Four Steps Toward a Cultural R

According to the press sheet, although Seattle's The Beakers may have called it quits only after a year (1980-1981), they managed to build up a pretty solid reputation for themselves--touring with and gaining the praise of Gang of Four. Songs from their 45, two compilations, and mostly previously unreleased material have been collected here. The sound is "funky punk": saxophone crazy, funky bass, tight rhythm section and rapid fire guitar. The singer sounds kind of like a crazier David Byrne. Spastic rants and raves, and lyrics that sometimes sound like they were lifted from a children's book. Most songs clock in under 3 minutes. Abrasive music that you can dance to--think precursor to The Rapture and !!!. FCC clean.

*1. Cool sax lead in. Bit of female backup vocals, would've liked to have heard more of this.
*2. Ends abruptly, cutting the singer off from seeing just how well he can sequentially increase the speed of his singing.
3. Noisy disjointed sax parts equally important to more unified sounding sax parts.
4. Live track from The Showbox, Seattle. They must have been an awesome live act.
5. Grunts and "I am the king" over and over again. Could be really annoying but not so much.
6. More of the same.
*7. A deranged love song. He'd like to explain the cathode ray tube to you because he has a crush on you. Charming.
8. Recorded in Berkeley Square, London? Something to do with Berkeley Square.
9, 10. More taunts.
11. Live track from The Showbox, Seattle.
12. Sometimes his singing gets so slurred you can't tell it apart from the purposeful hissing and moaning sounds he makes.
13. Another Berekely Square track.
14. He could be a drill sergeant with this song.
15. Live track from The Showbox, Seattle.
*16. "Look to the past/Look to the past/For your new ideas"--they knew the popularization of "dancepunk" was coming!
17. Cover of disco classic "Funky Town"