{"id":22082,"date":"2021-12-11T05:30:32","date_gmt":"2021-12-11T10:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22082"},"modified":"2021-12-09T09:11:10","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T14:11:10","slug":"album-review-los-microwaves-the-birth-of-techno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/11\/album-review-los-microwaves-the-birth-of-techno\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Los Microwaves &#8212; The Birth of Techno"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-22083\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/los_microwaves.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"352\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/los_microwaves.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/los_microwaves-298x300.jpg 298w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/los_microwaves-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>(Please visit <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/10\/album-review-baby-buddha-music-for-teenage-sects\/\">yesterday&#8217;s post<\/a> for some additional background on this release.)<\/p>\n<p>This playfully titled release features David Javelosa (on synth and vocals) along with Meg Brazill (on bass and vocals) plus drummer Todd \u201cRosa\u201d Rosencrans (two other musicians appear on selected tracks). Side One features five studio tracks, none of which were included on the band\u2019s 1981 Posh Boy LP, <i>Life After <\/i><i>Breakfast<\/i>. Three of these tracks were recorded in \u201882; there\u2019s no information regarding the provenance of the other two songs.<\/p>\n<p>The records\u2019 second side collects five live recordings, capturing Los Microwaves onstage in New York City (The Peppermint Lounge) and Boston as well as at San Francisco\u2019s own I-Beam, a venue that often played host to the band (with and without Baby Buddha). Those tracks date form roughly the same ear, 1980-83.<\/p>\n<p>Sonically, Los Microwaves are similar to <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/10\/album-review-baby-buddha-music-for-teenage-sects\/\">Baby Buddha<\/a>, but with a less whimsical, more punk-oriented character. That\u2019s not to say that the band isn\u2019t having fun: clearly they are. The songs variously recall Blondie, Flying Lizards (again), Gang of Four and a far less dour Human League. Importantly, the band rocks, even when it\u2019s employing a spare drum kit, solid but elemental bass, and monophonic analog synthesizers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSniper,\u201d the opening track on the live side, dates from a 1980 I-Beam set. The thin, bootleg-quality audio is feature, not a bug. The band is on target, conveying an energy only hinted at by the studio tracks. The stripped down aesthetics of the group \u2013 necessitated by its minimalist instrumental approach \u2013 are nonetheless thrilling. Even if you weren\u2019t there in 1980 (and I wasn\u2019t), this\u2019ll take you back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Please visit yesterday&#8217;s post for some additional background on this release.) This playfully titled release features David Javelosa (on synth and vocals) along with Meg Brazill (on bass and vocals) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,39,59],"tags":[4718],"class_list":["post-22082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compilation","category-indie","category-punk","tag-los-microwaves","cat-19-id","cat-39-id","cat-59-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22084,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22082\/revisions\/22084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}