Description
Completely inscrutable and incredible outsider bedroom synth-funk from the Trash Company, the project of a heretofore mostly well-kept secret of Richmond, VA resident Max Monroe. The Trash Company started as a Funkadelic/Hamilton Bohannon-influenced group in 1975(!), played their first gig in a local high school dance a couple years later, and even managed to record a lone single at a state of the art studio in 1979 before thoroughly dissolving as a group not long after. Monroe kept on churning out material for the next thirty years, however, little of which has ever been unleashed on the public until this archival release spanning the 1970s to the 1990s, put together by the awesome Richmond record shop Steady Sounds and up-and-coming Washington D.C. record label People's Potential Unlimited, who specialize in reissuing leftfield dance music.
Alright, so man, what the hell does this sound like? Very little else I must say, a true American original, with totally scorched sounding minimal rhythm machine backing tracks accompanying Monroe's dryly laconic and soulful crooning. Take the third cut, comprised of a few discrete elements; start with some low-key drum machine, add a wee bit of distorted bass, and then provide the deeply intoned lyrics, "It's not the time for taking it easy/It's not the time for being undone/It's time for unification/...And I like Electra Glide," which somehow has the effect of being the most seriously sick shit I have heard this year. Sometimes albums like this can get a little too insular and suffocating, but that's not the case here, as there's something in the funk of it that strangely invites you into Monroe's private sound world. If you were feeling that awesome Personal Space compilation from last year (not to mention other OM faves like Kenneth Higney, Tommy Jay, Tonetta, or hell, even Suicide and Iggy Pop), then this is a total no-brainer and completely essential follow-up purchase, and which will undoubtedly land on our top reissue list in about eleven months, so you may as well grab it now anyway!!!
-Michael Klausman (February 13, 2013)
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