Another typically fucked up opus from the Marquis De Fowley (no idea where the "Jr." suffix came from btw, record company hassles maybe?). Modus operandi (allegedly): (i) book a budget studio (or record during the downtime of one of your current projects & invoice your eager proteges' unwitting benefactors), (ii) regurgitate a few surefire/oft-used examples of garage punk riffage, (iii) drag your latest jailbait arm candy into the studio & get her wrecked, (iv) then flip the mental "on" switch & let that non-stop stream of consciousness mind lava f-l-o-w. Fowley's content to yatter to himself for the most part on this one - the two confused hemispheres of his mangled brain attempting to communicate with each other initially but inevitably pissing each other off & jousting for supremecy by side 2. Actually, considering it's 1981 vintage, this is one of his more listenable works - much of it sounds relatively ad hoc but Fowley's evidently in high spirits throughout so even the weaker tracks are entertaining (which is what it's all about, eh Mr Impresario?). I've not entirely sure what he's rambling on about most of the time & I suspect he doesn't either, but he manages to be witheringly sarcastic & engagingly earnest simultaneously - without sounding like a total fucking idiot - which is pretty impressive. I wouldn't be surprised if he's the kinda guy who laughs at his own jokes though...
Released c/o the uber-obscure Moxie label, Son Of Frankenstein is split evenly between guitar-driven proto-punk songs & synth 'n' poetry improvs. The opening "Face On The Factory Floor" is one of my favourite Fowley songs ever, & you might recognise "Invasion Of The Polaroid People" from Add N To (X)'s cover on their Loud Like Nature LP which utilised generous chunks of the Fowley original as "inspiration". A couple of things I didn't know about him (which cropped up when I was perusing his Wikipedia entry): he produced the first Soft Machine 45, early Slade (aka N'Betweens) & (!!) Helen Reddy. Though he's now undoubtably attained the legendary status he always designated to himself anyway, I'm still not convinced he's the sort of feller I'd invite back for a post-gig tipple...
N.B. Acknowledgment due to FM Shades for this one.
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