Office – “Matricide / Physical / King’s Road”
Yesterday I had wrote about another Canadian band called Voice, they hailed from Edmonton and consisted of a line-up of Malcolm Swann, Dwayne Goettel, Sherri Iwaschuk, Jeff Sawatzky, Rod Wolfe and Bill Damur. Prior to the 1985 release of “Anno Di Voce“, Malcolm and Jeff were in another band called Office. In 1982, they released this three song EP, which features some of the most uniquely packaged music – the paper sleeve is housed in a plastic ziploc bag, scroll to the bottom of this to see my copy in the original packaging – thank you again Jeff!
In writing yesterdays post, I was looking at the various members of Voice’s music careers and I was saddened to learn of the passing of Malcolm Swann back in July. Malcolm was a talented musician, charismatic frontman and skilled songwriter, and I believe Malcolm’s career is something to be remembered.
The A-Side of the album starts with the track “Matricide” – it starts off with a dark sound of heavy organs and strings before we go into Jeff Sawatzky’s basslines, Malcolm comes in with his beautiful vocals. I’ve included pictures of the inside of the booklet / slip cover that it is housed in within the bag, so people can read Malcolm and Jeff’s lyrics as well. The song ends back in the dark sounding synth with some light guitar playing. The A-Side closes out with a punk cover of Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical” and you know, I was blown away when I first heard Voice doing “I Am the Walrus” – but then I heard this, and I think it is completely something that everyone needs in their daily playlist. It’s raw energy, experimental sound and Malcolm’s punk vocals, which you probably would’ve never thought you’d hear if you only knew him from Voice.
The B-Side opens with the six minute track “King’s Road” – which has more of a fast paced sound to it, but the basslines and synth are very reminiscent of other songs I’ve heard by Voice that weren’t on the EP. It’s got a good beat, and it’s written by Jeff and Malcolm. I do find that this song in particular falls on that line of post-punk and synth pop. It’s truly a fascinating listen. By the way, this song has conga drums. If you haven’t yet – give Office a listen.
Rest easy Malcolm.
Catalog Number:
OFF666
Credits:
Vocals, Electric Harpsichord, Guitar, String Synthesizer & Vocals – Malcolm Swann
Bass, Synthesizer Pedals & Vocals – Jeff Sawatzky
Drums, Congas, Aural Sex & Vocals – Phil Young
Design / Layout, Guitar, Vibro Slide, Aural Sex, Vocals & Synthesizer – Vincent Evans
Management – Steven Honeyman, Switch Productions
Producer – Office & Mo Marshall
Recorded at Mo Marshall’s Woodbend Studios (near Devon, Alberta) July 1982
Find it on Discogs
Look at this packaging!
