The Donovan Of Trash is a truly punk record; a DIY, lo-fi milestone containing some of Wreckless Eric’s finest songs, a fact sadly overlooked at the time of its original release in 1993 by fans and critics unable to get beyond the harsh, weird and often dissonant sound to discover the beauty within. This Fire Records reissue, remastered and repackaged under Eric’s direction will do much to rectify this lamentable oversight. The album was recorded under difficult conditions in rural France: in a farmhouse, and in a village dancehall described by Eric as having been converted into a holiday home by a lunatic using pallet wood, hardboard and interlocking blocks made from some sort of plaster. More fractured and frenetic than his preceding album, Le Beat Group Électrique (reissued by Fire Records in April 2014), The Donovan Of Trash makes Eric’s earlier, supposedly punk/new wave recordings sound positively middle of the road by comparison. He used the same recording equipment as on Le Beat Group Électrique – a Teac 1/4″ four track tape recorder and an ancient WEM Audiomaster five channel mixing desk plus a variety of two track tape machines and discarded studio junk rescued from recording suite refurbishments during the 1980s. Since his time in the Medway Towns working with The Len Bright Combo in the mid-eighties, Eric had been associated with the Medway garage/trash scene. He went on to do a lot of solo touring. One night during a rowdy beer hall concert in Hamburg, alone onstage, electrified acoustic in full feedback, he proclaimed himself The Donovan Of Trash.