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RACD 076CD
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Originally released in 1991. "This third release was bound to disappoint fans of the outrageous Stooges/Beefheart-influenced band. The album swung through a wider variety of styles, including Stones-style boogie rock ('Be Myself Again,' 'Baritone Street,' 'Circles'), melancholy ballads ('Golden Age,' 'Can't Slow Down'), and one genuine psychedelic epic ('Coda'). Taken on its own terms, the 1991 outing is a masterpiece of dissolution, disappointment, and loss. Chiming Byrds-style acoustic guitars, tambourines, and piano underscored the evolution toward a cleaner production sound. The band's playing never sounded more assured, although some detractors would claim this was a detrimental point. From Influence to Ignorance displayed new maturity in Union Carbide Productions' growth as a recording and performing entity. Additionally, it represented a personal watershed for Ebbot Lundberg as a singer, lyricist, and producer." --All Music Guide
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RACD 030CD
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Debut album, originally released in 1989. Featuring Bjorn Olsson, Henryk Rylander, etc. "Iggy Pop has always insisted that the Stooges were really a free-jazz band in rock drag. If you accept that, then you'll likely find Sweden's Union Carbide Productions to be the best -- or at least the most authentic -- band mining the Dee-troit vein of sonic scrunge. The first album's top tracks ('Financial Declaration,' 'Cartoon Animal') could play hide'n'seek on any late-'60s Michigan compilation tape you'd care to make, while the furthest out (like the epic 'Down on the Beach') owe more to Sun Ra. By adding howling horns (two members double on sax) and a non-traditional rhythm section that rarely functions as just a timekeeper to the wah-wah heavy rock on In the Air Tonight, UCP neatly sidesteps any charges of revivalism." --Trouser Press
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MNW 2011CD
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Originally released in 2005; career overview compilation of their best material. "In the late '80s, Union Carbide Productions were an essential live rock & roll experience whose on-stage theatrics made anything happening in front of the stage seem pretty tame by comparison. The underground was a very self-conscious place, where nostalgia for anything prior to the Ramones revolution wasn't as celebrated as it was when Nirvana covered the Shocking Blue's 'Love Buzz.' There were exceptions, of course;The Cramps were self-exiled freaks whose outrageousness (and age) gave them license to pillage the '50s freely, but not many folks were really tapped into the '60s punk shamanism vibe of the Stooges with as clean a feed as these Swedes. The early UCP recordings bear this connection out best on 'Ring My Bell' and the hilarious corporate hedonism of 'Financial Declaration.' Later, though, as they trudged on into the '90s, they embraced a jangling, folksy tenderness that they originally lampooned on earlier work, especially the ultra-snide 'San Francisco Boogie.' The rending of their high-octane fabric probably led to their demise after 1992's Swing. That's not to say that tunes like 'Golden Age' are bad; they just signal some awkward growth within the Union Carbide ranks, growth that ultimately led to greater fruits for Björn Olsson and Ebbot Lundberg's next project, the Soundtrack of Our Lives. To be honest, though, there were plenty of high-octane moments on their later records, too, and Remastered to Be Recycled does a good job of capturing the full picture of this very dynamic and influential Swedish group that can be heard echoing in the campy Turbonegro, the Hellacopters, and their own work with the Soundtrack of Our Lives." --All Music Guide
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RACD 093CD
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4th album, originally released in 1992. "Imagine getting Steve Albini involved as producer of your next album to make it more tuneful? Normally you'd think a guy with Albini's track record as a maverick producer and musician (his years as a member of Big Black), and his fondness for huge-sounding, distorted, potentially offensive records would create a wad of aural damage not too dissimilar to their debut. Wrong. Swing is a good rock record, but ultimately anonymous." --All Music Guide
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RACD 049CD
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2nd album, originally released in 1989. "A good second effort that lacks the intensity of their debut, but never fails to deliver the goods. Again, Lundberg and Caganis are consistently wonderful, especially on the ranting 'Here Comes God' and the slightly psychedelic 'Born in the '60s.' Another undeservedly ignored record." --All Music Guide
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