"POINTS" 1981 (Seeland 002) CD Approximately 7000 copies sold.
Recordings Magazine Whereas MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS is demeaning to those it exploits, POINTS by Negativland is a gracious celebration of the mundane, a glorification of junk culture, living media and suburban values. There's a tender touch behind all this subversive activity. I want to get back to the idea of junk culture and art. For some reason I collect things like soundtracks from old TV shows (Batman, The man from U.N.C.L.E.), from movies (especially James Bond films), 1950's dance records(how to cha-cha, rhumba, tango....) and many other records ranging from MILITARY MARCHES OF JAPAN to THE CHIPMUNKS. These albums are also a celebration of sorts. They represent the kind of sounds I was surrounded by as a kid, the kind of things that older people took seriously, the kind of things I still have a soft spot for, for whatever reasons. Negativland feeds on this impulse for junk by seeking it out and holding it up and by creating their own. Like their first album, POINTS is an ever-changing excursion through swimming poll and barbecue land. They are working from within; subversives trying to shape a new suburban consciousness that is a mutation of the status quo. Formal structure is general lacking, except for a few moments like the superb "The Answer Is...", a frolicking faux-pas that sounds like it was played on Mom's Genie organ in the living room. Another high point is an excerpt from a presentation at the Los Angeles County Fair, during which the many splendors of Contra Costa County(Negativland's home turf) are declared. There's also another chunk from an out door event during which a rock band blasts in the background while layers of crowd sounds mingle and converge around the sounds of meat sizzling on a barbecue. Whew! The album is one surprise after another. I recommend that you jump on this merry-go-round and close your eyes.
Thom Holmes
OP Magazine Inquisitive teenagers are stuck in nowheresville with only the crudest of tools, but they make their own fun. They have imagination and heart. This the folk music that has evolved from the work of Cage, Stockhausen, Varese, etc. Hardly so cosmopolitan as that, this reeks of suburbia. They have faced their reality and used it as for their inspiration...the cheesy home organ that does everything with two fingers, mom singing and playing the accordion(which she probably hasn't played in years), Big Bird and TV in general. All of this has been captured with barely functional dime-store equipment, stuck together with Scotch tape and some Elmer's glue to create a sound collage that is an entertaining and completely honest portrait of the world these people inhabit. An essential soundtrack for the tract-home dweller.
Steve Peters Back to PRESS US Back to NMOL 
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