Although it was one of the more successful American indies of the 1980s, Torrance, California's Enigma Records never really had a definable personality the way many indie labels do. Which of course makes the Elgar-inspired name of their label sampler series perfectly appropriate; there's something for pretty much every post-new wave, pre-alternative musical taste here.



There seems to have been a vague attempt to organize the four sides of The Enigma Variations more or less by style. Side one, with its tracks by Tex and the Horseheads, the Rosie Flores-led Screamin' Sirens, the Divine Horsemen and Wipers leader Greg Sage, attempts to find a middle ground between cowpunk, garage rock and the first stirrings of goth. The odd man out is John Trubee's legendary "Blind Man's Penis," the result of a scabrous poem sent as a prank to a send-us-your-lyrics operation that blithely set it to a bouncy country-western beat that makes the bizarre, near-pornographic images that much more effectively mind-bending. It's one of the great novelty singles of all time.



Side two covers the Paisley Underground and other forms of '60s-inspired music and features most of the best tracks on the album, including Game Theory's oblique but pretty "24" and a pair of psychedelic powerhouses, Rain Parade's "No Easy Way Down" and Plasticland's "Disengaged from the World." Side three surveys the fragmented post-hardcore punk scene, with Redd Kross' snottily reverent cover of the Rolling Stones' "Citadel" the clear highlight. Side four is sort of the miscellaneous bin, but there's a definite synth-dance vibe to tracks by Cathedral of Tears, featuring TSOL singer Jack Greggors, Austin-based one-man-band the Pool, and the Jon St. James-masterminded SSQ, starring future dance-pop diva Stacey Q.



Not all the material has aged well, and a couple of tracks weren't any good to begin with, but The Enigma Variations is a worthwhile document of the highs and lows of the mid-'80s indie scene. Collector's alert: the tracks by the Jet Black Berries, Green On Red, TSOL and SSQ are previously unreleased, alternate takes, or otherwise rare. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide