Tragic Mulatto
Locos Por El Sexo

"Locos Por El Sexo" by Tragic Mulatto, an album from 1987 released by the glorious Alternative Tentacles, is, in the opinion of this writer, one of the biggest gaps in DeDataBase! The familiarity with this gem that came out during a time of noise and post-hardcore is essential for everyone, and there are certainly many here on "Debaser", who aspire to build a good musical culture.

I'm not sure many know this album, but I'm sure that whoever wants to get it (and that's the purpose of this review) will be positively amazed. Just one track is enough to fully understand it all: specifically number 4, "Freddy", a true masterpiece of extravagance, aggression, demonic ferocity, and nonsense. Against a backdrop likened to a spastic bacchanal with a somewhat funk and tribal setting, the ferocious and animalistic screams (which almost seem mumbled with no meaning, they’re so beastly) of the singer "Reverend" Elvister Shanksley are initially perfectly layered. Then, in the second part, the ideal and emotional peak of the entire work, rises the spirited and "furious" voice of "Flatula" Lee Roth, halfway between the witchy tone of Siouxsie, the acidic timbre of Exene Cervenka, and the firm register of Grace Slick who advises men, during coitus, not to ejaculate, in order, in the woman's behind, throat, face, ear, stocking, pants, feces (!), bed, neck, bra...and the more, the merrier. It’s not just comedic lyrics: the tuba and saxophone, played by Roth, that rage throughout the piece, are to be framed. It is one of the absolute treasures of post-punk.

The remaining feats of madness that compose the rest of the album, however, are not much inferior: "Twerpenstein" opens with a tribalistic sax orgy marked by the incessant beats of Richard Skidmark's drums, which is soon interrupted by Flatula's hysterical vocalizations. The track gloriously culminates with a series of saxophonic musings that accentuate the chaos. The second track, untitled, changes the register for a moment and seems to refer to American blues singer-songwriter music with West-Coast sounds. However, it is quickly "spoiled" by Flatula’s punctual exasperated warblings, whose contribution throughout the album remains of an excellent level. "Underwear Maintenance" more closely resembles, especially thanks to the frequent riffs, the hardcore style of the early Californian bands, primarily Dead Kennedys. The tuba closing in the finale is applause-worthy.

The second side is slightly weaker but equally exceptional: "Potato Wine" is a short interlude opened by the legendary declaration "All the dogshit you can eat and a bucket full of pee free". "Monkey Boy" is undoubtedly the most disorienting piece: Flatula's voice becomes dark, icy, almost gothic, while accompanied by bass lines with almost Floydian sound. Suddenly everything changes and the Brechtian recitation becomes a deafening ride into the unknown. "Swineheard in the tenderloin" is built around an obsessively repetitive bass riff and spectral dissonances, a perfect base for the usual rambles of the singer, increasingly unsettling, increasingly delirious.

The song that closes the album, "Sexy Money", is the last opportunity to hear the disconnected howls of the reverend. Again, a sudden metamorphosis is in progress: the dissonant noise bacchanal is abruptly interrupted from time to time by a clumsy vaudeville march.

Masters of Zappa-style oddity but at the same time faithful followers of the purest punk creed, the Tragic Mulatto from San Francisco have created one of the most interesting musical propositions of the late Eighties. Like other rock desecrators of the period (such as Butthole Surfers, Camper Van Beethoven, and Cows), they deserve to be rediscovered. Guaranteed.