Work & Records No.1, Autoclave

One of the benefits of re-structuring my studio would have to be the valuable close proximity of the turntable to the drafting table and scanner area. While I'm back to work on the Calvo/French project, I have been putting on some records by a group I've enjoyed for quite some time called Autoclave. This quartet from Washington D.C. released records between 1991 and 1993 but lasted for only a small duration of that time.


















DISCOGRAPHY
Demo (not exactly sure what's on here as I never owned a copy)
S/T 7" Single on Dischord/K Records {I'll Take You Down/Go Far/It's Not Real Life} Recorded by Barrett
Lever v/a Single Simple Machine Records {Summer} Recorded by Barrett
Teenbeat 50 v/a Teenbeat Records/Matador {Dr.Suess} from demo
Autoclave s/t 10" Dischord/Mira Records {Dr. Suess/Still Here/Hot Spurr/Vision/Bullseye/I'll Take You Down} Recorded by Jeff (Geoff) Turner WGNS
Autoclave CD Collected Dischord {contains Dischord 7" & 10" tracks along with alternate inferior version of Summer & unreleased track Paperboy}






















Autoclave consisted of Christina Billotte on The bass guitar & vox, Melissa Berkoff on The drums, Mary Timony on guitar & vox, and Nikki Chapman on guitar. The bands work included a great number of moods & sounds- the highlight of the recordings being the wayward and lazily drifting guitars, clarity & richness of the vocals, and tight rythym section. If I was to reference anything comparitively I would suggest early Fugazi & the always stellar Throwing Muses. The musicianship and audio quality of their catalog is of the most part very excellent, the only drop-off being any recordings from their demo, which believe me, is no real flaw. The demo version of "Dr. Seuss" from Teenbeat 50 is crunchy & crispy, yet superior to the WGNS recording on the s/t 10". Had the Dischord CD included the complete demos and Barrett version of "Summer" it would have been relative one stop shopping for the handful of wonderful recordings they left us. Back to work.