Savage Republic - Tragic Figures (Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition)

Welcome to the world's first (and only) post-punk-industrial-trancepsychedelic-surf album! The fact that it took us so many adjectivesto describe Tragic Figures lets you know just how unique of an albumit is. Sure, there are echoes of other artists, like krautrock legends Can,post-punkers Public Image Limited (Savage Republic opened for PiLon their 1982 West Coast dates), avant-garde guitar players like GlennBranca and Rhys Chatham, scrap metal industrialists Einst�rzendeNeubauten, and Bay Area sludgecore nihilists Flipper�but really, thisunlikely product of (mostly) UCLA undergrads sounds like no other record before or since. And only adding to Tragic Figures' mystique are its graphics, which displayed band co-founder Bruce Licher's trademark letterpress printing and featured a UPI photo of rebels getting executed in Kurdistan, the ghostly images sharing space with a red lettering that gave the album's title in script that roughly translated tragic figures into Arabic (which, in turn, had the unexpected effect of drawing more Iranian and Middle Eastern people to their shows)! Tragic Figures wasn't just a bold musical statement; it was an objet d'art in its own right.For its 40th anniversary edition, we at Real Gone Music worked with BruceLicher to preserve and expand on the magical, talismanic quality of the initialrelease. The original album has been remastered from the original tapes byMike Milchner at Sonic Vision, while both the CD and LP editions boast anextra disc of largely unreleased rehearsal recordings taped in the bowels ofUCLA parking garages, where the band used to practice to take advantageof the extended reverb afforded by all the concrete surfaces (imagine beingan unwitting undergrad happening upon this unearthly din coming out ofnowhere)! Richie Unterberger's liner notes feature interviews with bandmembers Licher, Philip Drucker, and Jeff Long, and the CD and LP come withthe original cover graphics expanded into a six-panel digipak and a gatefoldjacket pressed in heavyweight chipboard paper stock, respectively. Clear your calendar and set aside a couple of hours to listen to Tragic Figures�you won't end up where you started.