The Particles – 1980s Bubblegum

Venerable Aussie indie Chapter Music offers up an essential reissue this week, shining a welcome beacon on lost janglers The Particles. The band, taking inspiration from UK and US punk adopted the stripped and stained approach, though its clear that there’s a more tender strain at work within The Particles’ work. The band’s sound parallels the kind of stripped bare, bone-dry post-punk of Young Marble Giants and the simple, yet engrossing bubblegum gone gritty appeal of Marine Girls and Dolly Mixture. Despite spanning almost 7-years, the band’s legacy spans only three official singles — two self-released and a third that crops up as an early release on revered Sydney label Waterfront Records, which would map the local scene for years in the ‘80s before snagging some key imports in the ‘90s (Tad, Henry Rollins, L7).

Like quite a few outfits, the band went through a rotating door of members, though guitarist Peter Williams and vocalist Astrid Spielman remained the constant core, an anchor as members of The Cannanes and revered indie pop band The Lighthouse Keepers would cycle through their ranks. Chapter House gives the band’s catalog its full diligence, capturing not only the songs from the three singles, but also compilation entries, early-demos, live versions from a JJJ radio session and a short interview that would accompany that session. There’s even a video version of “Dresses and Shoes” that was recovered from a VHS that Williams recovered, dug out of a shed after 40 years. The band quite certainly never got the accolades or even the awareness outside of their native Australia, and this excellent comp aims to right a few decades worth of wrongs.