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In late 1980 Animals Men’s core duo, Susan Wells and Ralph Mitchard, became the Terraplanes and with that namechange came something of a change in direction. While they initially played a distinctly British brand of taut, angular postpunk, albeit with occasional retro rock roll nuances, their new looser sound was more explicitly indebted to American RB and blues. Revel in the Static collects singles, demos and unreleased tracks by Wells and Mitchard’s two incarnations between 1979 and 1982. Much of Animals Men’s material sits reasonably well alongside contemporaries such as Wire, the Au Pairs and Gang of Four, although it’s lower down the fidelity scale and rougher around the edges. Tribal rhythms, stabbing guitars and Wells’ affectless vocals give “Terraplane Fixation” and “No Faces” an almost textbook postpunk feel, while “Terminal Beach” takes a slightly experimental approach, adding some primitive radio voicesamples to that mix. Most memorable are the metronomic strumalong meditation on dehumanization “We Are Machines” and the austere “Shell Shock,” a minor masterpiece recalling Wire’s more expansive, menacing tendencies. Amid this early material, the garagey, harmonicafueled “Don’t Misbehave in the New Age” hints strongly at the direction subsequently pursued by the Terraplanes. Indeed, an affection for ’50s and early’60s American rock comes across loud and clear on numbers like “Evil Going On,” “It’s Hip” and the Bo Diddley homage “Shop Talk,” which might prefigure the garage pop of bands like the Shop Assistants. Overall, though, this collection suggests that Wells and Mitchard were at their best when they were more in tune with the postpunk era; their return to rock roll is less compelling. This is nevertheless a great document of one of the countless almostrans of the late ’70s/early ’80s.

- Wilson Neate, All Music Guide

Product Specification :

Release Date :10/18/2005
Format :Audio CD
UPC :880270049721
Label :Morphius Records
List Price :15.98

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