Audiopile Review: Portland’s Concentric Circles follow this year’s domestic reissue of the incredible Sternpost LP with a deep find from the cobwebbed closet of 1980’s DIY Olympia. So wildly obscure that barely a whiff of this seems to exist on the internet outside of this specific pressing, which makes all the more sense considering the initial cassette release was left gift wrapped and left in public spaces to be discovered by unwitting passersby. And here we are, nearly 40 years later, as brand new unwitting listeners getting a rare glimpse into this hermetic in-joke that’s now certain to get more attention than the creators had likely ever bargained for. Ok, maybe not that much attention, considering this small edition of 200 is likely to land in only a handful of record shops who have a vested interest in such DIY curios, which, of course, is right in our wheelhouse. There are signifiers here that should spark the interest of anyone else out there who has more than a passing interest in the world beyond Messthetics comps—scrappy guitars, barely-in-sync drum machines, fried toy keyboards, and an overdose of echoed FX and general lo-fi murk. But it’s their vocals, blown out and spewing psychedelic prose or suburban malaise, that endear us with their mischievous nature and rudimentary hooks. It’s all enough to make you feel a part of their secretive enclave. A rare feat. As mentioned, edition of 200, now sold out at the source and will not be repressed. We have very few on offer.

Slithering out the fertile depths of Olympia, Washington circa 1985, Industrial Sponge “released” a lone 90 minute cassette onto the unsuspecting public. And by “released” we mean they would gift wrap the tape and leave it around Olympia and nearby Aberdeen at bus stops, on the sidewalk or in coffee shops, waiting for their bizarre manifestations to be discovered by whoever was in the mood for a mysterious free present.

Industrial Sponge was spearheaded by “Fearless” Frank Gunderson (who was also a member of Human Skab, with his pre-teen cousin Travis) and a number of his classmates at Evergreen State College, where they were attending at the time. Fueled by various illicit substances, Frank and friends would record their rants and raves for hours on end, the 4-track machine as their only witness.

Although lines can be drawn from Adrian Sherwood or PIL’s most scorched and dubbed out productions to Nervous Gender’s snot-nosed synth punk, Industrial Sponge’s racket was a sound all their own. With a sense of humor that would make more serious calamity searchers blush over their bowls of borscht, the ‘Sponge combined clattering drum machines, in-the-red vocals and dinky keyboards into a surprisingly catchy whole. For maximum effect, there were no spaces between any of the songs, everything crammed up against each other in a thick morass of sound.

Frank Gunderson is currently a professor of musicology at Florida State University with a focus on East African and Tanzanian music, where he recently filmed the documentary “Beloved Youth of Many Days: Stories About Milmani Park Orchestra.”

Concentric Circles is delighted to announce a first time reissue of this undiscovered, damaged gem. In their own words, this is “reptilian industrial music,” made by goofball antisocial freaks from the Pacific Northwest. In an attempt for digestibility, we decided to release only one side (side B, naturally) of the original 90 minute tape as a single LP. So grab a dozen frozen pizzas, a case of Jolt Cola and prepare for lift off.