Industrial Sponge - Industrial Sponge

Label: Concentric Circles – CC-008
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition
Country: US
Released: 2024
Genre: Electronic, Rock, Pop
Style: Rhythmic Noise, Abstract, Synth-pop, Experimental

Concentric Circles unearth one of the most puzzling and mutant relics of the 80s American suburban underground - Industrial Sponge. 

Okay so the story goes, somewhere out in the depths of Olympia, Washington state some friends got together to fuck around with whatever cheap music equipment they could get their hands on, ingesting various illicit substances and capturing their rants, rants and verbal spew on a four-track tape recorder.  The audience in mind?  We’re not sure.  But they’d often gift-wrap the tapes and leave on bus-stops, in coffee shops or whenever an unsuspecting passerby might reach out and take a musical freebie.  

With such scant regard for fidelity and music industry standards, coupled with guerrilla distribution tactics Industrial Sponge could pretty much be considered an ethnographic document for mid 80s small town American boredom.  It’s all pinned to thin rhythm box patterns and warbling keyboards and blow-out vocals with tracks all bleeding together, band members all playing different songs at the same time, etc.  It’s a snapshot of a time where people maybe had a little extra time on their hands and thought anything was possible.  Undoubtably, not everyone needs to hear this, but there’s something special about seeing where things really bottom out.  As it stands for us, Industrial Sponge is the crown of total amateur DIY anti-music mischief.  (Mint / New)

Slithering out the fertile depths of Olympia, Washington circa 1985, Industrial Sponge “released” a lone 90 minute cassette onto the unsuspecting public. And by “released” we mean they would gift wrap the tape and leave it around Olympia and nearby Aberdeen at bus stops, on the sidewalk or in coffee shops, waiting for their bizarre manifestations to be discovered by whoever was in the mood for a mysterious free present.

Industrial Sponge was spearheaded by “Fearless” Frank Gunderson (who was also a member of Human Skab, with his pre-teen cousin Travis) and a number of his classmates at Evergreen State College, where they were attending at the time. Fueled by various illicit substances, Frank and friends would record their rants and raves for hours on end, the 4-track machine as their only witness.

Although lines can be drawn from Adrian Sherwood or PIL’s most scorched and dubbed out productions to Nervous Gender’s snot-nosed synth punk, Industrial Sponge’s racket was a sound all their own. With a sense of humor that would make more serious calamity searchers blush over their bowls of borscht, the ‘Sponge combined clattering drum machines, in-the-red vocals and dinky keyboards into a surprisingly catchy whole. For maximum effect, there were no spaces between any of the songs, everything crammed up against each other in a thick morass of sound.

Frank Gunderson is currently a professor of musicology at Florida State University with a focus on East African and Tanzanian music, where he recently filmed the documentary “Beloved Youth of Many Days: Stories About Milmani Park Orchestra.”

Concentric Circles is delighted to announce a first time reissue of this undiscovered, damaged gem. In their own words, this is “reptilian industrial music,” made by goofball antisocial freaks from the Pacific Northwest. In an attempt for digestibility, we decided to release only one side (side B, naturally) of the original 90 minute tape as a single LP. So grab a dozen frozen pizzas, a case of Jolt Cola and prepare for lift off.

Tracklist
1. Monsters In My Head 01:14
2. Daddy Was a Brontosaurus 01:25
3. Dinosaur Rap 01:42
4. Dinosaur Scream 03:57
5. Nazi's of America 03:52
6. Just Do It 03:13
7. Aural Sex 01:46
8. Waves 05:52
9. Lettah To Sarah Pt. 1 01:07
10. Lettah To Sarah Pt. 2 08:05
11. He Was Naked 04:18
12. Scary Western 00:30
13. Desert 01:58
14. Bad Wrappers 01:09
15. Sacrifice 02:41
16. Could You Be Happy 04:13