Action Ornaments
Runt, 1996

This San Diego group active since the early 1990s has littered the used bins of record stores all over the U.S. and abroad, which unfortunately dulls some of the brilliance of the band by nature of the the eternal “quality over quantity” debate. Like The Fall, who’ve literally hundreds of releases over multiple decades, the band’s discography has a few less-than-life-changing releases in their massive catalog, yet the The Fall’s body of work has always been respected for its bright spots and recognized for the sheer audacity of the risks Mark E. Smith took with multiple iterations of the group and its ever-evolving, ever-constant aesthetic. Trumans Water definitely had plenty of ink spilled about the band during their initial run, touring Europe and even recording a Peel Session at the BBC, but their body of work has seemingly been relegated to the dollar bins of the world and to the margins of ’90s underground music. I’ve found many of their releases for insultingly cheap prices, some admittedly deserving the dishonor of being under one measly dollar, but one release that you don’t see around too often is this fantastic album only released on CD and cassette in 1996. That scarcity should tell you something, right?

Along with Of Thick Tum, Spasm Smash XXXOXoX Ox & Ass, and Godspeed The Punchline, a trio of solid LPs from early in the band’s run that garnered them most of the attention the band would receive, this mid-1990s release is one of my favorites by the band and notoriously overlooked, likely on account of it being buried among the heavily discounted and stickered stock of the band’s other releases. You’d be right to be suspicious too, as one of the original band members, Glen Galaxy, jumped ship to become a born again Christian and release excellent records under the Soul-Junk moniker. That sort of split from the nucleus of the band could’ve, and honestly should’ve, had a highly negative effect on the band’s songwriting and intuitive improv cohesiveness. Instead, Action Ornaments doubles down on the insane kinetic energy the band was known for, something akin to a mashup of the Swell Maps and free jazz, with waves of loosely turbulent riffing that stretch and contract elastic tempos as yelped vocals wail along. While they often got lumped in with Sonic Youth and other ’90s noisemongers, the contagious energy of Action Ornaments sounded unlike anything else at the time and continues to hold up decades later.

Luckily it’s not 1996 and you don’t have to rely on a chance encounter of coming across this rare gem in the wild, so you can now find Action Ornaments and a smattering of other releases on their Bandcamp page. If you’re curious about the band but haven’t found the right pathway into their brilliant ouvre, this makes a great entry point along with any of their early Homestead Records releases.