Industrial Sponge Industrial Sponge

Slithering out the fertile depths of Olympia, Washington circa 1985, Industrial Sponge “released” a lone 90 minute cassette onto the unsuspecting public. And by “released” we mean they would gift wrap the tape and leave it around Olympia and nearby Aberdeen at bus stops, on the sidewalk or in coffee shops, waiting for their bizarre manifestations to be discovered by whoever was in the mood for a mystery present.

Industrial Sponge was spearheaded by “Fearless” Frank Gunderson (who was also a member of Human Skab, with his pre-teen cousin Travis) and a number of his classmates at The Evergreen State College, where they attended at the time. Fueled by various illicit substances, Frank and friends would record their rants and raves for hours on end, the 4-track machine as their only witness.

Although lines can be drawn from Adrian Sherwood or PIL’s most scorched and dubbed out productions to Nervous Gender’s blasts of early synth-punk, Industrial Sponge’s racket was a sound all their own. With a sense of humor that would make more serious calamity searchers blush over their bowls of borscht, the ‘Sponge combined clattering drum machines, in-the-red vocals and dinky keyboards into a surprisingly catchy whole. For maximum effect, there were no spaces between any of the songs, everything crammed up against each other in a thick morass of sound.

Concentric Circles is delighted to announce a first time reissue of this undiscovered, damaged gem. In their own words, this is “reptilian industrial music,” made by goofball freaks from the Pacific Northwest.