Description
Black Wave marked the second LP from Lost Sounds—the Memphis band that formed in 1999 and featured the late Jay Reatard, Alicja Trout (River City Tanlines, Black Sunday), Rich Crook (the Reatards, Lover!, Thing), and Jonas Garland. The LP has been out of print since its initial release, but Philly based FDH released a remastered version of the record on two “sea foam glass” colored 180 gram LPs. The gatefold cover features additional art not included in the original pressing of the album, with the first edition is limited to 500 copies.
Jay Reatard’s early band Lost Sounds veered from rock‘n’roll primitivism into synth-punk futurism, but the result wasn’t dance music—it was panic music. Black Wave’s cover image— the band running through empty city streets, fleeing a sinister alien force looming overhead—suggests 9/11 paranoia, but the terror within is more psychological: Trout’s throat-shredding screed “I’m Not a Machine” sounds like a prescient rallying cry against encroaching technocracy, while Lindsey repeats the title of the electro-shocked “Do You Wanna Kill Me” with the blood-curdling hysteria of a young Black Francis. Black Wave is less a portrait of a future indie-rock star finding his voice than one being pushed to the next level by an equally industrious foil. While Lindsey may have embodied Black Wave’s agitated essence, Trout’s contributions—from the berserker B-52’s bomp of “Lost and Found” to the goth-metal convulsions of “I See Everything” to the ’60s go-go swing of “Soon This Tomb”—brought depth and character to their monomaniacal attack. – Stuart Berman (Pitchfork)
