Y Pants- Beat It Down
(Water Wing)

Finally reissued since it was first released by Glenn Branca’s Neutral label in 1982, the Y Pants Beat It Down is a lost masterpiece of the post-punk / no-wave scene from the lower east side DIY movement.  Comprised of Barbara Ess (of The Static w/ Branca) and visual artists Gail Vachon and Verge Piersol, Y Pants remarkably blended toy and crude instrumentation, wry lyrics and minimalism to a brand of post-punk that was unlike anything else at the time. There’s the eerie keyboards and hypnotic percussion of “The Code of Life”, the airy and catchy tones of “The Fly” and “Barbara’s Song” which haunts and mesmerizes with Ess repeating “The Moon Shined All Night” atop kitchen-sink rhythms, spirited keys and fragmented guitars. Y Pants finish the record with a terrifying expression of male oppression, “That’s the Way Boys Are,” with one of the women screaming endlessly over a sparse toy piano and those primitive rhythms they employ throughout. Beat It Down is highly recommended for anyone who loves arty punk, minimal synth and particularly The 2nd LP by the Raincoats, Odyshape. (Dom)
Check out a track here