The Overground label pursues its devoted unearthing of historically significant and insignificant punk rock artifacts with a generous reissue of the Door & the Window's first and only LP,
Detailed Twang (later material released on cassette has been culled on the CD Dr. Egg). This reissue doubles the duration of the original LP by adding all the tracks from the EPs Don't Kill Colin and Production Line (both from 1979), plus two compilation album tracks from 1980 and 1981. If anything, it has the merit of showing how quickly the band developed. The early recordings picture two young punks following the D.I.Y. ideal to the letter to produce horribly shaped songs and noisy experiments from a guitar, a cheap synthesizer, and makeshift percussion. On the other hand, the LP presents a slicker incarnation of the band, with drummer Mark Perry anchoring the songs. Nag and Bendle's writing is still chaotic, provocative, and profoundly punk -- in fact, probably too punk for punks. Nag squeezes the strangest melodies and accompaniments from his wasp synthesizer and the lyrics rebel against everything -- including punk fashion. Perry adds some screeching sax solos (in "Sticks and Stones" notably), pushing the music toward the avant-garde, reminiscent of
Lol Coxhill's collaboration with
the Damned. "Dads," "He Feels Like a Doris," and "Detailed Twang" remain clever songs that run circles around anyone's expectations. Declamatory and over-simplistic like early
Fall ("Part-Time Punks" only has a square drum beat to back up the amateurish vocals), noisy, and unruly, the music of the Door & the Window makes more sense now in the light of college noise rock bands than it did back in 1979. ~ François Couture