Know dick about these kids, and this is one of those instances where the internets ain’t any help at all, so here’s what I can glean from the piddling amount of info that accompanies this: They were from Sweden, they had a fondness for the rock’s danker corners, and this is a compilation of assorted EP, LP, and demo recordings dropped onto tape at various points during the decade identified in the title. The hands-down best stuff here are the tracks from their first release, the Pinnen Rullar Till Peking EP—five tunes of dark-tinged punk/hardcore that immediately sets the band up with their own voice and apart from the more standard/rote thrash-o-rama that ruled the roost when it was originally released in 1985. From there, though, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, their explorations in what I guess would now be called “goth” musical memes shows a band willing to push themselves a bit and experiment in sandboxes outside the one they first stepped in. On the other hand, their opting to marry those experiments to a more conventional “rock” sound puts a damper on what might’ve been some seriously interesting sounds with a bit more abrasiveness and left-turns into wholly uncharted territories. I dunno if five brilliant tunes out of twenty-six are worth the hunt and the green, especially if one manages to find a copy of that first EP all by its lonesome at a respectable price, but good tunes they remain, and hell, maybe the next punter that picks this up’ll appreciate their later goth-rock stylings a bit more.
–jimmy (Massproduktion)