Bunnydrums

PKD/Simulacra

Metropolis Records ( www.metropolis-records.com )

REISSUED AUGUST 19, 2003

There’s absolutely no better test for a band’s sound than the reissue. So here we are, twenty-ish years beyond when Bunnydrums laid out five releases (two full-lengths, two EPs and one single,) between 1981 – 1986 before disintegrating into the annals of rock history.

What Metropolis Records near-complete reissue of the group’s discography does is nothing short of a musical miracle, reintroducing an obscure group to an audience who are destined to pick a million influences from this remarkably progressive canon of work.

There are drearily exquisite residues of the equally obscure and creative Fad Gadget, echoes of the early-to-mid-80s sound of Depeche Mode, The Police and U2’s ground-breaking War, blissful psychedelics most potent of The Doors, Rush and Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold” and the path that lay ahead for future trailblazers Pixies and Nirvana.

Oh yes, all of this is readily evident on PKD/Simulacra and there’s bound to be much more heard, as well. Of other 19 track works, it hardly gets better than this, from a group that never ceased to be wickedly creative and experimental until the very end of their journeys. Yet, for all that is heard and recognized, it’s impossible to deny Bunnydrums their due for forging their own stunningly bold path.

By combining the psychedelics and need for progression of late-60s-through-late-70s acid rock, the moody atmospherics of non-pop New Wave, the dirty drive of early punk rock and the primitive dabbling in electronic, Bunnydrums did nothing less than become one of the greatest and overlooked group of their time.

And in case you missed it the first time (admittedly, we did,) this is the masterpiece that proves it!

Although the deep cuts in the latter half of this album show their age (with the exception of the playful surf of “Switchblade,” a great instrumental variation on the classic “Wipe Out,” and one of the earliest constructions from the band on “Little Room,” complete here with the sounds of a needle being laid down and playing the actual vinyl,) the earliest of PKD/Simulacra’s tracks straight through to the mid-teens of the track selection are unbeatable.

The opening “Smithson” is the initial grabber, combining the group’s astoundingly talented aptness at multi-instrumentation and rhythmic perfection, into a package of tight musicianship, glaringly successful experiments in sound and one drearily unforgettable chorus that is to be understood immediately.

The follow-up on “Magazine” surfs U2’s unforgettable “Sunday Bloody Sunday” territory, where the deep-trembling bass, crying and flying guitar and vocalist David Goerk’s work all soar to heights as equally transfixing as their great, classic contemporaries of the time.

Indeed, 1983’s PKD is this group’s masterpiece, where the above two tracks originate from, and it’s an album made far more stellar with the untamable jazz-rock squelch of the “Ugh” instrumental and the emotionally penetrating “Stop,” most reminiscent, in retrospect, of the greatest times of The Cure and Talking Heads.

Yet, those are only our favorites, based on a handful of listens that have only succeeded in familiarizing with these enriching and complex sounds. Indeed, after four or five listens, it’s barely even begun to grasp the whole, something of an indication of how wonderfully serpentine, professional and artfully redefining this work manages to be upon each exploration.

From: Techno Punk Music