#64/1231
1986 Housekeeping
Algebra Suicide
Big Skin
Genre: Minimal Experimental
4.25 out of 5
Highlights:
Little Dead Body Poem
Seven Song
Please Respect Our Decadence
I had two records that, for me, define a part of the 80s that don’t get a lot of credit for their influence but I believe they were seminal works of art.
The first was a must-have album after the surprise New Wave success of her single, “O Superman”, Laurie Anderson’s Big Science barely needs a mention because, well, who doesn’t know Big Science?
You?
Stop what you are doing and go listen to it, stat. I can not stress it’s importance enough. Also it’s humor and weird re-listenability.
The other was a record I’ve written about before. One that got such a good review in the Star-Ledger that I never forgot it and, a year after reading the review, was compelled to call the paper and talk to the reviewer and track it down. It was by a New Jersey band called Xex. The album was Group: Xex. The first real indie-synth album replete with sardonic humor and band member names like “Was Pierogi” and “Thumbelina Guglielmo”.
It makes sense that Algebra Suicide would exist in those shadows. But, Lydia Tomkiw seems to be focusing on the burbling Velvet Underground elements of those records, which are so deeply hidden that they are so obfuscated by what they were able to twist that idea into. And he is wearing her disturbed conditions on her sleeve as in “Little Dead Body Poem”.
She’s much more Anne Sexton than Laurie Anderson.
I bet if I had this cassette I’d have loved it, tho. I had a thing for dark and depressed women for a while.
Did any of this make you want to listen? I hope so. Just to know it was there.
RIP Lydia
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