CD Review  

Rating 80%

reviewed by Ash Brown

Way back in 1984, American duo Conveniens - that's drummer John Maz and keyboarder Sterling Smith - released their debut eponymous album. Shift forward 22 years to 2006 and they're finally remastered it, and released it on CD.

Back in 1984, I can imagine that this was viewed in the same experimental vein as The Human League's Reproduction album, or maybe compared with Hawkwinds Church Of Hawkwind or Choose Your Masques, even though the space jazz music it contains only shares superficial likenesses to either of those bands. Today, the experimentation sounds a little off-kilter, which is to be expected. Despite that, it is surprising how much of this album sounds fresh enough to have been recorded this year.

If you were a fan back then, or are brave enough to take a punt on music weird enough to be likened to a soundtrack to a nightmare, this is obviously an essential purchase. The rest of us should use the Try Before You Buy option on the CDBaby website.

The band released a further two albums which are considered Collectors Items. I had a car which was a collectors item. The council collected it and crushed it. For a small fee.