Bongwater - Box of Bongwater [4CD Remastered Box Set] (1998)

Bongwater's legacy might well be an academic matter, considering that they pretty much sewed up everything they tried. That is, Ann Magnuson and Kramer knew how to tie their boats together, from the tongue-firmly-in-cheek performance monologues and vocals of Magnuson to her heartfelt, if biting, musings and from Kramer's immersion in effects and overdubs to his clear fondness for everything from Roky Erickson to noise. This collection grabs it all, from their debut LP, Breaking No New Ground, to Double Bummer to Power of Pussy and their sign-off, Big Sell- Out. The music swerves widely, from the early and warped Moody Blues cover to guest appearances by trumpet great Don Cherry, saxist Gary Windo, and a bevy of others.

Throughout the box, dappling psychedelia reverberates like liquid, colored threads. The mix of guitars and melted-together post-rock textures is an enticing one, framing Magnuson's sometimes creeping voice so graciously and so hauntedly that you get lost in Bongwater's tunes. Yes, they are certainly irony-laden and all that, but they're also fantastic listening—some of the best stuff to come from the often moribund world between the increasingly mainstream alt rock of the late 1980s and early 1990s and the fringe-dwelling anti-rock of the same period. In fact, the box demonstrates how wonderfully Bongwater walked the line between rock and all its distant cousins on the far-flung downtown New York scenes of the day. --Andrew Bartlett