CD Reviews

Mars

The Complete Studio Recordings, NYC 1977-1978 | No More

By DEVIN KING | July 29, 2008

4.0 Stars

Part of the originally iconoclastic but now iconic no-wave scene that cropped up in the late-’70s downtown NYC art scene, Mars are best known as one of the four bands recorded by Brian Eno for his No New York compilation. This comp supplies the four songs from that comp, along with a single and an EP (formerly available only with added tape trickery and heavy remixing) that round out Mars’s output. Career-spanning records usually mark a band’s evolution; this outfit existed for just two years, so the material sketches a near-perfect first and sole album — albeit one sequenced chronologically. Mars hit the stereotypes carved out by the no-wave groups: extended vocal techniques that sound like moaning or shrieking; distorted guitars with muted, scattered strumming (the band referred to them as “insect guitars”); highly pitched, arrhythmic drums creating textural rather than metric space. Mark Cunningham’s understated bass is a passive throb that supplies recognizable song forms, however slight, focusing the rebellion into something still righteously agitated 30 years later.

Topics: CD Reviews , Brian Eno, Devin King, MARS

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