Athletico Spizz '90 - Do A Runner
#483
July 18 1980
By Tom Mott
Athletico Spizz '80
Do A Runner
Tom’s Rating: 2.75 out of 5
(Allen’s note: This is the first review of an album I have NOT heard by a Listening Poster. Tom had it and I don’t have the time right this minute. But! It’s a great opportunity for us to get used to what will happen in 87)
GENRE: Punky New Wave
HIGHLIGHTS
European Heroes
Airships
THREE THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE WE BEGIN:
Thing #1. This band changed their name every year.
1978 Spizzoil
1979 Spizzenergi
1980 Athletico Spizz '80
1981 The Spizzles
1982 Spizzenergi 2
Thing #2. Their song "Where's Captain Kirk?" is featured in Urgh! A Music War.
Thing #3. "Where's Captain Kirk?" was also the first number one on the newly formed UK Indie Singles Chart in January 1980. It stayed at number one for 7 weeks!
REVIEW: Where's Captain Kirk? Sadly, not here. The high-energy, spazziness of that song is mostly not here either. The closest is European Heroes, a two-minute burst of energy. Otherwise, the album plays like demos from DEVO's second album "Duty Now for the Future" -- which I've always struggled with -- with Olga from the Toy Dolls sitting in on a crappy mic. Sharp fast chikka-chikka punk guitar riffs paired with spindly harpsichord sounds, a muddy sound with the bass buried in the midrange sludge. Overall, the album feels shambling and art-schooly. Interesting moments but then the spizziness fizzles into incomplete jams.
The other highlight is the final track Airships, an eight-and-a-half minute outlier which sounds like a different band altogether, more like Brian Jonestown Massacre or My Bloody Valentine. Hmm!
It turns out the album was recorded and mixed in three days. But dang it, some of the best jazz albums of the 50s and 60s were recorded in one. With the right studio, right engineer, and better mic setups, this could've been much, much better. Still, one gets the sense that Spizz was saving their singles to be singles and decided to make an "album" here of non-singles material. They were known as a live act--as seen in Urgh!--but this one doesn't capture it. Nevertheless, it's a psychedelic-prog-new-wave-jokey-punk missing link that's worth a listen. And heck, if this COVID thing goes away and they ever make their way to Los Angeles, I'd go see them. I bet I'd like it too.
These files will only be available for a short while.
MP3 FILES: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RsnyL3pjNSc-eAbDGyh4v8HyIDSzgCZG?usp=sharing
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