family fodder: monkey banana kitchen

Staubgold proudly presents the legendary first album from 1980 by UK underground heroes Family Fodder, for the first time reissued on and vinyl. Guest musicians include This Heat's Charles Bullen on drums, guitar, vocals, percussion and viola. Wire magazine listed Monkey Banana Kitchen among their "100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)" and wrote: "A loose collection of friends and, more often than not, wanderers, Family Fodder reached their apex (or at least one of them) with Monkey Banana Kitchen. The music took the ferocity of contemporaneous British punk and scaled it way back. They also eschewed the giant pop hook, replacing it with the hoop jumping of songs in three languages, instruments played for only four seconds, harmonic call-and-response motifs and opaque but symbolic political lyrics. Multiple reprises of phrases and fragments result in a much more subtle and effective memory-tickle. I can't count how many instruments finally made it onto the album, though piano (providing much of the rhythm), melodica, sax, synth and cowbell dominate. Their integrated eclecticism is actually layer after thin layer of dub, jazz and New Wave -- peering down into this music, you detect traces of structural complexity, and the pop that's there blurs. Lesson #537 from Fodder members: participate only when absolutely necessary -- knowing when to pare down makes it easier to transcend.