“It’s a true miracle that any of us survived to tell our children unbelievable tales of that strange punk dream…” Bona Dish were comprised of two birds and their boyfriends from the London suburbs, operating at the intersection of disco, Bowie, Velvet Underground, Elvis Costello, Faust and jazz. They released two cassettes and played a solid run of packed shows before disbanding. They were cool, but they had ambition - they even packaged one of these tape releases in a cardboard tube solely because they thought it would stick out from the pile of demo tapes on John Peel’s floor. These efforts were superfluous though, because Bona Dish’s sound was right up Peel’s alley: saccharine and lo-fi with dry guitars, crunchy drums, dubwise cadence, and Jo Bell and Steven Chandler’s simultaneously atonal and alluring voices. Somewhere between early acoustic Cure, The Raincoats, Cleaners From Venus and Vivien Goldman. It’s too playful to be post-punk; not jangly enough to be C86. If I’d been around when this came out I’d probably call it pop-punk, but that term’s way off in 2018. The Zaragoza Tapes collects the full tracklist from the band’s two cassettes, in addition to two tracks from a third unreleased single: “Tactile Snob” and “Susan Says” (the latter of which probably would have catapulted the band if they’d stayed together long enough to release it). A solid listen top to bottom but here are the highlights: “8am,” “Normal Day,” “Susan Says,” “Tactile Snob,” “Mutation,” “Intense,” “Girl.” This bubblegum pink colored vinyl pressing is part of Captured Tracks’ 10th anniversary reissue program, and it comes right on time as prices for the 2013 pressing were starting to get out of hand. Includes double-sided full color printed insert with full album credits and liner notes from each of the band members, recommended.

• bubblegum pink colored vinyl
• Captured Tracks 10th anniversary edition
• printed insert with extensive liner notes
• digital download included
• limited edition of 500
• music label: Captured Tracks 2018

reviewed by carparts, bottles & cutlery 07/2018