Tangela Tricoli — Jet Lady
The release appears on Arf Arf Records, which is run by American composer & musical genre terrorist Erik Lindgren. The CD takes in the eleven original tracks from the privately pressed vinyl release of the Jet Lady, plus five bonus tracks. Also on the disc you get nearing an hour of real-time video of Ms Tricoli- this takes in unplugged recordings, skits/ interviews, rehearsals, and footage of her running for mayor of Los Angles in 1981!. And if all that wasn’t enough, you also get a bulky 40-page inlay booklet- featuring an interview with Ms Tricoli, a write-up about her & the album from Lindgren, and a good collection of pictures.
Ms. Tricoli songcraft is best described as a blend of seesawing & often painful singing that intones often quite bizarre lyrics, strummed acoustic guitar, and the occasional addition of other instrumentation/ production.
The album's tracks move from the sing-song/warbling vocals & strummed acoustic guitar jiving of "Supermarket Blues", with lyrics about searching for cheese late night & consumerism. Onto "Jet Lady"- with vocals that seesawing between truly painful (un) harmonizing & rapidly spoken poetry- all over a skeleton-yet-wonky & buoyant back drop of piano darts, guitar strums, and watery/ odd production. To wavering-to-painful theatrical vocals & melodramatic piano rolls of “Love Has a Fire”. Onto the cute-gone-sour of “Stinky Poodle”- which sounds like wonky riot girl gone acoustic, with warbling vocals & production.
Like the best outsider albums Jet Lady starts off grating, very awkward, and at times painful- but over time it starts to work it’s wonky & lopsided charm on you. And before you know it you’ll be humming along to it, and pining for its awkwardness. All in all, this is a classy reissue of this oddity-with both the booklet & the nearing hour of videos really enhancing the experience that is Tangela Tricoli…if you like awkward & wonky music Jet Lady is really something you’ll need in your collection.