Inserts for Eclectic

Founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Inserts were an obscure American progressive rock quartet, about which there is little information. Active in the 1980s, the lineup consisted of guitarist/pianist Richard Isgrigg, guitarist Tom Cranor, bassist Mark Murrell (who also recorded electronic music as Ed Special) and drummer Sam Simon. Inserts played improvised instrumental music heavily in debt to King Crimson, a meandering jazz-fusion-adjacent prog also nodding to zeuhl and space rock, earning the quartet critical comparisons to Djam Karet.

The band have three releases to their name, each issued on their label Nozzle Records, with 1983's Out of the Box LP their best-known, relatively speaking (and featuring cover illustrations by legendary Frank Zappa/Captain Beefheart artist Cal Schenkel). A supplementary cassette, No. One 90 Minutes, was put forth the same year, containing the full Out of the Box album as well as a number of additional pieces recorded live-in-the-studio. Inserts' follow-up, Illusion of Rule, was released either in 1986 or 1991, with the band reduced to Isgrigg and fellow guitarist Todd Marshall, along with jazz keyboardist Rip Schredder.

(No band photo available)

"Out of the Box" (1983)

"Illusion of Rule" (1986/1991)