Fruit

Although the Angels of Epistemology only existed from 1986 to 1989 and released nothing during their lifetime, they were a much beloved band on the Raleigh-Durham, NC, live scene. So much so that Merge Records, the area's leading indie, released all of the group's extant recordings some years after they broke up. The 1991 self-titled 7" EP mistakenly overemphasized the group's more normal indie rock side, but 1995's Fruit shows just how wide-ranging and experimental this band, led by singer/guitarist/trombonist Jeb Bishop, really was. Manic instrumentals in a variety of South American- and Eastern European-influenced styles were the Angels' secret weapon, and tunes like "Carmen Miranda, at Least" and the dizzying "The Angels of Epistemology Death Song" are the best things on the album. The Angels were capable in a variety of styles, though, and songs like the moody but impenetrable pop song "Snu" and the freaky prog-rock "Astrud Is Groovy, Kill the Pigs" are fascinating in their lo-fi ambition. Not everything works, and it seems that with just a modicum of focus, the songs that do work could have been even better. A couple of these 20 tracks are plain awful, especially the noisily boring "The Gibby Song," a way too Kim Gordon-like tribute to the leader of the Butthole Surfers. Overall, though, the evident reach of this loose agglomeration of pals is impressive enough that the occasional stumble is forgivable. Note: The opening instrumental, "The Charmed," is a different song than the similarly titled vocal track "The Charm" on the 1991 EP.