Timing. It’s a big part of good things happening - well, timing and luck. If you have both of those things happening concurrently, you will find yourself in an admirable position. Fortunately, The Sound Cove has both for this new single, “Play," the first release in 34 years from electronic visionaries, Figures On A Beach. Active from 1981 through early 1993, Ira Robbins from Trouser Press described them as “hard to classify,” but they were an early pioneer in the use of keyboards, in a post-punk context, in their home town of Detroit. With the passage of time, FOAB can be seen as a tributary of the river that brought the world techno - an artful rock band that deftly and seamlessly integrated guitars with synthesizers and electronics.

Sometime in the summer of 1981, founding members Anthony Kaczynski (vocals/keyboards) and guitarist Rik Rolski recruited synthesist and keyboardist Chris Ewen and drummer Michael Smith to become one of Detroit’s top bands. After cutting their teeth on the Detroit club circuit and opening for bands such as Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark, Ministry, The Teardrop Explodes, Adam Ant, and many others, FOAB released their first EP “Swimming” in 1983. They brought multi-instrumentalist Perry Tell to the fold in 1984, on the heels of their successful 12-inch “Breathless,” produced by Don Was and mixed by noted NY DJ, Ivan Ivan. After releasing “Paradise/In Camera Obscura” in 1985, the band relocated en masse to Boston, and was signed to Sire Records in September of 1986 on the basis of a demo of “No Stars,” which became the centerpiece for their first full-length album, “Standing on Ceremony,” recorded in London at Trident Studios and released in 1987. They followed that up with a second self-titled album in 1989 that contained “Accidentally 4th Street (Gloria)” and an electro version of Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” that dented Billboard’s top 100, peaking at #67. They toured the U.S. in 1989, but came home to a changing musical climate. The decision was made to leave Sire and search for greener pastures, but, after twelve years, Figures on a Beach made the difficult decision to disband. And that was the end of the story…until now. Remember that part about timing and luck? Here is the second part of how this fantastic new single came to be, in the words of Anthony Kaczynski:
“In mid-1991, Figures on a Beach felt like it was on life support. We had recorded a seriously good demo at Downtown Recorders in Boston in 1990 and couldn’t get the buzz going to get a new deal, which was important in those days. It’s hard to convey how much the landscape has changed. So we were seen as yesterday’s news, a fate that happens to every group sooner or later, but paradoxically, we were writing great tunes and sounding better than ever, to dwindling results.
We took four of our best new songs into the original Q Division on Albany Street and threw our lot in with the great Mike Denneen, who made us sound like a million bucks and was a wonderful creative foil and human. We were more than pleased with the results, but we shopped them and once again came up empty. A discouraged Rik Rolski left the band, and we carried on as a four-piece for a bit, with me switching over to bass. And then we broke up-we had an EP’s worth of tunes, but no context in which to release them into the world. The tapes sat at Q Division for years, until they moved from Somerville and I picked them up-and then they sat in my apartment for another six years. I honestly thought they were going to sit there forever.
Fast forward to February of 2025; Garret Vandermolen (Sound Cove founder) and I are on the New Jersey Turnpike at some ungodly hour, as we are driving to a gig at the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, NC. I asked him if he wanted to hear some unreleased FOAB, and within twenty seconds of hearing “Play” I could feel his enthusiasm - and, to be honest, mine as well.
I always thought it summed us up perfectly, including the rock and a hard place we found ourselves at in 1991. I very much wanted the band to continue; it had been my identity for virtually all of my adult life, and the lyrics are an exhortation to me and my bandmates to cancel out the noise and just “play”. Rik had started playing bass in an idiosyncratic style that lent itself to a different sound for Figures, and we ran with that. My dad thought it sounded like a hit.”
The Sound Cove is honored to be able to release this great single from Figures On A Beach into the world. It’s a banger of a song, and every bit as fresh and vibrant (if not more so), than it was 34 years ago. We owe a debt of gratitude to our friends at Q Division, who baked the ¼ inch master mix tapes and transferred them to digital WAV files so that we could finally get this music into the world. There are some more mixes on these tapes, but that will be a story for another day. Until then, we encourage you to play. Play loud, and play often!