BEL MARDUK & TIAMAT

First album for the 5uu's entity that more of a band it's a title name for Dave Kerman, the well- known RIO drummer and composer, and his various works. The entire album, besides of its RIOistic 'quirkiness', is heavily rooted in the early 80's. The sound might unfortunately categorized by many of us, particular those who where not around in that decade as more or less matures, as 'creepy', 'cheesy' and all sort of non complement descriptions. The drums sounds mechanical, with some 80's drum machines here and there, and the synth are not far from that. But the songs are different, and got their own uniqueness and delight. The first seeds of DK creation are here. My fave here is 'Compromisation', with its lovely but quirky avant melody, and original lyrics from DK, accompanied by waaay too-loud, mechanical drums, and frequent use of loud cymbals crashes, In a flavor that I can't make a decision whether it belong to the early 80's tendencies, or to DK personal drumming style, which I find too loud and exaggerate from time to time.

Another track which is very amusing one, is 'Sporting', an instrumental piece with much more liveness and acoustic sound. But I suggest you do not make your sport with this track in the background, since you'll probably break your leg or something due to the odd time signatures, and the complex rhythms of this track.

Overall there are just 8 short songs here, about 20 minutes total. Since I listen to this album from the two-LPs-in-one-disk addition, I suspect that the original hard-to-find LP featured some more tracks, probably experimentals. (If someone knows something about the original LP, please let me know). My recommendation to this album goes for fans only, and those who are interested in 5uu's as well as the American RIO movement, from its very first days. The compilation also holds the excellent 'Elements' album, with the "Motor totemist guild", and another 4 fine tracks from the early days, and it's a real good compilation. The entire album is truly just for fans.