If Public Image Limited’s first album (see ABON 0134) helped kick start the Post Punk phenomenon, then their second album, ‘Metal Box’, demonstrated at length and in depth how rich a territory Post Punk could be.

The first album had combined Dub Reggae bass and Can-like Krautrock guitar sensibilities and sounds to create a new music that was more creatively experimental than Punk. As wonderful and ground-breaking as that album was, particularly on stand-out tracks ‘Public Image’ and ‘Annalisa’, it was also a fairly one-dimensional - and short – affair. Almost as if PIL were too awed by what they’d discovered to be able to develop the sound further or laterally beyond that initial creative breakthrough.

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‘Trout Mask Replica’ Part 2.

‘Trout Mask Replica’ was Captain Beefheart, for the first time, managing to create a musical space in which he could breathe - and express himself - completely naturally (see ABON 0131).

Maybe ‘Trout Mask’ turned out to be such an unusual and fascinating record because the subject matter - what was inside the Captain waiting to get out - was so unusual and fascinating.

Maybe.

But I have a slightly different view. I think a record that manages to express accurately and precisely what really is inside ANYONE would turn out to be unusual and fascinating. The problem is that getting it out - really getting it out, warts and all, in some kind of pure state – is rare because it’s such a difficult business.

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‘Trout Mask Replica’ Part 1.

‘Trout Mask Replica’ is an album that broke just about every rule in the Rock’n'Roll book.

Musically there are practically no melodies. Few ’tunes’ that you can hum along to. Ridiculously unusual time signatures are difficult enough in their own right, but when each instrument plays to a different one within the same song, even the most ardent of foot-tappers is liable to give up. And just for good measure, the instruments don’t seem to be playing the roles they normally do within Rock - even weird Rock. The drums don’t often create a beat that drives the songs. The last thing the bass is doing is providing any kind of metronomic framework for the other instruments to play on top of. In fact, in total contrast, it’s often the most melodic instrument on the album.

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