This is still hard to even fathom, let alone anywhere near realistic, but HoZac Archival Records is proud to present a little piece of history for you here, which, if you are still unexposed, will knock your "punk clock" back a few years, resetting your concept of what punk evolved from, where punk germinated from, and how unhinged the Midwest (Ohio in particular) was in comparison to the East & West Coasts in the days before the Ramones & Sex Pistols records littered the land. The Cleveland-based (and formerly Columbus) electric eels were unrivaled in terms of sonic mayhem for 1974/1975, especially for the Midwest, where extremities in music were very much unwelcome and were not given the opportunities that the art scenes of the coasts got to foster.
Despite the fact that this band was the starting point for not only Nick Nox, later of THE CRAMPS, it must be understood that this was not composed, blues-based Stooges-style grunt, gorgeous VU-type noise, glammy Alice Cooper-style grime, or high-frequency bombast like the MC5. This was an entirely new species emerging from the primordial ooze of the fertile crescent of a cesspool that birthed the 70s version of punk as we know it, this was true madness captured on tape, catchy and infectious insanity flowing through the air that never, EVER had a chance during it's time, and this is one of the reasons the eels have such creedence. It's no surprise that it wasn't until worldwide punk was in full swing three years later that the debut electric eels single finally came out of the gates, oddly enough on the Rough Trade label, as it's certain stillborn death in 1975 wasn't even conceivable, even to the Metal Mike and Lester Bangs-types lighting up the underground.
The electric eels were the nexus of outsider noise at a time when there might have been several isolated antecedents in random basements in the early to mid 1970s, but none as stripped, bleeding, and almost too-cleverly-convulsing, and none more intimidating or more enigmatic considering how long it took their material to surface. This is the real deal, and there isn't anything more we can say, but there isn't much more than the electric eels when it comes to punk evolution, and the creatures much lower on the evolutionary scale than the currently accepted "godfathers of punk" music, who will someday inherit this rotten corpse. And did we mention the B-side is the brutally beautiful comp-only track "Splitterty Splat" also recorded in 1975? Surely the planets have aligned, and this is our ticket into heaven, or madness, and yours as well, and we could not be more excited, proud, and genuinely intimidated by the greatness therein.
Pick up the 1975 HoZac Archival 7" release (edition of 600) right here, and check out "Splitterty Splat" the elusive B-side from the long out-of-print 3x10" compilation Those Were Different Times below.
