What you get for under ten clams from Flipper 1982 is a monster slab of sixteen tracks, all studio recorded as stated, but pretty much feeling very demo-ish, if you know what I mean. Long time listeners to Gone Fishin' will find new aspects to tunes such as First the Heart, where the tenor sax has not been added, or The Light, The Sound, The Rhythm, which lacks a lot of the overdub action here. Disaster Amnesiac found new interpretations abounding from these different mixes. When Will intones "...it's all yours!" before the erstwhile sax section, I find myself realizing that it just might not be the command to "blow baby!" that I always thought is was, but instead could be dedicated to whomever the lyrics might be about. On The Light, the absence of overdubbed percussion gives it a much more raw, grungy feel, something that most of us probably turned to Flipper for once we were able to hear their sound, so it's entirely a good thing despite the slight differences with certain tones.
It's also endearing to hear Bruce barking orders to the rest of the band, with predictably ambiguous results. Flipper's dour public image, perhaps scary to many, seems oddly sweet at this late date. Hell, at least they were being honest, right? Loose tries to get Steve and Will and Ted to stop, they just keep jamming, brevity be damned. And why not? If you could make a racket the way that Flipper did, would you want to stop the train? Disaster Amnesiac certainly would not want to! And what a racket it is. Case in point is Ted Falconi's guitar onslaught. As far as I can hear, this tape may have the best sound capture of his aural assault, outside of the live arena. The demo quality benefits him. Fans of noisy guitar will have a lot to work with on Flipper 1982.
Additionally, the tape has songs that are new to me: Flipper Blues, I Want To Talk, Now Is the Time, and Kali. It's funny to hear Bruce piss and moan about not having cigarette money on Blues, and I can't help but wonder if Will was talking to Gary Floyd a lot about esoteric Hinduism while hearing Kali. If you saw Flipper live during this time, you must still want to talk about it as well I'd imagine.
Such a powerful rhythm section, such stunning tones, such a deep wall of Noise! They're all here, and all can be heard quite deliciously clearly.
As you're probably aware, Flipper continues with different members, and that's a fine thing. Still, if you've not grabbed it, Disaster Amnesiac highly recommends that you find Flipper 1982 Unreleased Studio Recordings for a deep glimpse into the band as they were hitting incredibly high aesthetic levels. It's an essential document of the Rock Music Process by one of its essential bands.
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