Systems of Romance

Picking back up where our last post left off, here’s an album that’s been near and dear to my heart for many moons, hailing from the same general area and scene as Drowning Pool, Abecedarians, etc. While there seems to be a lot of activity in the area, there doesn’t seem to be as much love out there for Fourwaycross, who began in 1984 in Los Angeles. Though the main core of the band was Tom Dolan, Biff Sanders, Steve Gerdes and Courtney Davies, the band has shifted lineups and styles seamlessly over the years, most notably drafting Brad Laner and Beth Thompson, who would then go on to form Medicine upon the band’s demise.

Despite the lineup changes, the original core of the band offered up what is in my opinion, their strongest work, 1985’s self-titled cassette. The release is haunting, singular, and transcends genres to allow for neo-classical passages, Savage Republic-esque tribal post-punk, ethereal instrumentals with flutes in tow, and psychedelic, haunting folk. The cassette was reissued several times over in a variety of formats, including a vinyl pressing (affordable and essential), cassettes with alternate artwork, and even a CD-R issue in 2011 as interest in post-punk music was thriving. That said, this rip comes from an original cassette from 1985, in pristine condition.

This is the band’s earliest material, not counting a posthumous release of outtakes, demos, and rare tracks on Independent Project Records, released as Pendulum. The band would issue three equally strong albums following this debut, and have released a handful of excellent singles in the last year featuring the original core lineup. You can listen and purchase the new work via the band’s Bandcamp, and you can also find them all on Facebook. Courtney and Steve have also launched a new project called The Roogs, who are currently working on material.

Without any further ado, here’s the info on this cassette:

Fourwaycross- Fourwaycross K7
1. Intro
2. When Will You
3. Apologize
4. Sharpened Knives
5. Long Talk
6. Driving Thru Trees
7. MF
8. Strictly Morphine

*download it here*

This entry was posted on December 4, 2018 at 4:59 pm and is filed under 1980s, 1985, california, fourwaycross, post-punk, US . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.