Cypress
I.R.S. SP 70648
Released October/84
Recorded At The Drive In 5,6+7/1984 Except* 1/1982
Produced By Let's Active And Don Dixon
Mixed At Reflection/N.C.
Mastered By Ted Jensen At Sterling Sound/NYC
Let's Active Were At The Time :
Mitch Easter,Faye Hunter,Sara Romweber(Dex's Sis!)
The Front Cover Oil On Canvas Was Exclaimed To Be A Painting By Mitch "Some Two Decades Ago",Looks To Me Like A Ragin' Campfire.I've Been Told By Rob Keith From The Baskervilles That Mitch Still Has That Painting Along With A Picture Of Noted Producer Joe "Telstar" Meek Hanging Somewhere Above The Board At The Fidelitoreum.
Cypress Inner Sleeve Festoonery
Click 'Em For The Ephemera Page
Easy Does
Waters Part
Lowdown
Gravel Truck
Crows On A Phone Line
Ring True
Blue Line
Flags For Everybody
Prey
Co - Star
Ornamental
Counting Down*
The U.K. Version Of Cypress Contained Amongst Several Different Mixes And A deletion Or Two The Moodily Atmosphereic And Downright Plum Amazing Grey Scale Which Later Surfaced On The I.R.S. Two-Fer CD Re-issue Of ...
Cypress/Afoot
I.R.S. SP 70056
...Along With The Snappily Bouncey Two Yous A Previously Un-Released Track That Was Included On An I.R.S. U.K. 12 Inch Of...
A.
In Little Ways
B.
Edge Of World
Every Word Means No
U.K.# IRMT116
A Video Was Issued For Waters Part
A Promo 12 ", I.R.S. SP 70983 For Waters Part b/w Blue Line Was Issued
This From The Waters Part 12" Promo
Rolling Stone Gave Cypress 4 Stars When It Came Out,Here's The Review...
Cypress
Let's Active
I.R.S.
****
On Let's Active's winsome debut EP,Afoot,Mitch Easter Came across like a wispy-voiced Charlie Brown bewildered by the war between boys and girls.That Easter,the band's lead singer,guitarist,songwriter and producer,was literally surrounded by females(bassist and singing foil Faye Hunter and drummer Sara Romwebber)gave the record's springy pop it's playful tension.
With Cypress,the North Carolins trio has turned it's inquisitive gaze from each other to the world around them,from microscope to telescope.This is an enigmatic yet irresistible album,reminiscent of R.E.M.'s Murmur and Reckoning(which Easter produced)It's a swirl of moods and haunting shadowy phrases-images of destruction("Stepping on grapes to distill out the shape"),spiritual anxiety("Faith is a rope/Climbed,it broke"),and tenderness("The waters part when our eyes see together").
Although Easter has fattened the trios sound with layers of ringing electric guitars and crystalline acoustic ones,Let's Active hasn't lost it's kids-next-door ingenuousness.Easter's melodies are as vivacious as ever,and the band's experimentations-the countrified twang of "Flags For Everything,"the arty-folkie waltz tempo of "Crows on a Phone Line," the psychedelic vocal distortion of "Ring True"- have a stumbled-into radiance,as if Easter,Hunter and Romwebber were naifs crashing a recording studio.Cypress,however is too piquant to have been an accident.As "Waters Part" says, "To tie it all together is the work of alchemists."
- Joyce Millman
