4 out of 5

Label: Kitty Play Records

Produced by: Rick Pelletier

This is an interesting middleground in The Chinese Stars’ progression from the James Chance-bop meets modern no-wave to their later, more expressive work, with each side of this 45 RPM doing a version more leaning towards one or the other, but still achieving a compromise. ‘TV Grows Arms’ is a preview of Eric Paul’s lyrics leaning away from paraphilia and towards paranoia, if taking a common topic of the omnipresent nature of media; the music feels “standard” for the Stars of this era, coming between Rare Sensation and Listen To Your Left Brain, but it’s a bit less programmatic – less wound up; looser and rawer. It’s probably one of the best examples of that sound for that reason, harkening more to a live band feel versus the dancey electro that was popular at the time (and that I’d say influenced CS’ starting point, besides the Arab on Radar connections). B-side The Drowning is really the selling point, though, taking a more slow-roll beat and then exploding it with layers of guitars and effects in a way that’s really unusual for any Paul project. Its narrative is also particularly haunting – though covering some general subject matter that’s been in other AoR / Stars stuff, the storytelling approach here, detailing, essentially, an abusive relationship, is very affecting.

My recording is pretty noisy, with a fair amount of static on both sides, but that doesn’t necessarily detract from the songs, as the old-school vibe of the bass / drum hooks works okay with a poor vinyl pressing, but it’d be nice to have it cleaned up all the same.