We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Idioblast 1983​-​2004

by The John Fekner City Squad

supported by
Patrick Principe
Patrick Principe thumbnail
JEvFB Beckman
JEvFB Beckman thumbnail
sasanoskouei
sasanoskouei thumbnail
/

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    • The first 500 of this Double LP include a replica of Fekner’s hauntingly prophetic “Beauty’s Only Screen Deep” stencil!

    • First ever reissue of this cult classic complete with a bonus LP of rarities and unissued cuts & a gatefold jacket stuffed full of liner notes!

    • Cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio & pressed in the USA!

    Includes digital pre-order of Idioblast 1983-2004. You get 3 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
    shipping out on or around May 10, 2024
    Purchasable with gift card

      $36.99 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    • First ever CD reissue!
    • Includes two bonus tracks!
    • Features liner notes from WFMU's Creamo Coyl!

    Includes digital pre-order of Idioblast 1983-2004. You get 3 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
    shipping out on or around May 10, 2024
    Purchasable with gift card

      $26.99 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Pre-order of Idioblast 1983-2004. You get 3 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
    Purchasable with gift card
    releases May 10, 2024

      $12.99 USD  or more

     

1.
Halley's Comet 04:21
buy track
2.
Rapicasso
3.
The Beat
4.
Travelogue The 80s
5.
2 4 5 7 9 11
6.
I Get Paid To Clap (full version) 07:09
buy track
7.
Sight Of The Child
8.
Wheels Over Indian Trails
9.
Rock Steady
10.
Another Four Years
11.
EZ Gee Jammin'
12.
Concrete People 04:21
buy track
13.
BD Cycles w/ Sasha Summer
14.
Rhapsody In Black
15.
When Future Collides With History
16.
Concrete Concerto
17.
Concrete People (dance mix)
18.
Concrete Concerto (oil drum mix)
19.
The Beat (89 mix)

about

Released in 1984, Idioblast is a lost classic, a future shock narrative ahead of its time, and yet completely of its era, like few artifacts before or since. The cover tips you off from the jump—a crude but effective collage featuring classic Fekner slogans like Toxic Junkie, Growth Decay and Soft Brains Watch The Screen And Buy The Jeans. In an uncanny and tragic coincidence, the very first lyric on the album—“The place to be is on the space shuttle/if you’re brave enough to get on it”—seems to anticipate the Challenger disaster just two years later. But for the most part, the tracks on Idioblast directly reference the concepts that inspired Fekner’s visual art.


Musically, “Rapicasso” utilizes pneumatic pounding with an industrial edge as Fekner equates the great and controversial painter with risk-taking graffiti kids bombing trains and billboards across the city. Art is in a constant state of exploding—forms, paradigms, outdated ideas.
Splitting the difference between hip-hop and new wave, the Santaniello-sung “The Beat” is like Thomas Dolby meets Run-DMC and should’ve been a radio staple for at least one sticky summer. It could soundtrack either a couples roller skate or a drug-fueled evening out.


Channeling Fekner’s slogan-stencil aesthetic, “Travelogue The 80’s” is a tour de force reminiscent of Negativland’s experiments in audio culture jamming. As Fekner details, “I grabbed all of the sounds via a shortwave radio picking up transmissions from LaGuardia airport and the TV. I recorded and edited on a Sony Pro Walkman and an Aiwa dual cassette deck.”

- Erick Bradshaw

credits

releases May 10, 2024

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Sundazed Music / Modern Harmonic image

Sundazed Music / Modern Harmonic Hillsborough, North Carolina

Kinda like a record company, except fun and run by music lovers.

contact / help

Contact Sundazed Music / Modern Harmonic

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Idioblast 1983-2004, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring Riley Pinkerton (aka The Rat Queen) from the theatrical NYC rockers, Castle Rat.
listen now