Barely heard in his lifetime (1961–2002) but hailed as an outsider hero of ur-punk since 2009’s ‘Cosmic Lightning’ compilation, J.T. IV strikes back!
15 unheard-of tracks found on an obscure cassette tape make the schizo split in his music – rabid rock & roll fantasy and cold-eyed acoustic introspection – an epic. ‘The Future’ is J.T. IV’s mad magnum opus.
The 2009 comp LP, ‘Cosmic Lightning’, cast his tragic silhouette up on the big screen for all to see: the lost boy, alone in the world, standing before the mic and releasing his inner star with glee and vengeance, his antisocial visions flying high atop a raging funnel of distorted guitars and blunt rhythms. Or couched, childlike, within a heart breaking billow of acoustic guitars – a schizophrenic split that only magnifies the display of his deep emotions.
‘The Future’ goes even further, excavating fifteen recordings from a previously unheard-of cassette entitled ‘The Best Of Johnny Zhivago Retrospective 1979–1993’, and adding four more uncollected tracks from his slim (and impossible to find anyway) discography.
Of these nineteen tracks, eight are covers – and J.T. IV’s picks, from Velvets to Mott the Hoople, Roxy Music, Lee Hazlewood, The Kinks, Eno and Stephen Sondheim, sharpen our image of the misfit adrift; on the outside looking in, but maybe just a few steps away from his goal.