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Kinetic Ideals
Life in Shadow / Maze of Ways - 7"
Mannequin - 1980
Michael Panontin
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By 1979, nearly three years after first-wave punks like the Viletones, the Diodes and the Ugly had set sonic fire to the streets of Toronto, post-punk embers were starting to waft towards the bedroom communities of Mississauga and Burlington. It was in those two suburbs, respectively, that Kinetic Ideals and Mannequin Records were formed.
Kinetic Ideals - singer Mikil Rullman, guitarist Jean-Claude Chambers, bassist Alan Murrell and drummer Jonathan Davies - walked into Cottingham Sound the following year to record their debut seven-inch. That visit was a bit of an eye-opener for the four young suburbanites, who really had no idea how a studio worked.
"Cottingham was the cheapest studio in Toronto. Working there was the first time anyone in the band had ever seen cockroaches," Rullman recalled for CM. "When Tom Atom, Cottingham's engineer and owner, sat down and asked us who was producing the record, we just looked at him with blank stares. Produce?"
Still, for a bunch of clueless kids, the resulting record is surprisingly good. Both sides betray a fascination with those early Magazine discs, especially the seething intensity of their '78 set, Real Life. 'Life in Shadow' is the more sinister-sounding track and features a throbbing bass riff (which curiously sounds closer to a horn than anything plucked) and some deftly played angular guitar. 'Maze of Ways' on the back side is even better, with a frighteningly messy drum/bass mix and Rullman's menacing Devoto-esque squawks.
As for that bassline on 'Life in Shadow'? Well, when the guys showed up at Cottingham without a producer, it put all of them - the band and Atom - in a bit of a bind. "Atom shrugged his thin shoulders and pushed his long hair behind his ear and said, 'I guess I'll do it'," Rullman laughs. "And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Alan's bass ended up sounding like a tuba."
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