First time vinyl pressing of Sukpatch's third tape of homemade pop miniatures originally released by Seattle's Slabco in 1992. The year of release is a dead giveaway for the kind of subversively cutsey experimental indiepop the Minneapolis then-three-piece were aiming for, splitting the difference between the DIY free-thinking of K Records and the excess-free, earworm majesty of The Cat's Miaow. The connections aren't just imagined - Slabco also released a tape by K alumni, Lois, with whom they share a similar lovestruck sense of summer longing, and Sukpatch's debut was somehow actually released by Toytown, the same Melbourne cassette label responsible for those legendary TCM tape collections. That the group would go on work with Grand Royal also feels telling - you could imagine any number of these tracks ending up on the super-playful At Home With the Groovebox compilation, the skittering drum machines, random samples and pitched-up vocals very much made in the spirit of minimal-equipment/maximal-imagination bedroom experimentation. And on the matter of those pitched-up vocals - singer, Tara, would never feature again on a Sukpatch here, but the way her voice is presented here almost foreshadows the kind of hypnagogic pop the internet fell down a rabbithole for over a decade later, enticingly dreamy, nostalgic and intimate in all the ways that often make a melody stick in your head long after the fact. Loads of other Sukpatch out there to enjoy, but this one feels particularly prescient.
FFO: The Cat's Miaow, All Girl Summer Fun Band, Joyzipper, Elephant 6
