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My first 5uu's album, and on first listen, this disc seemed very avant garde and almost random-sounding. With multiple listens, it's started to make more sense to me, but it still seems to fly off on a tangent at the drop of a hat. The music is somewhat sparse in places, more fleshed out in others. It features tricky, twisting rhythms, with melodies that often follow the drumline (not surprising, being Dave Kerman's band). This disc actually collects together on CD songs from four earlier albums: tracks 1-8 come from the LP Bel Marduk & Tiamat, tracks 9-10 from the 7 inch single Bar Code, 11-19 are from the LP Elements (with the Motor Totemist Guild), and 20 is from ReR Quarterly Vol 3, #3. Being a big U Totem fan, the Elements tracks are my overall favorites on the disc. Vocalist Curt Wilson is an acquired taste, particularly on the Bel Marduk & Tiamat tracks. To be honest, I'm not really wild about his singing, but then it's not terrible either. Standout tracks include the relatively straightforward (and vaguely Crimsonish) rockin' instrumental "Sporting" and the surprisingly pretty and delicate ballad "Acknowledgements". The opening section of "Imperfections" is also nice, with several keyboard parts (synths, piano and organ) swirling around each other. What I can make out of the lyrics to "The Artist" seem interesting - the strange tale of a painter who only worked with one color, but no one knew where he got the paint. I've been told that this disc isn't the best starter album for 5uu's (I just bought this one because it was available at NEARFest '00). To be honest, this isn't a disc that I get the urge to listen to frequently like I do with U Totem's first album or any of Thinking Plague's discs. But if nothing else, Point of Views has made me want to hear some other work by 5uu's. review by Bob Eichler — 8-3-00 —

s e a n

Point of Views is a CD archival release covering the early material of the 5uu's. Said material is comprised mainly of two albums, 1984's Bel Marduk and Tiamat, and 1986's Elements. Of the early line-up only Dave Kerman lasted very much longer in the group, and of course today Kerman and the 5uu's are synonymous concepts. At this time, the core band was a quintet, although Kerman was the chief songwriter and likely ran the show even then. The material on Bel Marduk and Tiamat is most easily described as "dissonant rock", although of course such blanket terms always obscure the contents to some extent. The vocals are in the same "recited" style Dagmar Krause used to perfection, and this combined with the lyrics leaves an unmistakable Art Bears imprint, even if the music itself is rather different. (Lyrical example: "Some are immune and the buckets attached / to the poles on their shoulders are unevenly filled / The lack of equipoise endlessly rejuvenates / its rape of my people with false hopes instilled."). Lyrics such as these almost always strike me as a bit overreaching, but what the hell, someone probably likes them. Kerman happens to supply the two most interesting instruments to this recording, these being the keyboards which lead the sinuous, chromatic lines, and the drums which provide the backbone of the compositions. The keyboard lines, which on future albums are usually supplied by Sanjay Kumar, are probably what most differentiates the 5uu's from other bands in this general style, never seeming to reach all-out atonality but certainly stretching towards it while remaining, for lack of a better term, pretty darn catchy. There are two guitarists and a bassist here as well, but they seem kind of redundant. Vocalist Curt Wilson is no Dagmar either, but is at least adequate to the task laying before him. Elements was recorded in conjunction with the Motor Totemist Guild (with whom, everyone reading this no doubt already knows, they combined in the early 90s for two albums under the U Totem moniker). The result is a much more richly orchestrated release, featuring flute, winds, horns, cello, etc. That said, in a lot of ways this is a "big sister" release Bel Marduk and Tiamat. Lyrics have a similar intellectual air, and musical phrases are long jaunts of unpredictable length and direction. Besides the richer choice of timbers, my favorite part of this album is Kerman's creative use of the kit (and who knows what percussion) to keep things moving forward, if off-kilter. Wilson's vocals aren't much to write home about here either, although this might have as much to do with what he has to sing, as to how he sings it. Ultimately the material on these two albums will be of interest to collectors of the American avant-rock axis starting in the early 80s and continuing to today. The most rewarding material definitely comes later, so for those new to the 5uu's I would suggest starting with the project's more distinctive post-1990 material, and moving back in time only when all the new stuff is absorbed. review by Sean McFee — 1-16-03 —