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  Rimarimba: The Rimarimba Collection
  By Stuart Bruce (@) - Sep 20 2018 More reviews by Stuart Bruce
  Title: The Rimarimba Collection
  Reissuing three albums from 1983 to 1985, and adding an unreleased 1988 album (but only in the boxset, not available individually), this pack is a way of jumping your Rimarimba collection from zero to completist in one simple step- with a canvas carrier thrown in for good measure.
  In chronological order, "Below The Horizon" is first up. The first half is a collection of shorter experimental numbers with quite a Radiophonic Workshop-ish attitude to sound layering coupled with a prog rock attitude, and quite a playful tone at times, that shines through in tracks like the excellent "Gone To Hell In A Small Bucket". The second half is devoted to 21-minute work "Bebag", a mesmeric and really well-rounded fusion of lo-fi synth and acoustic noises- including, as you'd hope from the artist title, a marimba- into something greater than the sum of its parts that brings to mind the idea of Steve Reich playing with a stylophone, but in a good way.
  1984's "On Dry Land" adds tape elements as its new key ingredient, maintaining the marimba and plucky endearing and off-kilter bedroom instrumentation but throwing in snippets of spoken word dialogue, presumably TV or radio extracts, to add variety. It's full of energy and surprisingly fun- check out "On The Range" as a prime example. The irreverence turns dark occasionally- "Cacoughanation" and the discordant "Beyond Pain" are examples- but never truly sinister. Again the final track is by far the longest, "Not Enough Time" charting across long indulgent experimental territory to give the release further breadth.
  "In The Woods" from 1985 is a slight evolution rather than a substantial change. The sound quality is notably improved, particularly in the guitar work, and there's a slightly more earnest approach here, from the mesmeric and Tangerine Dream-esque opener "Spafft Moutafft Seeall + California" to the melodic synth drone of "Gone To Hell In An Even Smaller Bucket". Tracks like "xit" exhibit more melodic confidence. There's still spoken word samples, but fewer of them and more sincere, more akin to Negativland.
  The 1988 album "Light Metabolism Number Prague", previously unreleased for 30 years for undisclosed reasons, may even be the stongest of the pack. From the opening music-box-meets-Philip-Glass-meets-early-Orbital loops of opening track "Glass Abattoir" it's a more matured and balanced sound, almost proto-techno in parts and very accomplished. With "Egg Foo Young" it's aware, perhaps too aware, of the Asian-sounding results that are being generated by the stepping arpeggio patterns. But the sense of fun hasn't completely evaporated either, as "Tom & Jerry" and bizarre vocal track "Why Do You Squeak?" both show in a way that will appeal to fans of They Might Be Giants' early stuff.
  This re-issue of Robert Cox's work as Remarimba is a good move, and while it might not result in Cox's retrospective addition to the experimental hall of fame (were such a thing to exist), it's an enjoyable bit of mostly-lo-fi 80's experimental that deserves to be dusted off for a new audience. And it is rather fun.