Other than Ellison's fabled brief appearance on the Columbia records album of the 1953 Broadway musical "Kismet" (he's a member of the chorus who sings "Marsinah, buy from me" in "Baubles, Bangles and Beads"), this was his first appearance on vinyl. He adopts a pleasant, conversational style for these two cool, fantastic stories; there are human interjections which do not appear in the text, such as "because of what Thoreau said earlier (you remember?)" in "Repent," and a whispered "(Jesus,) Novins cursed himself" in "Shatterday."
The listener will note hints of Ellison vocal style and tricks that will become richer and more plentiful on later recordings: a range of voices and accents for the time-squeezing examples after "How it starts" in "Repent"; the accelerating rush of verbiage during the jellybean spill sequence and the bollixed shipments of spoiling Smash-O in the same tale -- the latter punctuated nicely with a moment of theatrical panting at the end.
Production and sound effects are spare, with only a ticking clock to open the first side, and the Harlequin's voice heard distantly through a filter, as if at the far end of a tunnel, when he calls through a bullhorn from atop the Efficiency Shopping Center. There are no effects in "Shatterday" -- simply a rivetingly calm rendition of this flawless recreation of the classic "double" plot.
The only false step is a gratuitous remark which opens BOTH sides: "And this is a story about . . . being free!"
