If Reagan Played Disco
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Bush Doctrine
Biochemical Dread
Cocosoli1dc1t1
Another Richard H. Kirk project, this one sounding more like Cabaret Voltaire than, well - the last few Cabaret Voltaire albums. Bush Doctrine has a live, jamming quality to it, as if he was tinkering with the samples in real time with the master tape rolling. Which indeed he may have. He album is raw and anarchic, as it should be, given the subject matter. And, as with other Kirk projects and Cab Volt, he uses samples for texture, rather than context. So the piece as a whole is intended to document our showdown in the Gulf, there is not a single recognizable voice or sound bite. Instead we hear eerie, disembodied shortwave radio voices, blips and beeps and distorted, dissonant ambiances. It provides the perfect soundtrack for channel surfing the apocalypse. The closing track, We Got Weapons is a meltdown of distortion and heavy drum beats that brings to mind a cybernetically rebuilt Nag Nag Nag, coming in to finish us off.
Highly recommended.
Cocosoli1dc1t1
Another Richard H. Kirk project, this one sounding more like Cabaret Voltaire than, well - the last few Cabaret Voltaire albums. Bush Doctrine has a live, jamming quality to it, as if he was tinkering with the samples in real time with the master tape rolling. Which indeed he may have. He album is raw and anarchic, as it should be, given the subject matter. And, as with other Kirk projects and Cab Volt, he uses samples for texture, rather than context. So the piece as a whole is intended to document our showdown in the Gulf, there is not a single recognizable voice or sound bite. Instead we hear eerie, disembodied shortwave radio voices, blips and beeps and distorted, dissonant ambiances. It provides the perfect soundtrack for channel surfing the apocalypse. The closing track, We Got Weapons is a meltdown of distortion and heavy drum beats that brings to mind a cybernetically rebuilt Nag Nag Nag, coming in to finish us off.
Highly recommended.
Easy Listening for Difficult Fuckheads
Pigface
Underground Inc.
A mixed bag from the multi-star-spangled juggernaut that Martin Atkins calls Pigface.
I don't know what to make of an album that tells me to “fuck conformity, fuck the mainstream” but then contains some of the most ready for Clearchannel Nu-Rock spuzz (Blow You Away, Bitch, King of Negativity) and formulaic quirky Goth-girl pop (Sweetmeat) imaginable. It does feature a cool version of Delta 5's Mind Your Own Business, a weird turn by KMFDM's En Esch and a dreamy track from My Life's Groovie Mann (Closer to Heaven), which is heads above anything Thrill Kill's done in a long time. Chris Connely makes an appearance on Miss Sway Action, a floating, Berlin period-Bowie-esque tune. Add to that a calculated faux rant piece by Penn Jillette as the closer, that is sure to only shock/annoy/entertain those who didn't hear it coming.
Underground Inc.
A mixed bag from the multi-star-spangled juggernaut that Martin Atkins calls Pigface.
I don't know what to make of an album that tells me to “fuck conformity, fuck the mainstream” but then contains some of the most ready for Clearchannel Nu-Rock spuzz (Blow You Away, Bitch, King of Negativity) and formulaic quirky Goth-girl pop (Sweetmeat) imaginable. It does feature a cool version of Delta 5's Mind Your Own Business, a weird turn by KMFDM's En Esch and a dreamy track from My Life's Groovie Mann (Closer to Heaven), which is heads above anything Thrill Kill's done in a long time. Chris Connely makes an appearance on Miss Sway Action, a floating, Berlin period-Bowie-esque tune. Add to that a calculated faux rant piece by Penn Jillette as the closer, that is sure to only shock/annoy/entertain those who didn't hear it coming.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Houses of the Molé
Ministry
Sanctuary
'Tis a sad thing to hear Ministry flailing about these days. Even straight up formula can't keep the machine going for very long. After the opening cut, No W, which uses samples of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana juxtaposed with George W. Bush to great effect, it all sort of putters out and sinks into self parody. There are conscious efforts to make this album bookend with 1992's Psalm 69, which came out during the first Gulf War and Bush 41's reign, complete with a reprise of TV, here called WTV. What's really missing is the contribution of longtime bassist and collaborator Paul Barker. After much trial and tribulation he left the band and, it seems took away some of Ministry's twisted edginess.
Jourgenson and (temp) crew now sound like the many countless bands that they've inspired these many moons ago. Some would say they've been heading that way for years and they may be right. The new Barkerless Ministry has little bite left to them.
Sanctuary
'Tis a sad thing to hear Ministry flailing about these days. Even straight up formula can't keep the machine going for very long. After the opening cut, No W, which uses samples of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana juxtaposed with George W. Bush to great effect, it all sort of putters out and sinks into self parody. There are conscious efforts to make this album bookend with 1992's Psalm 69, which came out during the first Gulf War and Bush 41's reign, complete with a reprise of TV, here called WTV. What's really missing is the contribution of longtime bassist and collaborator Paul Barker. After much trial and tribulation he left the band and, it seems took away some of Ministry's twisted edginess.
Jourgenson and (temp) crew now sound like the many countless bands that they've inspired these many moons ago. Some would say they've been heading that way for years and they may be right. The new Barkerless Ministry has little bite left to them.
Colosseum
Shockabilly
Shimmy Disc
Shockabilly Ghost, the reissue of Earth vs and Colosseum
Contemporaneous detractors aside, Shockabilly were one of the great unsung heroes of the ugly, atonal eighties. They beat the Butthole Surfers to the windowpane acid spiked punch bowl and could out-goon the Cramps on any day.
And actually, most critics of the band seemed to center on guitar molester Eugene Chadbourne's Muppet-on-DMT vocal stylizations, which is understandable and difficult to defend.
But in today's musical pantheon, he doesn't sound all that out of place, say next to Les Claypool, nor do they sound as hickoid-on-bathtub crank as, say a Bob Log III.
My favorite Shockabilly record, hands down, is Colosseum, their second full length album.
Here they've edged away from country and rockabilly (save a hilarious take on Roger Miller's Dang Me) and move straight into psychedelic rock and retardo sludge.
The semi-autobiographical The Secret of the Cooler is one of the most beautiful ugly songs I've ever heard. The album also features more original songs by both Chadbourne and Kramer than on their debut EP and subsequent album. A Chadbourne original, Hattisburg Miss. is one of the straightest things this trio has ever committed to vinyl. Eugene really cuts loose on a version of the Byrd's Eight Miles High with a fat, overdriven solo that at times sounds like Robert Fripp channeling the late, great Sonny Sharrock.
Sadly, Eugene Chadbourne claims Shockabilly was one of his least favorite projects and Kramer has apparently desecrated the mixes on subsequent reissues of the Shockabilly catalog.
Find the original vinyl (on Rough Trade) if you can.
Shimmy Disc
Shockabilly Ghost, the reissue of Earth vs and Colosseum
Contemporaneous detractors aside, Shockabilly were one of the great unsung heroes of the ugly, atonal eighties. They beat the Butthole Surfers to the windowpane acid spiked punch bowl and could out-goon the Cramps on any day.
And actually, most critics of the band seemed to center on guitar molester Eugene Chadbourne's Muppet-on-DMT vocal stylizations, which is understandable and difficult to defend.
But in today's musical pantheon, he doesn't sound all that out of place, say next to Les Claypool, nor do they sound as hickoid-on-bathtub crank as, say a Bob Log III.
My favorite Shockabilly record, hands down, is Colosseum, their second full length album.
Here they've edged away from country and rockabilly (save a hilarious take on Roger Miller's Dang Me) and move straight into psychedelic rock and retardo sludge.
The semi-autobiographical The Secret of the Cooler is one of the most beautiful ugly songs I've ever heard. The album also features more original songs by both Chadbourne and Kramer than on their debut EP and subsequent album. A Chadbourne original, Hattisburg Miss. is one of the straightest things this trio has ever committed to vinyl. Eugene really cuts loose on a version of the Byrd's Eight Miles High with a fat, overdriven solo that at times sounds like Robert Fripp channeling the late, great Sonny Sharrock.
Sadly, Eugene Chadbourne claims Shockabilly was one of his least favorite projects and Kramer has apparently desecrated the mixes on subsequent reissues of the Shockabilly catalog.
Find the original vinyl (on Rough Trade) if you can.
Ljubljana-Zagreb-Beograd
Laibach
Mute
This album serves to document Laibach's early, pure industrial period. Recorded live, it's one of the few albums to feature original frontman, Tomaz Hostnik, who left the band and later committed suicide.
Tinny and - true to the genre- discordant and mechanical, it does contain some hints of the madness to come, albiet in a sketchy manner. At times they sound not too unlike Cabaret Voltaire or Throbbing Gristle circa '79.
The album also includes an early studio version of Drzava that threatens to resolve itself into a straight ahead rock song, but doesn't.
For completists and the curious only.
Mute
This album serves to document Laibach's early, pure industrial period. Recorded live, it's one of the few albums to feature original frontman, Tomaz Hostnik, who left the band and later committed suicide.
Tinny and - true to the genre- discordant and mechanical, it does contain some hints of the madness to come, albiet in a sketchy manner. At times they sound not too unlike Cabaret Voltaire or Throbbing Gristle circa '79.
The album also includes an early studio version of Drzava that threatens to resolve itself into a straight ahead rock song, but doesn't.
For completists and the curious only.
We've Landed
Hi kids.
This is going to serve as a place for nothing but music reviews.
I run into a lot of music.
Not necessarily new stuff, per se, but I must download at least one album a week, or buy one used. Or rip one from a friend.
Sometimes I even resort to buying one new.
And I'm an opinionated bastard.
Not that I don't have enough irons in the fire.
This is going to serve as a place for nothing but music reviews.
I run into a lot of music.
Not necessarily new stuff, per se, but I must download at least one album a week, or buy one used. Or rip one from a friend.
Sometimes I even resort to buying one new.
And I'm an opinionated bastard.
Not that I don't have enough irons in the fire.
