Altered Zones

Five months ago I got an email about Wild West, a post-punk band active in the M Squared Studios scene in Sydney, Australia between 1980 and 1981. This past Spring they released the Selected Recordings compilation Scratch Another Day, which includes their Beat the Drought EP and live material from their first and last shows. I don't know a terrible amount about the changing post-punk landscape in Sydney in the early 1980s, but I do know that Wild West's brand could fuse funk with harsh synthesizer tones ("Red Sea," "We Can Do") then turn around and strum out a melodic downer ("Locking," "That's Set"). Throughout their entire range, though, the songs sound desperate and with purpose, the recording straight and raw. The band has let us give away one of their more furious tracks, "We Can Do," whose concluding pots and pans percussion section was allegedly inspired by Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough." --Ian Paul Roger Nelson, Friendship Bracelet

MP3: Wild West: "We Can Do"

Scratch Another Day is available on CD from CD Baby and digitally on Bandcamp