Swell Maps Trip To Marineville CD

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.

Swell Maps' debut album was a scattershot affair, ranging from blistering three-chord punk to free-form noise experiments, that was intriguing, yet frequently incoherent. [The album's 1989 Mute reissue included eight bonus tracks, but its 2004 Secretly Canadian version only had four.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Audio Mixer: John A. Rivers.

Audio Remasterers: John A. Rivers; Nikki Sudden.

Recording information: 5 Bourton Road, Solihull (07/??/1977-04/17/1979); Spaceward Studio, Cambridge, England (07/??/1977-04/17/1979); WMRS, Woodbine Street, Leamington Spa (07/??/1977-04/17/1979).

Photographer: Swell Maps.

Unknown Contributor Role: Jowe Head.

Swell Maps: Epic Soundtracks (vocals, various instruments); Dave "Phone" Barrington (vocals, guitar, violin); Jowe Head (saxophone, piano, bass guitar); Richard Earl (Hammond b-3 organ); John Cockrill (bass guitar, hand claps); Nikki Sudden.

Personnel: Jowe Head (vocals, guitar, harmonica, cymbals, hand claps, balloons, background vocals); Nikki Sudden (vocals, guitar, piano, hand claps, balloons, background vocals); David Barrington (vocals, guitar, cymbals, background vocals); Richard Earl (guitar, xylophone, hand claps, balloons, background vocals); John Cockrill (guitar, background vocals); Epic Soundtracks (violin, piano, bass synthesizer, xylophone, drums, hand claps, sound effects, balloons, background vocals).

Uncut (p.123) - 4 stars out of 5 - "MARINEVILLE subverts bilious sneers with old-fashioned yarns set to raucous guitar thrashes..."
Magnet (pp.96-7) - "[T]he Maps embody the kind of free-wheeling, dangerous joy that results when six British teenagers completely disregard the rules....This debut is a drunken detour into two-chord post-punk."