Desert Island Recordings: Iron Curtain Innocence by Bobb Trimble

In a sense, private press records are the ultimate form of isolation music. They are albums that are created completely on an island. Often, recorded by a single person. Usually, created without any support or belief. Always, made without the assistance of a label to provide funding, resources, marketing, or expertise. Putting out a private press record is an act of faith. Faith in yourself...that you are an undiscovered and misunderstood musical treasure. Faith that you’ll see a return on your investment…that the thousands of dollars you spend will be come back tenfold with future riches, fame, and respect.  Faith in your fans….the ones that don’t yet exist, but will certainly fawn over you when they finally set the needle down on the shiny black vinyl, spinning at a perfect 33 and a third revolutions per minute. Faith in the system….that if you believe and you work hard, you will fulfill your destiny. Faith, that someone cares and empathizes with your point of view. Faith that you might not be alone. 

Bobb Trimble might be the king of the private press.  He certainly checks most of the boxes that make a private press record highly sought after: Loner outsider musician, hilariously bizarre cover art, strange story, lo-fi recording, minuscule pressing, cited as influential by big-name independent artists. However, what makes him the master of this lost genre is the music itself which is gorgeously detailed, strangely attractive, shockingly accessible and engaging. Music that is not just rehashed and stylized, but something that lives outside the standard comfortable genre descriptors. Somewhere between acid folk, soft rock psychedelic, fuzzy space rock, and power pop with a streak of musique concrete.

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