Michael Draine's Twisted Vista
Birdsongs of the Mesozoic
The Fossil Record: 1980-1987
(Cuneiform)
The Fossil Record: 1980-1987 collects studio
demos, compilation cuts, and a soundtrack by
the original, Roger C. Miller-led lineup of
Boston’s durable pulse-music ensemble.
Tracks such as “Transformation of Oz” are
charged with a spark and vitality, an
exhilarating avant-garage energy at times
wanting in the group’s MIDI-era recordings.
Even at their most dissonant and aggressive,
Birdsongs spike their roiling, polyrhythmic
instrumentals with an arch whimsy rare in
art rock. (Check out Birdsongs’ surf-stomp
cover of the Marketts’ “Out Of Limits.”)		Music Review Index
The Fossil Record corrects the ommission of
key cuts from Rykodisc’s 1988 Birdsongs
collection, Sonic Geology, such as Miller’s
Bartokian “Transformation of Oz.” The
meandering score to Michael Burlingame’s
Eraserhead-like short, To A Random
demonstrates that ‘outside’ improv was
not the group’s forte, but the 23m. piece
demonstrates a determination to escape
the groove the band threatened to wear
into prior to Miller’s departure, and their
subsequent move toward a more facile,
jazz-tinted sound. Erik Lindgren’s “Slo-Boy”
(later successfully reworked for  chamber
ensemble) marked a reorientation toward
more formal arrangements. Supplemented with
a booklet essay by progressive music critic
Michael Bloom, The Fossil Record remains
the most vivid document of Birdsongs of the
Mesozoic’s stroboscopic strain of Minimalism,
with all its craggy edges intact.
Published in i/e, Summer 1993
www.cuneiformrecords.com