The Raybeats "Guitar Beat" (1981)

Guitar Beat [debut]
release date: 1981
format: digital (expanded reissue)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,18]
producer: Martin Rushent
label: PVC Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Tight Turn" - 2. "Big Black Sneakers" - 3. "Tone Zone" - 5. "B-Gas Rickshaw" - 6. "International Operator" - 8. "Calhoun Surf" (4 / 5) - 11. "Guitar Beat" - 13. "Holiday Inn Spain" (Bonus track)

Studio album debut by American band The Raybeats released on PVC Records and produced by British engineer and producer Martin Rushent in England. The album came out as an anachronism while the world of popular music was either pop / rock, disco, mainstream pop, contemporary r&b, new romantic, new wave, or post-punk-minded, but this is mostly pure surf rock as played primarily in the US in the 1950's. Some tracks contain elements of no wave and jazz fusion, and it's an exclusively instrumental release. I guess, most people never really knew about the album, and it was only by chance that I stumbled on it in 1982 or '83 when it was still a new album. A friend of mine had bought the album in a local record store with mostly punk rock music, and I remember finding it quite interesting but never really great, but fine enough to keep a copy on cassette for years. The version I refer to here is an extended cd with two bonus tracks. Unfortunately, they changed the original track listing, which seems like a major blunt - although, a quite typical label decision.
The Raybeats released one more album before disbanding in '84.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]

Unknown Gender "Rapid Vibrations" (1985)

Rapid Vibrations
release date: 1985
format: vinyl (MdLP 6224)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,82]
producer: Will Roper
label: Medley Records - nationality: USA

3rd studio album by American, New York-based no wave-band Unknown Gender released on Danish label Medley. The band was promoted as a girl-band and it consisted of Lynne Messinger on vocals & guitar and initially with Cindy Richmond on bass and Vivian Stoll on drums. Here Stoll has been replaced by drummer Ethan Winogrand.

The Birthday Party "Prayers on Fire" (1981)

Prayers on Fire [debut]
release date: Mar. 30, 1981
format: digital (2000 remaster)
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,72]
producer: Tony Cohen, The Birthday Party
label: 4AD Records - nationality: Australia

Studio album debut, or: second album by Australian post-punk and no-wave band The Birthday Party... Fact is, it's officially the first under the name of The Birthday Party; however, the same band with the same line-up - under the name of The Boys Next Door - released the album The Birthday Party in 1980, and in retrospect that album has been re-released as the debut by The Birthday Party.

Anyway, this album follows the 1980-album, and the earlier debut album Door, Door (1979) by the same members but under the name of The Boys Next Door, with some of its members who had played together since 1973, and in the current line-up since '76.

Compared to the 1980-album The Birthday Party this takes another step in an experimental direction focusing on art punk and no wave with less harmony structure.

I never really liked this album nor the music of this band all that much, and it's quite evident that this is a different version of post-punk looking at how it was probably less harmonic and melodic compared to its British counterparts, which was overshadowed by gothic rock. This is closer to a clone of American proto-punk (The Stooges), contemporary no wave (Contortions) and German industrial and experimental post-punk (e.g. Einstürzende Neubauten) at the time looking for new ways of musical expression.

After this, the band released Junkyard in '82 before they finally dissolved in '83 and split into the bands Crime & the City Sollution, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, Rolling Stone Album Guide 3 / 5 stars ]

Sort Sol "Dagger & Guitar" (1983)

Dagger & Guitar
release date: Nov. 1983
format: vinyl (first pressing - MdLP 6163) / cd (1997 reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,28]
producer: Chris Butler
label: Medley Records - nationality: Denmark

Tracklist: 1. "Abyss" (live) - 2. "White Shirt" - 3. "Excalibur" - 4. "Boy-Girl" (feat. Lydia Lunch) - 5. "Boy in the Fire" - 6. "Off Morning" - 7. "Written Story" - 8. "Stuck to My Gun" (3 / 5) - 9. "Framelding" - 10. "As She Weeps" (feat. Lydia Lunch)

3rd studio album by Sort Sol is released nearly 3½ years after the band's sophomore album Under en sort sol (Jun. 1980). In between these two albums, the band changed its name from Sods to Sort Sol without replacing any band members, so to speak of a debut is not easily defended, although, this is the first studio released as Sort Sol.
At the time, it was hard to understand, or to follow the desire to change the band name but it makes much sense as Sods is a name narrowly associated with the punk rock scene, and Sort Sol ['black sun'] embraces wider connotations. However musically, Dagger & Guitar is just the natural progression from their second album. In fact, stylistically, this has so much more in common with its predecessor made more than three years earlier than the first two albums as Sods share with one another, although being only separated by a single year.
Dagger & Guitar is still a bit of a strange album, though. It both contains sweet, nice, harmonic and acoustically-driven music as well as experimental art punk tracks lingering like music from the past and mildly suggesting very different and almost opposite intentions. After listening to this, you had absolutely no idea of what to expect from the band in the years to follow. Back then, I would probably have rated this one higher - it hasn't aged well though, and mostly quite clearly showcases the band's indecisiveness about musical direction, which on a later stage would split the band.
The '97 re-issue is extended with four bonus tracks, which is equal to the 12'' single version of "Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town" from 1985. It consists of cover versions including "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" by Bob Crowe and Bob Gaudio, and the title song by Mel Tillis, which became a small radio hit by Sort Sol.

[ collectors' item - 'vg+' 1st pressing - from ~ €40,- ]

      

1997
bonus reissue

1985
12'' single

Sods "Under en sort sol" (1980)

Under en sort sol
release date: Jun. 1980
format: vinyl (first pressing - MdLP 6027) / digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,42]
producer: Michael Ritto, Werner Scherrer
label: Medley Records - nationality: Denmark

Tracklist: 1. "Repeature" - 2. "Ice-age for a While" (3 / 5) - 3. "Walking on Red" - 4. "Conflict" (3 / 5) - 5. "Roller Ball" - 6. "Marble Station" - 7. "Misguided" (3 / 5) - 8. "Eveningsong"

2nd studio album by Sods and also the final album under the name of Sods is released some 1½ years following the debut, which for a punk rock band was almost seen as too long. The quartet is intact and musically, it's apparent that the band has come a long way as it's quite a different outing compared to their first studio album. The style here is definetely post-punk but also in a bolder American and New York-based experimental art punk and no wave-style.
I was really fond of the debut and just went out and purchased this without having heard a single track from it, and boy, was I disappointed! The music is something entirely different from the simplistic and abrasive hardcore debut, and although, I was had found much interest in the new stylistic developments within punk rock and the post punk-sphere, I never found this particular album that great. "Marble Station" is a song with lyrics by Danish poet Søren Ulrik Thomsen, and the end-track, "Eveningsong" features Lars Hug of Kliché on vocals - he later debuted with his solo album City Slang (1984) consisting of music to poems entirely written by Søren Ulrik Thomsen.
It's not an entirely poor album but it's really clearly a stepping stone towards something else both pointing backwards and ahead to new pastures. After this, the band rejected the name Sods and continued with an unchanged members list under the name of Sort Sol.
In retrospect, I have come to think better of the album than at the time of its release. It's quite original in its sound and style, and it does contain some fine compositions.

[ collectors' item - 1st pressing - from ~ €66,- ]