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MX-80

Bruce Anderson (& his MX-80 family) was the reason Family Vineyard was founded. For me, MX-80 Sound’s debut 1976 EP and LP is a pinnacle of rock n roll’s possibilities. “Tidal Wave” or “Man on the Move” just makes me lose my mind.

So FV's first release was Strict-- a darkly brilliant tapestry of Bruce's savage n’ meditative n’ barbed guitar wrapped in Feldman, Monteverdi, etc. samples & MX-underpins. Between 1999-2004, Family Vineyard released five albums by Bruce, Dale and the gang as O-Type that culminated in The New Edge boxset and DVD. Then, it was the total honor to release MX-80's first studio album in over a decade.

When Bruce came back to Bloomington, Ind. in 1999 as part of a 50th birthday trip to see family in his tiny hometown of Oolitic he also performed solo at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. A lot of the locals expected the MX-juggernaut sound. But that was never going to happen.

Bruce’s guitar somehow got knocked out of tune before he hit the stage. So, he played a few notes then worked his effects for an hour, shaping tones into a flutter, then conjured a blood thick drone that swallowed everyone up. At the end, when we got spit out, most walked bewildered out into the street.

Thank you, Bruce.

RIP, Bruce Anderson
October 22, 1949 - January 10, 2022

So, it's been almost 15 years since the first Family Vineyard release Strict -- an album from MX-80 members Bruce Anderson (guitar), Dale Sophiea (sampler) and their usual cohorts Dave Mahoney (drums), Jim Hrabetin (guitar) and Marc Weinstein (drums). The CD was released under their names, but the project later (re)morphed into O-Type, a badge they'd been using since the mid-1980s. So it's a gas, and a helluva surprise, to find out Milvia Sun have just reissued O-Type's 1988 cassette Darling as a 300-edition LP in screened covers. Now Darling is no musique concrète revision of Mr. Anderson's guitar styling as Strict was/is. Instead, Darling is post-MX-vision rock with Anderson taking the mic at times to sound like a "gruff, drunken, almost sick sounding barrage, coming a little too close to the far-beyond-gone state of Bobby Soxx at the dead end of Stick Men With Ray Guns" (or so sez our pal Doug). Nonethless, we think you oughta buy both.