polaroids of androids

This retrospective release covers the work of the influential New York quartet, summarising their 3 EP's (released from 1981 to 1983) into a 23 track album. It also throws in a few early live recordings and, although never intended to be all compiled together into a single LP, it sounds surprisingly cohesive.

It takes all of 8 seconds into the opening track, Groupmegroup, to fully understand just how important these guys are to modern music. Aside from the direct counterfeiting (Cavern was sampled unchanged on Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel's White Lines) it's obvious that the 'post-punk space odyssey' genre that Liquid Liquid invented is a heavy influence on current instrumental masters such as Battles and Holy Fuck.

More than anything, Slip In And Out of Phenomenon highlights that - even though the music was made some 25 years ago - the group still sound as though they are hanging out in the future, looking back and laughing at us for listening to bands with synthesizers. Smug pricks.

The true brilliance of the group's sound comes through the way in which they playfully wander between conflicting sides of a wide variety of musical styles. It's groovy, yet robotic. Creatively free, yet still incredibly precise and controlled. They successfully mash these conflicting methods together, at times creating a solid world of sound, while on other occasions letting the hypnotic, rhythmic arrangements build up from a baron nothingness.

Hats off to Domino Records for getting the under appreciated work of this group out to the masses. Not only does it show that the music of Liquid Liquid has successfully stood the test of time but, more importantly, it has filled in the missing link between 70's punk rock and modern electronica. An absolutely essential record for fans of either of those genres.