Roadkill
Captured Tracks, 2018
7/10
A collector’s item and the only release from this late ‘70s/early ‘80s punk-ish band, the teenagers in Capital Punishment actually released Roadkill themselves with no label or distribution. Only a couple hundred copies existed until now, and this reissue even adds some bonus material not on the original album.
“Necronomicon” starts the listen with some primitive vocal effects before something resembling wind chimes enters, as a soundbite from the news about serial killer filters in, as does bagpipes and Eastern influences, and “Roadkill” follows with a mashing of ideas in an avant-garde delivery of noisey guitars and aberrant synth.
Things only get stranger from here, including the plucked “Muzak Anonymous”, where singing and rapping alternate with a quirky lo-fi fee, while “All Just In Passing” brings some semblance of normalcy to the affair with a calm, classic rock inspired moment. “Delta Time”, the album’s best, then offers gruff fake British vocals alongside some proto-punk ideas.
The end consists of bonus tracks, where “Waiting To See You”, from 1979, sounds like someone fiddling with their guitar, and “Hellen”, from 1983, emits raw melodies and gritty musicianship that’s much more evolved than the previous tracks.
A very strange listen indeed, New Wave, post-punk and industrial ideas enter the atmosphere, as the youngsters delivery an unclassifiable mixture of iconoclastic sounds. The band members would go onto great things, including being a judge, professor and one of Hollywood’s biggest names, which of course brings more intrigue to this unorthodox rarity.
Travels well with: Throbbing Gristle- The Second Annual Report; Chrome- Red Exposure