Intense Molecular Activity released one of the most intense records of the year with this self titled EP that bridged the most wild psychedelic-rock of the 60s, the synth-punk of the late-70s and the elaborate constructions of progressive-rock.
The likes of "Blurb", "Points In Space", "Beat Street" etc nod to the freak-outs of Chrome and the super neurosis of Suicide, but theirs is a more clinical approach which also takes notice of Hawkwind and Pink Floyd's interstellar overdrive. If anything, the songs seemed to radiate feverish acid terror.
ILY rateyourmusic.com
This EP landed on my doorstep 30 minutes after the first mushroom trip I ever embarked on by myself and was summarily slapped on the turntable on a wild whim just as everything was kicking in. The damn thing just about tore my head off! This New York unit may have been operating in post No-Wave quarters, but in the same way that Chrome took the post punk template and juiced it with psychotropic excess, this outfit proffered a concoction that while bearing some comparison to the likes of Martin Rev, Dark Day, Devo and Richard Bone, takes these minimal synth/post punk stylistic trappings and hoses them down in wetly psychoactive sense deranging treatments. A true blue monster. Note: as noted in the comment board for this EP, it seems that one DJ Hell lifted the track here ("Blurb") virtually intact and uncredited for his electroclash club hit "Keep On Waiting". which makes him sorta the P-Diddy of the Peaches set.
Eric Lumbleau
Mutant Sounds Blogspot
Intense Molecular Activity, on IMA Flexidisc
Here's another electronic band, this one hails from New York and proves that you don't have to cross the Atlantic to hear good synthesizer music. Four tunes feature Don Hunerberg's synthesizer playing and Andy Blinx's percussion, augmented by some additional keyboards and guitar. The disc peaks with "Battery Life", the closing cut on the superior B side. If you think Gary Numan is great, buy this record and think again!
David Shaw
Judy Padow's "Complex Desires" is set to a commissioned electronic score by Andy Blinx and Don Hunerberg (IMA). The score builds a percussive head of steam as it switches from a beeping barrage that sounds like a computer games arcade into a hissing radiator with syncopated obbligato from clanking pipe. At times the music is as peppy as a Disney "Silly Symphony". At other times it's dark and tense.
Allen Robertson
IMA "Beat Street" from 8" flexi EP
Playlist for Brian Turner WFMU FM Aug. 8, 2007
IMA "Battery Life" from 8" flexi EP
IMA now playing on last fm
IMA on rateyourmusic.com
rateyourmusic #126 top eps of 1980