Ssleeping desiresS – Home Demos - July / Aug 2010 CD-r

...And now for something much more recent! The first time I saw San Francisco-based Ssleeping Desiress, they opened up for Sixteens at a small bar in the Mission District about 3 years ago. I had listened to a couple of their songs on their myspace page prior to attending, and my interest was piqued. There were no other bands doing such a straight-ahead synth sound in San Francisco at the time.

The band took the stage - two guys I had never seen before in the often insular city - and with a couple synths, a drum machine, and a live snare drum they barreled through a 20-minute set of vintage-sounding darkwave. The duo would alternate between synths, vocal, and drum duties; the live drum fills added a bit of a visceral and organic dimension to the barrage of electronics. They sounded spot-on.

While the band has gone through a few lineup changes since that time, Ssleeping Desiress has essentially remained the brainchild of Gabriel Ramos, who is now the sole member. This CD (limited to a scant 25 copies) is the only physical legacy of their earlier lineups, released in 2010 when Ramos was joined by Mona Martinez on vocals and percussion. The male and female vocals with gritty electronics recalls bands like Ronin, early Xeno and Oaklander, and even Nine Circles.

For a demo CD, the release is quite strong. While several tracks indeed have a bit of a rough "demo" quality, most of the them, including Tunnel, Passage, This Age, and Sleepwave (which I shared on the first Commercial Music compilation) are excellent.

The band has a few songs on various compilations - most notably the second Circuit D'Actes compilation . They also will have the fourth release on the excellent Flexiwave label in the coming months. Most of the songs on this disc are no longer part of the band's repertoire, but Ramos was happy to let me share them. Ssleeping Desiress is certainly a gem in the electronic underground, and it's great to hear these early sketches that run along the boundaries between minimal synth, coldwave, and electro.

Ssleeping Desiress: Home Demos - July / Aug 2010 CD-r

2010, Self-released

1 Tunnel

2 Crown Of Flames

3 Bird's Eye View

4 Sleepwave

5 Entrance

6 Passage

7 This Age

8 Rose Hill

Click here to listen!

Human Being Men: Selftitled 12"

Here is a record that I used to have many years ago, but traded away for another gem. Hence, I do not have a photo of the record (it was not issued with a cover anyway). This was a 1981 self-released 12" from a San Francisco duo called Human Being Men. The music ranges quite a bit, and there are a couple duds and a couple true gems. MSP-1 is an okay bouncy instrumental song, but the sax overkill kinda ruins it. Ronnie is probably best ignored, coming across like... ugh... a cheerful Huey Lewis knockoff.

However, don't despair! Human Dub is a standout, a pure instrumental electro-pop workout that reminds me very much of the first 12" from fellow SF minimal synth guru Mrs. Higginbottom. Take Me Back is also a great track, on which the duo seems to throw virtually every early-80s synthesizer sound in a blender and come out with a tasty synthpop smoothie (except for those damn saxes they insist on using in a couple parts).

Human Being Men 12"

1981, self-released

Human Dub

MSP-1 (Falling 5)

Ronnie

Take Me Back

Click here to download this record!

KOZMONAUT: Flieg LP

I like mysteries and secrets. I love finding an obscure record and then finding out as much as I can about it. The Eleven Pond / Pond / Red Violet trifecta (with their shared members and similar sounds) is a perfect example of a mysterious puzzle unfolding and being solved through research, tips, phone calls, and emails. Finding the frontman of Short Wave Mystery five years ago with only the first names on the back of the record cover was another high achievement in my hobby as a musical gumshoe. I would apply to become a record detective, but I don't think that job exists.
Sometimes, though, I'll discover a record that piuques my curiosity... and which completely frustrates me with its utter lack of information. Here is one such record, forwarded to me by Josh from Dark Entries (whose friend found it in a thrift store). I don't often share records I don't own, but I'm making an exception here.
This is a self-released LP, ostensibly from a German band in 1986. Ahhh, if only it was that easy. Josh's friend is German, and pointed out all the misspellings (most noticeably where it says "side swei" (even I know it's "zwei"!). OK, that's... interesting. So what? Well, there is also no GEMA copyright on the record or sleeve (although since it is DIY with silkscreened sleeves, who knows if one would have been necessary). After a bit of sleuthing myself, I located this record on an archive of US copyrights. So, perhaps this is a US-based band masquerading as a Germans? Moreover, this was found in a bin full of San Francisco new wave records - perhaps this record was released in my very own backyard, under my nose and the collective noses of the entire Bay Area?
Or are we just completely deluded in our suspicions about this release - after all, there are plenty of Americans who can't spell, so why can't there be poor-spelling Krauts? It's questions like these that drive me to find out more, more, MORE! Of course, there are no inserts. There are no personnel credits (not even on the sleeves). So, I'm sharing this record because A) it is an excellent album that's a cross between synthpop, experimental electronics, industrial, and darkwave, and B) perhaps somebody, somewhere can shed some light on this obscure, unknown release.

UPDATE:
It's been solved already, by the very person who found this in the thrift store!

He looked further into the US copyright site at http://cocatalog.loc.gov.

He found a tape release from the band, which credits "Hans Schiller".

"I looked for Hans Schiller on Discogs - he's behind all the Kode IV stuff (industrial music).
Now check out the artwork of their first self released cassette: You see the exact same lines and airplanes, and the black & white font. The lines that I thought resembled a swastika are actually the number "4". Duhhhhh. Well, the bad news is that Hans Schiller died in 1994 according to the Discogs website. His partner's name is "Peter Ziegelmeier" (another German name). It looks like he runs "Ceiba Records" on Haight Street, which I am not familar with. I guess he'd be the one to talk to... Definitely Bay Area!!!"

So, I tip my hat to a record detective who is better than I. Great work, and maybe next time I pass Cieba Records on the way up to Amoeba, I'll bug Peter Ziegelmeier!

Kozmonaut: Fleig LP
1986, Vier Productions
A1 The Mann (English Version)
A2 Flieg
A3 Tidal Meditation
B1 Die Stimme Aus Dem Universum
B2 Arabisch Nacht
B3 Einer Kleiner Walzer
B4 Lieben Ist
B5 Parademarsch

Click here to download this LP!

Help us solve this mystery!

SF Minimal Wave cover story!

By pure coincidence, a mere couple weeks after my last posts of SF Bay Area minimal wave and post punk records, the venerable San Francisco weekly newspaper SF Bay Guardian is featuring a cover story on the emerging Bay Area underground synth scene! It's a really good article, touching all bases of the genre; the author interviewed Josh from Dark Entries Records, Veronika from Minimal Wave, and others. He touches upon bands old and new, forgotten and fledgling, and even mentions this blog! Check out the article here. If you live in SF, come out to Nachtmusik at the Knockout on Mission & Valencia next Wednesday, where my girlfriend and I will be guest DJing!
And now, on with a new little batch of records...

Distant Thunder: Shelter LP + Unreleased & demo tracks

One of the most obscure and forgotten LPs (that seemingly NOBODY knows about) is this 10-track oddity from Distant Thunder. Self-released in 1985 on Last Records, this record by this one-man band almost seems like a gothic vanity pressing. Completely amateur, with programmed drums, stabs of synths, dissonent and atonal electronics, and repetitive guitars and vocals, it seems like Mark Wenning, the man behind Distant Thunder, bought a few cheapo instruments and said "I'm going to write and record an album this week".
I don't mean that disparagingly, though. The combination of all the above elements ensures that this album is unlike anything I have ever heard before. Repetitive, off-key, tribal, droney, lo-fi, dark, simplistic, and completely endearing, this is a strange lost classic. In reality, many of these songs were written over the period of a few years (although he did indeed initially utilize a Mattel toy drum machine, which he used in conjunction with an Apple IIe for the basslines). He recorded a second album, which was unfortunately never released. You can visit his Distant Thunder website here , which includes a bio and downloads of his unreleased second album (which I have also included here for your convenience!) I also included a couple pre-album demo tracks as well (songs that use the toy drum machine) for good measure. He sold about 300 copies of this album, but I still occasionally see it offered for pretty cheap prices online, so this isn't very hard to track down. For now.

Distant Thunder: Shelter LP
1985, Last Records
A1 Cost/Benefit Analysis
A2 Simon Says
A3 Too
A4 Promised Land
A5 It
B1 Nouns and Verbs
B2 Smart Birds
B3 Show and Tell
B4 Modern Medicine
B5 Who

Click here to download "Shelter"

Click here to download the unlreased album "Impulse" and the demo tracks

Defuser: Music for a Comic Book Video LP

This is officially the weirdest album that I have uploaded. This is the virtually unknown self-released follow-up to Defuser's first 7", the classic World Suicide b/w Freeze Please. They were from Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from SF. A wonderfully-presented LP, this comes in a gatefold sleeve that is laid out as a comic book. Each panel of the comic represents one song on the album.

The entire album is a concept album about a one-off concert by a fictional band called Lyres & Theeves. Except it's not as simple as that. At all. I could say it's primarily industrial, but it goes from electro to spoken word to industrial to sax skronkery to minimal electronic to experimental noise to an advertisement the band made for a local business chosen at random from the white pages to traditional Finnish folk music to darkwave to industrial again. Extremely subversive, very dark, very silly, very irreverent, very political, very punk, very art-damaged, this concept album is unlike anything - ANYTHING! - that I have ever heard before.

Defuser: Music for a Comic Book Video - The Lyres & Theeves Concert LP

1985, Mutiny Records

A1 Charlie, Hector & Betty Arrive at the Concert

A2 Li'l Otis

A3 And Welcome to the Show

A4 Prefessor Zeus and the Barking Elephant

A5 Politically Correct

A6 Bouquet of Weeds

A7 Woman in Bondage

A8 Love Song For You, Darling

A9 The Mob Has Come to Life

A10 Free Advertisement

A11 Seven Judys

A12 Nonexistant Song (intermission)

B1 Steel Dick

B2 Screaming Mad

B3 Little Bird

B4 Sax Hell

B5 Destroy What You Don't Understand

B6 Ladies' Tea Party Jazz

B7 Just Want to Be Your Friend

B8 Pocket

B9 Covered in Vines

Click here to download this record!

The Wonders of Science: Record of the Same Name EP

Down from the southern end of the SF Bay Area (San Jose, a city which is actually larger in population than SF, but which nonetheless plays second fiddle to its world-reknown northern relative) comes this wonderful synthpop group, Wonders of Science. They released a 7" and this 12" EP. You can read about the 7" on one of the members' blogs here.
This group was reduced to a duo for this self-released 1983 EP, and they were a pretty early adopter of the classic Roland 808 drum machine. They were pretty much the only band of their kind in San Jose, and played all around the Bay Area for a few years before finally going their separate ways. Michael Dresbach became a priest (whose blog is linked to above) and now lives in Panama. Matt still lives in the Bay Area.

The 7" was uploaded on the excellent and amazingly prolific BX-59cppw blog, so get that too!

The Wonders of Science: Record of the Same Name EP
1983, Wonders of Science Records
Reconsidering Our Love
Let's Start a Rumour
Kleptomania
Call It Off

Click here to download this record!

Junk Fifty-Seven 12" EP

Desired by collectors of minimal synth and old-school electro alike, this unassuming and extremely obscure 12" from San Francisco-based Junk 57 is a strange record. It was self-released on DiscOrganization, and I can't imagine it was distributed too extensively. Despite its name, the A side, Return of the Itchmaster, is an excellent old-school electro song, with effected and subdued vocals, record scratching, and hard-hitting syncopated production. Side B starts off with a mediocre electro-rap song, but then takes a complete one-eighty with Heart Full of Soul - a stripped-down minimal electronic cover of the Yardbirds classic. It almost sounds like two completely different bands are on this record.

Junk Fifty-Seven: Selftitled EP

1984, DiscOrganization Records

A: Return of the Itchmaster

B1: Junk 57

B2: Heart Full of Soul

Click here to download this record!

Perfect Strangers: Fascination EP

Here is a synthpop band from Concord, CA, called Perfect Strangers. Their brand of new wave was synth-heavy and upbeat, and they released only this EP before dissolving. While it's a bit commercial sounding, the song Fascination is quite a good track, and Run to You was a minor hit on Quake FM (it was also released on the Quake FM 'Rock of 84' comp, which featured exclusive songs by Voice Farm and Fade to Black). The band reformed under the name Skindeep in the mid-80s, with a much more polished sound. That band released one record (which included a re-recorded version of Run to You).

Perfect Strangers: Fascination 12"
1983, Perfect Strangers Records
A1 Fascination
A2 Just Because I Know You
B1 Run To You

Click here to download this record!

SF BAY AREA SYNTH RECORDS: Necropolis of Love: Talk 7"

Somewhat by request of my friend Josh from Dark Entries Records, and partly because I have been meaning to do this for a while, I have a San Francisco Bay Area synthpop extravaganza (synthstravaganza?) this week. San Francisco (and the greater Bay Area) in the late 70s and early-mid 80s was a hotbed for experimental and quirky new wave, post punk, and synthpop - the scene was very underground, and very similar to that of New York (with the no wave scene) and Berlin (with the burgeoning NDW scene). Starting off this week is the debut 7" from Necropolis of Love. Based in Berkeley, just across the bridge from San Francisco, these guys were one of the best darkwave bands in the Bay Area... ever! While this 7" has made an appearance or two on some blogs, the rips always seem to have the 12" version of "Talk" (taken from their 1984 12", The Hope). This rip is of the actual 7" version - very stipped-down, with simplistic synth percussion (perhaps a KR-55?), and much less produced. Enjoy this one - it is a masterpiece!

Necropolis of Love: Talk 7"
1983, Thumb Records
A: Talk
B: Alyssa

Click here to download this record!

MY SIN: Beyond Good and Evil EP + Chains 7"

Well, I figured that if I'm going to post a rare SF female-fronted darkwave EP with tortured religious overtones, I may as well post the male equivalent! This is the 12" EP from one-man San Francisco band My Sin, self-released on Endless Music, as well as his debut (I think) 7", called Chains. The 7" has one song (You End Up Swimming) that is on the 12", so I've only included the exclusive track.
My Sin were pretty productive, releasing several cassettes (at least one of which had an accompanying book) and eventually a CD in the early 90s. My Sin is a mix of darkwave, deathrock, and synthpop on these releases. Using only bass, synths, and drums (no guitars, apparently), this one-man band created some dark, gloomy, angry, and lyrically quite bitter music. He starts with excellent covers of the Stones (Moonlight Mile) and the Stooges (I Need Somebody) on one side of the 12", and all other songs are his own. If you like your darkwave and deathrock infused with a good deal of melodrama, download this one! And if you have any of his other releases (cassettes or CDs), I would love to hear them!

My Sin: Beyond Good and Evil + Chains 7"
198? + 1984, Endless Records
A1 Moonlight Mile
A2 I Need Somebody
B1 You End Up Swimming
B2 Hayloft
+Chains


Click here to download these records!

EYES OF GOD: East of Eden EP

Here is a pretty much unknown San Francisco darkwave EP from a band called Eyes of God. I can't really find any info on these guys, since the silkscreend sleeve has absolutely no info, and the label doesn't really help either. I think this was released with a different cover which MIGHT have more info, but it's been years since I've seen that version, so that really doesn't help here! Dark keyboards, ethereal female vocals, dark forceful basslines, and jagged guitars make this a great record. The band REALLY plays up the religious imagery (look at the song titles... and the band's name), and it seems as if the singer has SOMETHING weighing on her soul that she wants to confess throughout all three songs. The religious motif in the lyrics works well, though. I have no idea if this band recorded anything else. They self-released this 12" recorded/mastered at the Sonic Arts Recording facility, which seems to have recorded a good half of the self-released SF darkwave and minimal synth (Martin Human, Junk 57, and loads of others).

Eyes of God: East of Eden EP
1985, Conceptual Records
A1 East of Eden
B1 Garden of Sin
B2 Sin Twist


Click here to download this record!

Martin Human: Upside Down and Backwards 7"

Unknown minimal synth records abound, even in this digital age in which it seems everything has been shared. Here is a virtually unknown gem that I have only seen twice: A 7" from a San Francisco solo synth artist with the perfectly new wave name Martin Human. I don't know if he ever released anything else, or was ever in any other groups - it would be nice to know! This 7" is a self-released record on his Human Release label. The music is just programmed drums and very simple, minimal electronics and vocals - a very bare-bones approach to synthpop. The A side is good, but the B side, Rocks and Caves, is even better, with a quick pace, echoing vocal cries that sound like they were indeed recorded among the rocks and caves, and synthetic percussion overload at times. This one is sure to be on at least a couple wantlists.

Here is a mini email interview I did with Joseph from Martin Human:

I have a ton of other stuff that I recorded and mixed on my 1/2" 8 track in my bedroom that no one except friends have heard. It was kind of all over the map stylistically but mostly soundtrack kind of material. I have never really stopped making music to this day. Martin had quite a bit of interest from Elektra/Asylum at the time but they wouldn't move forward with me until I had a band together that could tour to support a release which I never got around to. The motivation and interest for me was to be in the studio constantly making new stuff as opposed to playing the same songs over and over live.

Q: Did you play live, and if so, were there any similar bands that you played with in the area?
A: Martin never played live but I did with a number of other bay area bands.

Q: What was the SF synthpop scene like at the time - was there a lot of support for the music?
A: I used to get a lot of radio play from "The Quake" KQAK (later became Live 105) which supported a lot of local music at the time, as well as most of the local college stations. I sort of did my thing in a vacuum back then and didn't really know many other synth artists at the time. I was so young I couldn't even get into most of the clubs. KROQ in SoCal also had the single in rotation for a few weeks in addition to lots of college stations all over the country (I have a list somewhere).

Q: What equipment did you use?
A: All the synth sounds on the single were made with a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 and Prophet 600. The drum box was an EMU Drumulator. It was recorded and mixed at Russian Hill Recording, SF in studio B on a Neotek console and an MCI 2" 24 track.

Q: And how many copies did you press?
A: 1000 were pressed. I sold about 200 and gave away about that many.


Martin Human: Upside Down and Backwards 7"
1984, Human Release
A: Upside Down and Backwards
B: Rocks and Caves

Download this record here!

Thrill of the Pull: Green to Red 12"

For all of you who really wish that Killing Joke would record a song that sounds exactly like their early-to-mid-80s heyday, here you go. Green to Red basically sounds like it could be on Night Time, with vocals that sound a bit like Mark Burgess of Chameleons. The B side is even more Chameleons-like. I can't really fault a band for sounding like other bands I love, though. It's derivative gems like this that make scrounging for unknown records worth it! All I know about this band is that they released this one 12" on Underground Release Records in a die-cut sleeve that made it look like some random rap record the first couple times I saw it. They were from San Francisco, and I think one of the members may have been in Fade to Black, a SF deathrock band from around 1984-85. I'm not sure, though.

Thrill of the Pull: Green to Red 12"
1986, Underground Release Records
A1 Green to Red
B1 Everlasting Dream

Click here to download this 12"!

The Pop on Trial: Timemachine EP

Here is something a bit different. Rather than something in the synthpop, minimal wave, or post-punk vein, this is a late-80s shoegaze record from San Francisco. A totally fuzzed-out, noisy, reverbed shoegaze gem that any fan will probably love. Sure, they wear their influences on their sleeve (Jesus and Mary Chain, House of Love, et al...), but the record is so good that I forgive them. It's dark, sometimes melodic, and often beautiful. The song Time Machine is a wonderfully infectious single, and Better This Way is a dense, effected wall of noise. Since shoegaze is finally back in vogue with the reformation of bands like My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain, Swervedriver, and new bands like A Place to Bury Strangers, Ceremony, Shocking Pinks, The Raveonettes, etc, maybe now this release will get the appreciation it deserves, albeit 20 years too late.

The Pop On Trial: Timemachine EP
1989, Soon Records
A1 She's a Time Machine
A2 Bumble Bee
B1 Something Special
B2 Wintertime
B3 Better This Way

Click here to download this record!

ModMach: Selftitled EP

Here is a EP (and perhaps the only release) from a San Francisco band called Modmach. Sure, you most likely have not heard of them (they seem pretty much hopelessly obscure), but they actually had their roots in the well-known (in underground/indie terms, at least) San Francisco minimal synth band Units. Richard Driskill, Ron Lantz and Alex Rudis of Units split the synth band before the recording of their Digital Stimulation LP to form ModMach in 1980.
There is really no information to be found between the formation of the band and the release of this record a whole five years later in 1985. Did they release anything else in between - a demo tape, a 7", a reel-to-reel? It appears that Ron Lantz left the group before this 12" EP was recorded. This was self-released on the band's Oddernmart label, and came packaged in a foldover plastic sleeve with a cover insert and credit sheet. Thanks to Stephen from Obscure Records for the photos.
The music here is decent synthpop/new wave - it's definitely not as great as the classic Units stuff, but it's good.

ModMach - Selftitled EP
1985, Oddernmart Records
1. Security
2. On Too Long
3. Nothing New
4. Truth

Click here to download the EP

Infant Bonds of Joy - Selftitled LP

As requested by Elektro80s, here is the selftitled LP from San Francisco industrial/synth band Infant Bonds of Joy. This was a trio consisting of Ricki Sara Bennett, James Davis, and D. E. Kohls, who recorded the record with engineer/producer Greg Jones (RIP).
Anyway, this record was released in 1986 on the UK-based Public Records. It comes in a plain sleeve with glued-on artwork. The music is a mix of industrial/EBM, darkwave, and synthpop.

Apparently all the members have now contacted me, so it's great to see that everyone is doing fine! David Kohls filled me in on the history of the band:



"A (not so) brief Bio of IBOJ by David Kohls:


I came to SF from Lansing MI in 1982 drawn by the fantastic music coming out of the City in those days. Especially I liked bands recording on the Ralph Records label, and yes, I do know a member of the Residents, though I would only tell for money or food...

Boe came from Lansing 6 months later. We met up then got together with Billy Mitchell, another Lansing transplant. Billy was the drummer we'd worked with in our Lansing band "i-Tense". I seriously don't think any of us made any phone calls or anything in plans to emigrate to this great land, but here we were... I met Ricki through a Bay Guardian ad and along with a singer/girlfriend, the five of us launched Dinner Noise, a band basically built to perform a multimedia conceptual performance piece thing. We wrote a lot of music for that - a lot of it pretty good stuff.


Next, Boe and I formed the band Wimpy Savage. Very loud, unstructured, male, and in retrospect with a sound based on a Mattel drum machine which was a great sound that I don't think ANYONE else had. Boe and I have very fond memories and demo tapes of that era and our current film production company carries the same name.

Billy (and I, for a short time) did a stint with the Part Time Christians based out of Concord - kind of a bowling punk thing. Singer Dave B. is still in the area. PTC is definitely a band you freaks should clamber over if clambering is indeed what you do.

Unfortunately , Billy fell for that old diabolical call that has felled so many fine musicians. Too soon he was done and it's too bad cuz Billy was the finest drummer, maybe overall musician, I've ever worked with and he left us without a drummer.

Around this time (1985) Boe and I started writing a new set of songs. Ricki became involved and added her own (much different!) sensibilities to our sound and then we met reknown saxophonist Normal Salant who decided we'd be the perfect band for his first stroll in producer shoes. We rushed out a few more songs and made the record at Gregory Hale Jones' (RIP) recording studio. Greg was the engineer on the project and produced "WhyWhyWhy" and "Boo!". I think it's obvious to anyone who has heard the tracks that those 2 cuts sound much different than the bulk of the LP produced by Salant.

Overall the record has a lot of regrets as I suppose all records do. It is interesting though in that it caught an unusual sound in a twisty little musical time and especially it catches - showcases, actually - some of the blips of the technology of the time. Most prominently is the Roland 707 drum machine used throughout the record. There was no swing in this lock step monster and not terribly great samples either. I regret I didn't make better, more creative use of its limitations. Instead I got caught up in trying to make it sound like a drummer.

Also showcased is the wonderful Moog Prodigy synthesizer (not even Midi capable!) still highly valued for it's kick-ass bass capabilities. Most of the other keyboard sounds were produced on the Juno 120(?) a good midi-enabled synth. Did take advantage of some midi stuff, mostly triggers from the 707 and sequencing on Greg's Apple II computer! The recording was done on a 24 track board on 2 inch, mixed down to 1/2 inch and mastered at Fantasy in Berkeley."

Thanks a lot for the thorough background on the band!


Click here to download the album.

Track list:
1. Simple Anwers
2. Glorious Din
3. A Reaction
4. Why Why Why
5. Pointed Sticks
6. I Like Some Fun
7. Just Like Spoons
8. Boo!

(note: I accidentally called track 7 "Just Like Sticks" in the .zip file. Also, I didn't crop the cover images. D'oh!)

SHADOWS AS TALL AS TREES EP

Here is one of my favorite Bay Area darkwave records. It was released on the Still Life label in 1987. Essentially a duo of brothers, this group released this one EP, played around the Bay Area between 1984-1988 or so, and then dropped off the face of the earth. They were one of a number of similar bands in the mid to late 80s in the Bay Area. I imagine they would have fit perfectly on the Epithet Records roster with Autumn Cathedral, Crimson Ivy, Mute Angst Envy, ...And Tears Fell, and others, but they were just a bit too early. Shadows As Tall As Trees was synth and keyboard heavy, and remarkably well-produced for such a small indie release. They sound similar to Tears for Fears, Danse Society, Die Unbekannten, etc... Not terribly original, but man are they GOOD!

Songs:
1. The Problem
2. Now Don't Cry
3. Care
4. The Problem (Depression Mix)

1987 Still Life Records

Click here to download this EP!