette-quality bedroom recording release. True it may only sound like one layer of the Smegma onion but the thing does offer some insight into the inner tickings of the band by studying one of the principal members doing his own masturbatory thing rather'n alla 'em doing it at once! Needless to say, one of those must-haves for followers of the seventies El Lay underground scene amongst other noise-masochists out there.