Wall of Voodoo - The Index Masters (1991) [Reissue 2005]

Though they found their fortunes intertwined in a punk/new wave/MTV marketing sensibility that typically confused style with substance, L.A.'s Wall of Voodoo was musically rooted in a distinctly different, often more compelling late '70s art rock ethos. Anchored by the stark, angular rhythms of the late Marc Moreland's guitar and singer/chief songwriter Stan Ridgway's sly sideshow barker vocal antics, this re-release of the band's debut 1980 EP (supplemented with raw, exemplary live tracks recorded at UC Riverside in '79) now seems more prophetic industrial music template than quirky new wave tract. If legend says their ominous, synth-drone take on Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" may have originally been intended elsewhere (WOV began as low-budget soundtrack collective), tracks like "Longarm" and "Can't Make Love" crackle with anxious energy and wit; small wonder Ridgway occasionally revisits them with success in his contemporary incarnation as acoustic singer/songwriter. The live tracks further showcase the band's cinematic bent via a medley of Morricone's main title for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Frontiere's Hang 'Em High theme, as well as offering up early versions of songs from Dark Continent and their 1982 classic, Call of the West. --Jerry McCulley