The 1980 Listening Post - Rex Chainbelt - Foreign Movie

Reviewed by Jim Coursey Released: 1980 Rex Chainbelt Foreign Movie Genre: New Wave / Bar Band Rating: 2 out of 5 Highlights: Fighter Plane Mon Ami Rex Chainbelt is a Toronto-based manufacturer of components for mechanical power transmission and conveying machinery (cement mixers, road pavers, etc.). It is also the name of a Toronto-based singer/drummer who put out his lone album, “Foreign Movie”, in 1980. About half of “Foreign Movie” leans firmly towards new wave, as best captured by leadoff song “Fighter Plane”: catchy, punkish, driving rock that is as stiffly played as Plastic Bertrand, early Devo and the like. The lyrics transform nuclear paranoia into a catchy refrain – “If that little red button gets pooshed then BANG BANG it’ll be over” – and based on the photos accompanying it on YouTube [1] you can imagine the band would have brought zany charm to it live. However, the vocals on this one are maybe a bit too Dr. Demento to really take off, rather like a young Milton Waddams from Office Space if he had a college band. Meanwhile the more jangly, midtempo “Mon Ami” is a bit less out of the new wave sweet spot but similarly catchy and drops the silly vocal style. The album goes downhill after these two tracks. Firstly, “Foreign Movie” is one of those albums where it’s hard to tell what kind of music they thought they were making. Tracks 3 and 4 are pretty unmemorable and disorienting, between the schmaltzy bongo beats of “Cherry Beach” and the bland attempt at twangy rock with “Rich Man.” Funky “Disco” is simply unpleasant. Later in the album they time travel back to a sock hop with the tresillo beats of “Rock A Rolla.” Even though there’s plenty of new wave here, they tend to run so far off script at times that they shoot themselves in the foot. Do they just want an occasional gig at the local bar or do they want to be taken seriously? The recording quality is frequently abysmal as well. Where the first couple songs would be common for early punk fare, Chainbelt and co spend a good amount of the album falling further down a well, applying so much reverb to the voice and pretty much everything that it is hard to really make out what is going on (or care to). And though they somehow managed to get Dee Dee Ramone to do backing vocals on closer “Allies”, any benefit is completely destroyed by all the stupid effects on everything. The album consists of mostly forgettable songs, mediocre performances, haphazard style, and middling to awful production. No wonder there wasn’t an encore. **********  

1. Fighter Plane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lFOth6G1Fg