Karate-In The Fishtank 12

Karate-In The Fishtank 12

Cover has normal wear and tear for the age. Cover is graded VG. Record is graded VG.

In the Fishtank is an ongoing project of Konkurrent, an independent music distributor in the Netherlands. In this project, Konkurrent invites one or two bands to record and gives them two days studio time. The first four albums were recorded by individual bands, but eight of the last ten releases were the result of two bands (three in one case) teaming up to record. The Ex is so far the only band to appear on more than one album in the series.

For their In the Fishtank series, Konkurrent Records offers bands two days in the studio to air out ideas that might be out of place on those artists’ usual records. Early entries included EPs by NoMeansNo, Guv’ner, and June of 44, but soon, the series evolved into a collaborative space, and counterintuitive pairings took over: Tortoise and the Ex, the Black Heart Procession and Solbakken, Low and Dirty Three (okay, that one isn’t so counterintuitive).

Karate’s In the Fishtank EP brings the series full circle: They “collaborate” with Billie Holiday, the Band, Mark Hollis, and the Minutemen by covering them on this politically charged karaoke bash. It takes some balls to tackle such iconic songs, especially since Karate’s versions of them are so straightforward and faithful. Or we could be cynical and call it stacking the deck: Short of reworking them as ska-punk anthems, is it even possible to make unpleasant versions of “Strange Fruit” or “Tears of Rage”?

Without revising the originals, Karate nudges them toward their own style— a bit anesthetized, with a chilly precision bordering on blandness. The EP’s breezy yet solemn demeanor seems to portend Pockets, which this EP was recorded right before, and their political themes would recur on Pockets songs like “The State I’m in aka Goode Buy From Cobb’s Creek Park”.