Rescued from the depths early ’80s UK DIY cassette obscurity, Let’s Mutate collects twelve tracks from two demos recorded in 1982 by Yeovil’s short-lived BIKINI MUTANTS, who planted stakes right at the junction of anarcho-punk and indie pop. While their associations with some of the heaviest hitters in both of those worlds might be used as the marketing hook here (they played often with the MOB, and bassist Deb Googe would later join MY BLOODY VALENTINE), it’s almost a disservice to the strength of the songs that they left behind. The stark anarcho influence sticks like wheatpaste to the roiling, tom-heavy beats and endlessly cycling bass line in “Arcadia,” with the splintered guitar and sharp but still slightly shambolic rhythms of “Prey” and “Paper Plane” taking an early MEKONS/EX-like turn, and the dub-singed slowburners “Fool’s Paradise” and “Question” echoing the A-side of that classic FATAL MICROBES single. Criss Cole’s airy, crystalline vocals float through it all, pure sweetness and light but cloaked in shadows—think GIRLS AT OUR BEST! or TWELVE CUBIC FEET, wrapped in a Crass Records foldout. If I believed in heaven, I’d be there right now. - Maximum Rocknroll
