AIR - FICTION

In 1979 The Muffins released an under-the-radar LP, which had neither a catalogue number nor a label, was pressed in about 1000 copies with a black front cover and was handed in gigs or sold via mail order.Title was ''Air - Fiction'', first side were home studio recordings, while the flipside was captured live on March 3rd, 1979 at Psychedelly (propably somesort of stage/club, located in Bethesda, Maryland).

If you have listened to the atonal moments in ''Hobart got burned'' from the band's debut, then you should propably know what to expect from this album in its full length.This is highly improvised R.I.O.-styled music flirting with Free Jazz and not comparable to the very interesting sound of the debut.Totally dissonant, deeply experimental, bursting a sense of freedom and getting even a bit noisy in the process, ''Air - Fiction'' should be regarded as a fun experiment by the band on loose performances.The first side contains only hints of ''Manna mirage'' in a couple of tracks, featuring bass, drums, sax and flute, otherwise this falls deeply into musical non-sense with keys, sax, flute and clarinet changing heading roles and competing for useless soloing.At least some parts remind of the dense and intercative sound of the band's debut.''Fiction'' is even worse.It tends to a rather minimalistic execution on Experimental Music with some R.I.O. influences, lacking the meanings of cohesion, structure or composition.And speaking earlier of ''Hobart got burned'', the flipside contains the abstract minutes of this piece in full live display, without noticing that this track was recorded for the band's debut.

I consider this to be a recording joke and nothing more.The band itself has admitted that this was nothing more than a short experiment.Recommended only for die-hard fans of the group and starving prog collectors.