LYRES On Fyre Import LP (Splatter Vinyl)

2023 reissue on splatter vinyl. "Like many young Europeans at the time, the first real taste I had of Lyres - aside from copious blastings of a second generation cassette tape of their exhilarating Dutch VPRO radio broadcast from 1983 - came when their debut long-player, the sensational On Fyre, was released the following year. Nothing we'd heard previously coming out of the USA around that time could have quite prepared us for the sound of Lyres. You see, theirs was born of an altogether different mother strain. Yes, there were those groups that were part of the still-burgeoning scene that was beginning to happen, and yes, most other contenders that came our way at that time were also said to be heavily influenced by the wildly intoxicating sounds of the 1960s garage bands; but the majority weren't cut from the same raw and inspiring framework that Lyres were. Not the kind of group who deemed it more important to look like they stepped out of a Rolling Stones photo shoot circa '65, or could be bothered with parading any uniform look such as any of their own heroes, like say Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Kinks, or even The Wailers, presented back in the mid-'60s. Lyres were just gonna let the music do all the talking, and so for them jeans, tee-shirts, leather jackets and a pair of sneakers would do just fine. Producer Rick Harte's Ace Of Hearts label was already known for their attention to detail regarding presentation of sound and artwork, through releases by the likes of Mission Of Burma and Classic Ruins. They also issued a stunning 12" EP of the earlier Lyres, and pre-figured On Fyre with the release of a crackshot double-deck 45 with 'Help You Ann' and 'I Really Want You Right Now,' both stone-cold killer tunes. On Fyre itself is a royal succession of unstoppably great selections, all with inventive use of major/minor chord switches, ear-bending tremolo gear, and/or relentless in-motion rhythmic sequences - sometimes all at once. Home base for Lyres, nearly always, has been Boston, Massachusetts, where the majority of the group's early personnel had already experienced a pretty strong taste of group life, having played a major part in one of the foremost punk-era outfits the city had earlier thrown up; they were, of course, the legendary DMZ. Both DMZ and Lyres were spearheaded by lead vocalist, organ/piano player and tambourine-basher extraordinaire, Jeff Conolly, whose own individual performances have a direct lineage that can be traced back to the unbridled abandonment displayed by none more so than the legendary Jerry Lee Lewis. That the raw sonic exultation captured throughout On Fyre was unleashed almost 30 years ago now is quite an astonishing, terrifying statistic given that, it's a record that still sounds as fresh, bold, new and exciting as it did back in 1984..." - Lenny Helsing