Released nearly 30 years after the
Toy Killers originally formed,
The Unlistenable Years is the first (relatively) well distributed recording -- and first CD -- of the group's hard to define music. Weighing in at just over 67 minutes long, the disc features 25 tracks -- seven of which are untitled improvisations tacked on at the end of the disc -- along with an impressive list of contributing musicians. Along with founding members Mark Miller (credited with drums, vocals, bass, turntables, cocktail shakers, and "incendiaries") and Charles K. Noyes (drums and percussion), this list includes
John Zorn (saxophone, game calls),
Bill Laswell (bass),
Elliott Sharp (guitar and bass),
Arto Lindsay (guitar and vocals), and
Wayne Horvitz (keyboards), among other notables. The recordings -- which span the years 1980 to 1983 -- come from a wide variety of locations, both live and in studio, and they feature a constantly rotating batch of lineups. With the changing lineups comes a variety of sounds, something that's evident from the first three tracks: the first, "I'm Embarrassed to Be an American Girl," is an effective spoken-sung monologue by Aline Lily Mayer (who only appears on this track); the second, "Sex Carp," is a spastic bit of no wave "rock" with
Lindsay on guitar, Miller on bass, and Noyes on drums; and the third, "24 Handkerchiefs for Roger Trilling," is an insistent, percussion-heavy studio concoction that could be mistaken for something off of
Material's Memory Serves or the first
Golden Palominos record. The disc continues on in such a fashion, mixing live and studio recordings as well as abrasive, guitar-heavy skronk with percussion-centered mutant dance music and beyond. Apart from the untitled improvisations at the end of the disc, the sound quality is remarkably good, while the sequencing (which eschews chronological order) was done with an eye toward making this an entertaining CD in addition to the historical document that it is. Even for those who have never heard of the
Toy Killers before,
The Unlistenable Years is a find, as it offers the chance to hear a fascinating and varied assortment of musicians while they were still at their most daring. ~ William York