Kas Product - By Pass (Reissue) (1983/2005)

Kas Product made some of the most rigid and needling electronic music of the post-punk era. Based out of Nancy, France, the U.S.-born Mona Soyoc (vocals, guitar, and piano) and Frenchman Daniel "Spatsz" Favre (synthesizer, drum programming) debuted in 1980 with a pair of 7" releases for the independent Punk label. Later signed to RCA France, they recorded the LPs Try Out (1982) and By Pass (1983) for the major label. Soyoc and Favre reappeared on Disc'Az a few years later with the less abrasive Ego Eye (1986). By the time New Rose subsidiary Fan Club compiled early material for Black & Noir (1990), Kas Product were inactive, but they resumed during the 2000s as a performing act. Meanwhile, highlights from the duo's catalog appeared on compilations such as So Young But So Cold: Underground French Music 1977-1983 (titled after their contribution) and the all-French seventh volume of the Soul Jazz label's Punk 45 series. Various 2010s reissues carried out by Move Over and Soul Jazz recirculated the studio recordings. ~ Andy Kellman