Various – Darker Skratcher [LP] (1980, Los Angeles Free Music Society)

 

'Darker Skratcher' is one of those records that feels like a time capsule from a very particular underground moment in Los Angeles. Released in 1980, it captures the anything-goes spirit of the Los Angeles Free Music Society, a loose network of artists and musicians active since the early 70s who treated sound as a playground rather than a craft to perfect. 

Rather than sounding like a carefully sequenced album, the record plays more like a window into a scattered, hyper-creative scene. It jumps between primitive electronics, fractured punk, tape experiments and offbeat spoken pieces. Tracks such as “Cleanliness and Order” by Boyd Rice and Daniel Miller lean into minimal synth territory, while contributions from Jad Fair, Human Hands or Airway drift between playful pop fragments and total abstraction. The flow is unpredictable, almost like tuning into a collage of parallel broadcasts. 

Many of the contributors came straight out of the LAFMS orbit, where projects like Le Forte Four, Foundation Boo or The Doo-Dooettes functioned as fluid identities rather than fixed bands. People moved freely between names and ideas, recording whatever they felt like without worrying about technical skill or genre boundaries. That openness gives the record its charm, moving from catchy lo-fi moments to completely unhinged experiments without warning. 

There are also a few connections to scenes that would become more visible later on. 45 Grave appear here in an early form that still leans toward punk, and Dennis Duck would later be part of the The Dream Syndicate. Monitor links the record to the broader art-punk and performance scene tied to zines and mail-art culture, where boundaries between music, visual art and concept pieces were pretty much nonexistent.

 
The LAFMS “label” operated far outside traditional industry structures. Releases were often pressed in small quantities, packaged in a DIY way and circulated through personal networks rather than formal distribution. It was less about building a catalog and more about documenting activity as it happened, even if that documentation felt rough or incomplete. That approach ended up influencing later underground movements, especially cassette culture and noise scenes.

 
What comes through strongest on 'Darker Skratcher' is that sense of a community creating its own rules in real time. It’s chaotic, uneven, occasionally funny, sometimes surprisingly catchy, and deeply rooted in a pre-digital era where experimentation thrived in small, self-made circles. 

 

Label: Los Angeles Free Music Society – LAFMS#12 

Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation 

Country: US 

Released: 1980 

Style: Industrial, Punk, Experimental, Art Punk, Post-Punk, Experimental Rock, Minimal Wave, Netherlands

 

Tracklist: 

A1 Boyd Rice & Daniel Miller – Cleanliness And Order 2:45 

A2 Jad Fair – XXOO 0:30 

A3 Vetza – Stale Puppy-Dog Tails 1:30 

A4 The Rick Potts Band – Platform Swimfins 3:00 

A5 Monitor – Guardian 2:05 

A6 Doodooettes – Pork Had Better Behave 2:05 

A7 45 Grave – Riboflavin-Flavored, Non-Carbonated, Polyunsaturated Blood 2:37 

A8 NON – NON-Watusi 

B1 Foundation Boo – Nap 2:10 

B2 Airway – Perpendicular Thrust 3:45 

B3 Dennis Duck – Davey The Worm 3:00 

B4 Le Forte Four – The Lowest Form Of Music 3:08 

B5 Human Hands – I Got Mad 3:00 

B6 Bpeople – The Other Thing 2:38 

 

Other Versions: 

'Darker Skratcher' (LP, Compilation) - Frizz Bee (LAFMS #12) (Netherlands,1980)

 

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