Trip to Marineville

Brothers Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks started the Swell Maps in the early 1970s while in their teens. The band's chaotic mix of arty experimentalism, garage primitivism, and punk rock gumption established a template for the British DIY post-punk movement of the late '70s and early '80s. The band's 1979 debut, A TRIP TO MARINEVILLE, perfectly captures the band's two disparate yet strangely compatible elements. Songs such as "Spitfire Parade," "Another Song," and the rousing opener "H.S. Art" burn with youthful abandon and a glammy, knowingly primitive cool. Yet by "Don't Throw Ashtrays at Me" and "Bridge Head," the listener is presented with an almost completely different band, as improvised noise, clattering percussion, found sounds, and ambient piano soundscapes overtake the more straightforward rock elements that introduced the album. The hypnotic pulse of Krautrock creeps in on "Full Moon in My Pocket" and "BLAM!!" and the Sonic Youth blueprint is presented fully formed on "Gunboat." For the Swell Maps, the call to arms of punk rock wasn't about empty gestures toward anarchy and social rebellion, but rather the notion of a personal revolution via the limitless possibilities of art. A TRIP TO MARINEVILLE perfectly captures this realization.