Trin Tran “Far Reaches” 2014. Castle Face Records. Weird experimental six-song EP from a “one man synth-tar drum band.” I’ve had this record sitting, still in shrink wrap, in my “to do” box since last spring when we picked it up at the Ty Segall show at Mad Planet and I had no idea what to expect, though the photo on the inner sleeve gives a great visual glimpse as to the music style.

The vinyl is one-sided “galaxian mist” variant, a translucent purple with all the tracks on Side A; Side B has a silkscreen design that reminds me of a Transformer.

Trin Tran is Steve Coombs from Madison, WI. He was in the no-wave band Xerobot in the 90′s and is currently in Solid Freex, along with his two teenage sons, who we saw open for Ty Segall last spring at Mad Planet in Milwaukee and hence acquired this album that Coombs was selling at the merch table (Segall compiled and released some of Coombs’ older Trin Tran recordings, Dark Radar, on his Drag City spinoff imprint God? in 2012). (Solid Freex also opened for Thee Oh Sees at Turner Hall a bit over a year ago; Castle Face Records is Thee Oh Sees’ John Dwyer’s record label.) From Castle Face’s online store: “For years now Trin Tran has been creeping out from deep space (America’s midwest) and bouncing songs off satellites. These transmissions are a testament to his lovely weirdness. Recorded by Eric Landmark of SF scrap-synth alums Numbers and Ricky Reimer of Madison WI angularities Transformer Lootbag, mixed and mastered by John Dietrich of Deerhoof, these tunes harken truly from the 6th Dimension. More risky in its vocals, more synth heavy. Stronger, swifter, silver-er. It’s a new era for the mask and its one man armada.”

The EP mixes synth experiments with a garage-buzz guitar sound that is oddly catchy. I especially like the lead track “Fashion Has Happened to Fashion” (no link available that I can find).  Allmusic says about Far Reaches “Coombs’ songwriting remains steeped in the nervous post-punk energy of greats like Devo and the Fall. Tunes like the slow-burning “Fashion Has Happened to Fashion” and the synth punk ripper “Hearts Are Serious” see brassy direct-input guitar lines exploding in fits of noise over tightly wound drum machine beats. Strange syncopated parts pop up in almost every song, creating a strange cyborg-esque approach that’s too noticeably shaky-handed to ever be the result of rigidly programmed beats. The oddball faux-French madman vocals of the title track and the lurching album closer “Your World” inject plenty of bizarre variety to the short-lived EP, fleshing out the synth punk ragers with experiments in multiple personalities and emotional exploration.” You can listen to the entire EP here (it’s only about 15 minutes long).