Transportation EPs＜限定盤＞

構成数 : 2枚
合計収録時間 : 00:00:00
Born of New York's ragged but visceral late-'70s downtown scene, Chandra was an outlier. Formed by members of no wave group the Dance and lyricist/songwriter Chandra Oppenheim, the band's sound was an eerie, meditative branching off of the angular, funk-flavored art punk of acts like ESG, Bush Tetras, and Lizzy Mercier Descloux. Setting them largely apart from their contemporaries was a frontperson who was just ten years old when the band formed, and whose astute lyrics offered strange and sometimes dizzying perspectives outside of the standard themes devised by adults. Chandra played gigs and recorded a 1980 EP, Transportation, before morphing into the Chandra Dimension (a short-lived version of the band expanded to include members closer in age to Oppenheim) but soon dissolved so the singer could peruse school like most kids her age. Decades passed and a cult following grew around Chandra's outsider sounds, especially in 2008 when a limited-edition reissue collected the four songs from Transportation and four previously unreleased tracks. In the ten years that followed, legions of new fans caught on, and Transportation EPs further expands the limited Chandra discography -- issuing all eight songs from both EPs as well as two never-before-heard four track-demos from the same era. Opening with the dissonant melodica/organ buzz and cold punk-funk bassline of "Opposite," the album boils down the antisocial, high-concept sound of New York's no wave days, and Oppenheim's lyrical and vocal contributions twist the sound into strange places. Exploring paranoia, social unrest, and dread, the singer's age is less interesting or palpable than her alien viewpoint, a voice that feels neither young or old. "Kate" is an incredible standout, with Oppenheim first describing a friend but growing more spiteful and seething as the song spirals into a frightening picture of a society that ingrains competition, comparison, and back biting. This is all delivered with the knowing confidence of a cynical adult, making the songs all the more rattling. Tracks recorded with the Chandra Dimension skew slightly dancier and more upbeat, with songs like "Get It Out of Your System" and "Tish Le Dire" getting as close to pop as the project ever came. Two grainy demos, "Day Without Success" and "They're All Alike," hint at what else could have come from Chandra. Both tracks maintain the distant weirdness of the fully fleshed out songs, but are stripped down to raw synth sounds, drum machine, and double-tracked vocals as Oppenheim dissects disparities of class and wealth from a mindset far beyond her years. Collecting all known recorded output in one place gives a complete picture of just how truly unique Chandra was. These specific, unusual circumstances, resulting in music that sounds electric and beautifully confounding almost 40 years later, is nothing short of surreal. ~ Fred Thomas