Smegma

This CD collects the first Smegma long-player, Glamour Girl 1941, originally released on the LAFMS label in 1979, the Pigface Chant 7" released that same year and recorded five years earlier, and even adds in four bonus recordings from that same era. These early recordings of this long-running group of noise anarchists show an extremely primitive but non-conformist take on the musical world, even more so than, say, the Krautrock band Faust, as Smegma adds a messier element of chaos to its sound. Like other LAFMS groups Le Forte Four and the Doo-Dooettes, Smegma offers a drug-damaged, free-form take on extreme outsider non-commercial music. The Glamour Girl tracks veer from proto-no wave psychedelic rhythmic tracks like "I Am Not Artist," "Half a Billion," and the ten-and-a-half-minute live bonus track "Flashback 79" to more abstract improvisations and a couple pieces where the whole group is making weird vocal chanting. On top of guitar and percussions, there is a liberal use of tape effects, loops, and primitive plunderphonics. The Pigface Chant tracks take an even weirder turn, with the group, consisting of about a dozen people, chanting and making more strange vocal noises, while the bonus track from this session, "The End," adds some minimal bass, guitar, and flute to similar proceedings. This is excellent stuff for those who prefer their music to be free and creative rather than pretty and coherent.