Iron Curtain Innocence – R1980 – 4*
Harvest Of Dreams – R1982 – 3*
Just when you think every last psychedelic freak has been rediscovered, along comes Bobb Trimble. In 1980 Trimble, from Massachusetts, released his debut, Iron Curtain Innocence, in a run of 300 copies. On the cover he posed nonchalantly with guitar, microphone and sub-machine gun.
The music was odder still: spooked but melodic, hovering somewhere between psych, folk and glam, made remarkable by Trimble’s unnerving falsetto and his taste for apocalyptic whimsy. It’s a great find, and the 1982 follow-up is good, too.
Trimble stars with some kind of unicorn/sheep thing on the cover this time, and focuses on phased and damaged AOR balladry. Apart, that is, from “Oh Baby”, an untutored punk galumph featuring The Kidds, Trimble’s short-lived band of 12-year-olds.
JOHN MULVEY