The Rec and the plastic askew punk abnormalcy of "Crap Fringe" from "EP2: The Squeak"

 

"when vanity's a must"

"Crap Fringe" by The Rec is a shiny emerald gem made out of plastic. I do mean this as an absolute complement. It is from the duo's EP2: The Squeak which is like a box of shiny precious stones made out of plastic. There is something so 1979 proto punk, proto art punk about these songs. Rendered on the lo-fi side of things which adds to the aesthetic. Key to this material are the vocal snarl and raised eyebrow sardonic social commentary and / or askew normalcy poured over the lyrics. Ritchie and Dovey started their musical relationship back in 1981 in the UK resulting (in their words) "Shropshire’s premier post-punk garage combo - the Assassins" and decades later formed the transatlantic The Rec (around 2017). Ritchie, now, lives in London and Dovey in Los Angeles.

when the lockdown started, we shut the door, hunkered down and went back to the punk sounds that brought us together when we started making music together in the early 80s. Crap fringe, is from from the resultant ep, named the squeak. It is a distant cousin of the Kinks' Dedicated Follower of Fashion, about the lengths that people go to to get themselves noticed. - the Rec

For me, "Crap Fringe" and The Squeak (overall), stirs up divergent off kilter vibes with deep grooves that made me think of proto punk / new wave acts like Bruce Woolley and The Camera Club, The Undertones, Human Sexual Response and the Tubes infused with acerbic social wit of bands like The Kinks, XTC and The Tubes even with a heavy cup load of weird sprinkled with glam bits. The Rec doesn't sound like those aforementioned bands but seem to swim in the same divergent waters lo-fi or not. 

-Robb Donker Curtius

the Rec · crap fringe

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THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:


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In 1981, Dovey and Ritchie, two Shropshire lads from the medieval market town of Oswestry ditched their school books to form north Shropshire’s premier post-punk garage combo - the Assassins. Setting a template for the youth of the flatlands, they mapped the streets of their hometown with their songs of love, fear, record collecting, solvent abuse and girls. The gigs were legendary, word was sent from Peel, and stardom briefly beckoned, but due to the overwhelming commitments of their window cleaning and paper rounds, they just couldn’t take the next crucial step. Now they’re making up for lost time.

Ritchie eventually landed in London and Dovey in Los Angeles. Reconnecting 30 years later, a trans-Atlantic musical dialogue emerged as they swapped lyrics and melodies across the pond. The Assassins were reborn and renamed after one of Oswestry's most notorious landmarks. The Rec is a unique world, where musical landscapes collide with memory to create sonic snapshots of the past, in the present, for the future.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Rec, from Oswestry, Shropshire.

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