What a fantastic trip down memory lane this is! As its title suggests, Downtown 81 is mostly set in New York"s East Village and Lower East Side in the early "80s; the movie follows Jean (played by then-unknown painter Jean-Michel Basquiat) through blasted streets looking like war zones and in clubs pulsing with ear-melting music. The CD careers from post-punk abrasion (DNA"s "Blonde Redhead" and "Detached"), to proto-electronics (Suicide"s "Cheree," Plastics" "Copy"), to Latin- and disco-tinged danceathons that make contemporary would-be funksters sound downright pallid (Kid Creole & the Coconuts with Coati Mundi"s "K Pasa-Pop I"). And then there"s James Chance"s "Sax Maniac," which bring both approaches together in a skronky, funky explosion. The most famous melody here may well be the bass line from Liquid Liquid"s "Cavern," which was famously sampled on Grandmaster Flash"s "White Lines." The intensity is often furthered by the fact that some of these are live versions, and the quality level is really high throughout. A great collection for fans of inventive, hard-to-classify music, and a worthy complement to Soul Jazz"s New York Noisecompilations. --Elisabeth Vincentelli