every week, cotw brings you a groundbreaking, but criminally overlooked piece of obscure plastic from between the years of 1976 and 1986. to be informed of next week’s feature, please join the mailing list.

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artist: Los Microwaves

title: Life After Breakfast

year: 1982

label: Celluloid (Europe)

personnel: David Javelosa, Meg Brazill, Todd Rosa

tracklisting: time to get up, what’s that got to do (with loving you?), reckless dialogue, TV in the eye, home alone, forever, postponed but not forgotten, la voix humaine, coast to coast, is there life after breakfast?, you bet, if you want to…, radio heart

cotw say…

relatively minor players in the Californian synthpunk scene of the late seventies, this wisecracking trio deserve a long overdue reappraisal.

from the whirring analogue synths and clicking percussion of the instrumental ‘Postponed is not Forgotten’, to fantastic, urgent songs like ‘La Voix Humaine’, ‘Forever’ and ‘Radio Heart’, ‘Life After Breakfast’ is a lot of fun. vocal duties are shared between the near Lene Lovich soundalike Meg Brazill and equally neurotic-sounding David Javelosa, with uncomplicated production that gives the songs room to breathe. each short musical burst is typified by smooth, walking bass riffs, unobtrusive drums with neat touches, and outstanding keyboard fills that sound like they could only have been written with a farfisa organ in mind. while one or two songs may overdo the goofy Devoisms (particularly vocally), the coolly restrained and mildly demented ‘Life After Breakfast’ shows considerable musical innovation. this almost completely guitar-free punk album is both distinctive and in urgent need of repeated spins.

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