Released

J.G. Thirlwell had already released two full-length albums and several 12” singles when this 1984 album arrived like a mail bomb. The lyrics were a hysterical collage of pop-culture references, surreal braggadocio, and priapic nihilism delivered in an out-of-breath shout; the music was a riot of tape loops, pounding drums, and borrowed styles from surf rock to manic and deliberately ersatz big-band swing. The most unsettling track, “I’ll Meet You In Poland Baby,” layers a Hitler speech within a constantly shifting mosaic of synths and sirens, as Thirlwell takes Elvis Costello’s concept of “emotional fascism” and runs with it. On “Satan Place” he fuses the Beach Boys, the surf instrumental “Wipeout,” the Trashmen’s “Surfin’ Bird,” and ? and the Mysterians-esque garage-rock organ, swamping the listener’s synapses like a tidal wave striking a building.

Phil Freeman

Suggestions
Live in Japan cover

Live in Japan

John Coltrane
Last Desert cover

Last Desert

Liberty Ellman
Ka cover

Ka

Excepter
Illusions cover

Illusions

Arthur Blythe
Saturn Sings cover

Saturn Sings

Mary Halvorson Quintet
Racing a Butterfly cover

Racing a Butterfly

Anne Mette Iversen Quartet +1
Circular Temple cover

Circular Temple

Matthew Shipp Trio
Spiritual Unity cover

Spiritual Unity

Albert Ayler
Live II cover

Live II

Fushitsusha