Fiend at the Controls, Vol. 1 & 2

Album review

After all the various reissues and repackaging of earlier tracks, one would think that just about every ASF track ever had finally seen the light of day on CD. Then this double-disc compilation appeared more or less out of nowhere, surprising just about everybody in the process. While Controls is definitely and completely one for the hardest of hardcore fans -- those who have never fallen under the Fiend spell won't find much here to change their minds -- there are so many fun surprises available that definite kudos have to be given to Mr. and Mrs. Fiend, who compiled and produced the whole thing after a thorough trawl through the band's nearly two-decade-old archive. Nearly everything on Controls had never appeared on CD before anywhere, while many tracks had been totally unreleased to boot. Consisting mostly of remixes of familiar tracks and singles that had originally appeared on vinyl 12" singles, Controls gives a great peek into how ASF were never content to simply tweak or extend a previous recording, resulting either in radical dub reworkings (an influence on the band never fully appreciable until now) or near complete re-recordings, as with the sharp take on "I'm Doing Time..." from 1985. Some utterly hilarious interview snippets and audio verité bits are merrily sprinkled throughout the discs, including a drunk but still fairly coherent Nik dealing with an earnest Finnish radio reporter as best as he can, and, of all people, David Bowie leaving a message on the Fiends' answering machine. Exhaustive liner notes and stories accompany each track listing in the booklet. Put it all together and the end result is one of the best archival collections for any band anywhere, the equal of Rhino's legendary work with back catalogs.

© Ned Raggett /TiVo