AFTERIMAGE
Faces to Hide
Independent Project Records
As the Shakespearean pun would have it: "Comparisons are odorous".* And in music nothing stinks quite as badly as suggesting a given artist is their hometown equivalent of someone more famous from somewhere else. Not least if the artist in question is still unknown 45 plus years after their demise.
"Iceland's answer to Beyonce - cruelly overlooked by an industry prejudiced against glaciers, volcanoes and fermented shark meat" … Doesn't really work does it?
Thus it is (almost) with LA band Afterimage who back in 1981 the LA Times described as that city's equivalent of Joy Division.
That suggestion back then, when the Manchester band's legend was still being codified, and they were little known stateside, may have been flattering. Used four and a bit decades later to plug a 22- 26 track (versions vary) compilation of studio, demo and live highlights it just smacks of desperation. And it's just one of many comparisons in the 1,000 word press release which otherwise fails to impart even the most basic information about the group.
Did they actually come from Los Angeles or just play there… How did they come to form, when exactly did they exist… How many gigs did they play… Did they tour outside LA… Why did they give up… And what became of them over the intervening decades?
And, with no Wikipedia entry and Google showing up little more than plugs for this compilation your reviewer was left wondering whether they were a high school/student band who played a few gigs before disappearing into "proper jobs", or even some kind of Spinal Tap spoof **
Maybe that's where the title, "Faces to Hide" comes in.
The little we are told: Afterimage had "a short life" and existed for either "a couple" or "a few" years in the 80s, they released one two track 45 and an EP in 1981, they played LA's Whiskey a Go Go and one member (guitarist?) Barry Craig went on to become "an ambient explorer". Not so much to go on.
This page on the Independent Project Records website https://www.independentprojectrecords.com/a-produce suggests Craig was a teenager in the 60s .. while this link. https://echoes.org/2011/09/08/a-produce-is-transported-r-i-p/ reports a 25 year career as an ambient artist recording under the name " A Produce" before passing away in 2011.
So were Afterimage genuine LA post punksters or just middle aged bandwagon jumpers? On the evidence presented, which is pretty much all that seems to be available, it's difficult to judge.
And Independent Project Records doesn't exactly seem keen for us to find out for ourselves. The press releases gives a link to just one of the 26 tracks (against 11 for the label and its associated entities)
Judicious sifting on Youtube (two other bands and a computer game bear the same name) turns up most of the other 25. And true enough, musically they press the obvious post punk buttons and up to a point a couple of the many comparisons are reasonably accurate.
- Joy Division - some bass riffs and the odd flash of guitar such as on Satellite of Love although the vocals on most tracks more resemble a strangulated Pete Murphy (Bauhaus), than Ian Curtis's rich baritone.
- Magazine - yes the odd John McGeoch guitar lick but none of Howard Devoto's philosophising.
- Pere Ubu - closer to pre-Ubu, Rocket From the Tombs.
- Public Image - the first album maybe but certainly not their interesting stuff (Metal Box).
- Gang Of Four - staccato drumming on “Strange Confession" aside, no.
- Television - hardly..
- The Fall - seriously?
Several tracks do feature prominent sax which with the heavy bass lines is very reminiscent of early Psychedelic Furs whose subsequent career in FM MoR blandity perhaps precludes their mention. And there are occasional flashes of other influences such as the proto psychobilly guitar riff on Surf Generator.
In short, there's little here that is actually bad. It's just not exactly remarkable for the period.
Afterimage resemble dozens (hundreds?) of bands both sides of the Atlantic in the 1980s who boasted more than competent musicians, who were well adept at aping, reflecting and adapting their influences and/or contemporaries and who put out a couple of long forgotten vinyl releases without actually establishing any clear identity of their own.***
Assuming some of the other claims made in the press releases are accurate (see questions above) Faces to Hide could be a valuable record of a short lived band in a short lived scene in a city famed for its superficiality.
As such, and without wishing to be cruel, it should appeal to family members, scene survivors and students of early 80s LA postpunk obscurity, but the rediscovery of a lost future of rock and roll it certainly ain't.
Former Afterimage member "A Produce" on the other hand… Now there's your diamond in the rough…
Essential Information and clarifiers
Main image by Mariska Leyssius
* Much Ado About Nothing: Act 3, Scene 5
** E.G… XTC's now famous "anonymous" venture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dukes_of_Stratosphear
*** Search out "Midnight and the Lemon Boys" who this reviewer once saw blow U2 offstage, before disappearing almost without trace.
