This compilation neatly fills in some gaps for collectors of the longand varied career of Mayo Thomspon and his mercurial,on-again/off-again rock outfit The Red Krayola. Comprising 21 tracksdrawn from twelve 7", 12" and CD singles released from 1970 to 2002,most songs are credited to the various lineups of The Red Krayola, witha couple bearing the name of Mayo Thompson solo, the short-lived sidegroup Saddlesore, and a few sharing credit with conceptual art groupArt & Language. Anyone versed in the career of The Red Krayolaunderstands that the primary watchword is eclecticism. From theirbeginnings in Texas garage psychedelia, Thompson has taken his projectthrough avant-garde Residents-style insanity, country-rock, punk-disco,No Wave and post-rock. Along the way, Thompson has remained the onlyanchor of the band, which at various times has included hundreds ofothers, including members of Pere Ubu, X-Ray Spex, Essential Logic,Raincoats and Swell Maps, as well as contemporary indie mainstays JimO'Rourke, David Grubbs and John McEntire. If one thing has stayed thesame throughout the 36 years of the band's existence, it is theadventurousness and intelligence with which Thompson and companyapproach these myriad styles, and their continuing, nervous dialoguewith pop music and other commercially viable forms. Though the singleis, by its nature, the most commercial face of music, The Red Krayolahave used this carrier as a way to keep in touch with the pop world,even as they held it at an arm's length, with their deconstructions andcommentaries on rock. It's hard to detect this stance in the album'sfirst three tracks, dating from 1970, which utilize country-influencedpsych-rock to capable but ultimately head-scratching effect. Fromthere, a 1976 single "Wives in Orbit/Yik Yak" demonstrated Thompson'sgrowing interest in the stripped-down aesthetic of punk rock, with apair of cleverly rendered art-punk songs that rival the best of theoriginal punk singles era. Tracks 6-13 represent my favorite period ofRed Krayola's manifestation: his flirtations with No Wave, working witha band that included members of the aforementioned post-punk groups."Micro-chips and Fish" is an idiosyncratic reggae-punk song featuringthe saxophone blasts of Lora "Oh Bondage, Up Yours" Logic. Successivetracks tackle the atonal skronk of No Wave, with Thompson's lyricsdealing with abstruse linguistic philosophy, or narratives about Muslimswordfighters operating as allegories for the destructive power ofreligion. The "Rattenmensch" single, released on an obscure Germanlabel in 1981, features a musical take on Freud's famous "rat man" casestudy, using German lyrics taken from Freud's writings, incorporatedinto an angular New Wave framework. The rest of the singles collectedon the disc document Thompson's 1993-2002 work released on Drag City,his most experimental period, characterized by highly idiosyncraticcompositions combining unorthodox rhythms with jagged guitarimprovisations, unexpected samples, synthesizers and surrealisticlyrical routines. "Come on Down" is a good example of the artsierKrayola, originally a bonus single included with the first pressing ofthe FingerpaintingLP, is an oddly dislocated ballad that bounces along with a galaxy ofstunted electronics and sudden tangents into free-form noise. Takentogether, these 21 songs construct a stunning collage-portrait of anartist in constant flux, never failing through four decades to find newmethods of expression and the transmission of new ideas.samples:
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