*Genuinely jawdropping archival reissue from the Forced Nostalgia label, the first time on vinyl for this unique album recorded in the mid 80's using analogue synths, found objects & DIY tape loops, drawing lines between the the postpunk movement and into the more introspective sounds that would go on to typify so much electronic music of the early nineties* Over twenty three years ago, Pelican Daughters forged a dour and dubbed out brand of post-punk and proto-ambient which would be hailed as an underrated classic and which sounds more relevant today than probably at any point since its creation. Forced Nostalgia follow their captivating Cicciolina Holocaust/Sermonizer split with this crucial edition of the Daughters' debut album 'Fishbones & Wishbones', presented on vinyl for the first time.
The band were formed around the unit of Justin Brandis and Andy Rantzen in 1984 and worked with a string of collaborators including Anthony Maher aka Dub producer Sheriff Lindo, and occasional members Ben Fontaine, Andrew Holmes, James Fergus, and Bryce Cannon, hatching a sound which matched the minimalism of This Heat and the clammy ambience of Lustmord, or even the mystic industrial space of Basquiat's Gray outfit, whilst teetering on the brink of an ambient Techno style instigated on the opposite side of the world. FN label curator, Fré De Vos, has reshuffled and reduced the album to eight essential tracks, ranging from the kinky discord of 'Exodus' to the chilling ambience of 'Do The Crawl'. In the half-lit space between they converge on snaking basslines, subtle analogue synth touches, DIY tape loops and constantly shifting percussion arranged from drum machines and various found objects. In 'The Haywain' you'll find an intoxicating ritualist dub jam, whereas the plaintive vocal and arcane string loops of 'Rockaby' could just as easily emerged from the Coil cabal, and the suggestive 'Insect Wing' would be mistaken for a Raime release by many. If there's any one track which sums up this album though, it's 'Through The Sepulchre', a beguiling, beautifully sparse amalgam of sonorous sewer bass emissions, SAW II-like melodies and vocal samples which snag the ear like rusty studs. The sense of strangely dark funk to their rhythms and taste for unnerving melody would eventually lead Andrew Rantzen to form rave unit Itch-E & Scratch-E with Paul Mac, and the Pelican Daughters would release one more album 'Bliss' for Kim Cascone's Silent label in 1994, but 'Fishbones & Wishbones' remains the most crucial record they made - and an absolutely shocking discovery amidst a sea of questionable reissues from the era. Hugely recommended. (Boomkat)

nice aesthetic framework there, which lead me to investigate this particular release ... while i really wanted to say that this thing has “fake reissue” written all over it (oddly hiss-free fidelity, esp. given the time-frame & geography / technology at work here ; discogs listing of the purported “original” cicciolina tape put up the month this went into production by an associate) ; but people tell me sermonizer is a fairly well-known figure in 80’s italian minimal-wave dealings (of which i have little-to-no greater understanding outside of a general enthusiasm ; besides if it weren’t for william bennett, we probably wouldn’t have heard of maurizio bianchi either) ... (Mimaroglu)