Visual Audio Sensory Theater
Incredibly, this album actually improves with overplay.
I don't just mean the first ten listens, or even the first hundred.
I mean that if you play this record twice daily for six months it just gets
better and better.
When I first heard this album, I thought it was the best album I had heard for
a long time.
With hindsight, I'd go as far as to say it is the best album I have ever heard
in my life.
The sheer colossal scale of tracks such as 'Here' and 'Touched' are simply awe-inspiring.
The crushing power of 'Dirty Hole' and 'I'm Dying' simply beggars belief.
The gentler 'Somewhere Else To Be' and 'You' are touchingly magical and the
catchy 'Pretty When You Cry' and 'Three Doors' make obvious singles.
The sound is as difficult to define as it is to describe.
The closest reference points would be Radiohead, Alice in Chains, Dead Can Dance,
Killing Joke and Nine Inch Nails.
Yet it manages to avoid sounding like all but the merest hint of any of these
bands.
It's Thom Yorke's heartbreaking, soaring vocals with NIN melancholy and Alice
In Chains monster guitar riffs.
It's Killing Joke's multi-layered sounds and DCD's Gregorian chants. These are
grand songs of despair and desolation - of heartbreak and questioned faith;
of loneliness and anger and hate.
'The Guardian' described this as "orchestrated, expansive, religious, Jim Steinman-sized
World Goth.
Goth which samples an 18-piece orchestra, a Bulgarian voice choir and lots of
Benedictine monks." Yet this doesn't even come close to the scale of Jon Crosby's
work.
This guy is 22 years old and this is his first record.
Even the grandeur of Gothic doesn't even come close.
The inclusion of 'Touched' on The Beach soundtrack may elevate VAST to the position
they deserve, but frankly until they're playing stadiums, they'll still be too
small.
This is massive. This is vast.
With an average five-year wait between full-length
albums, Trent Reznor enjoys our anticipation if nobody else does.
The interesting fact is that people are prepared to wait, as the chart success
of this album proved.
Dealing with the death of a loved one and the resulting breakdown may have been
harsh for Reznor, but it's resulted in his growth as a person.
Whereas 'The Downward Spiral' was a petulant, if inspiring, rant against life,
the universe and everything - 'The Fragile' is almost its opposite.
It's the realisation of life as a cyclical whole with highlights and low points.
'The Fragile' is a record made by a grown-up.
A warm nurturing instinct is displayed on
songs such as the title track and 'We're In This Together', and the embittered
rant of 'Starf*ckers, Inc' is played out as black comedy, rather than farcical
temper.
In recent interviews, Trent has complained about the pressure on him to complete
the record, but despite the wait, it's more than justified by its outcome.
Clever tricks taken from the classics (e.g. the theme-response set-up for 'La
Mer' / 'Into The Void') mesh with a futurism and attention to detail that ensures
that this album won't date as quickly as 'TDS'.
Warm, solid soundscapes are created through an experimental use of both natural
and synthesised sounds.
The typical NIN features are here - a hybrid of Bowie's 'Low' and 'Heroes' with
Prince and Queen choruses - fused with a healthy dash of distorted guitars and
shouty vocals.
Yet the approach here is far more My Bloody Valentine than Ministry - a willingness
to create something new and different, rather than simply rehashing old Skinny
Puppy non-hits.
'The Fragile' takes a few listens to take effect, each track in turn weaving
its own quiet spell, and they should actually have a few hit singles out of
this, especially if they release the more obvious ones like 'Into The Void'
and 'The Wretched'.
It seemed like every person on the planet was making guesses as to what the
new Nails album would sound like. It may be that Trent Reznor was speculating
along with the rest of us.
Still, the greatest thing is that he didn't just make the record everyone wanted
to hear.
He just made the only record he could have made.
The Lord of Lard is back with yet another paean
to all things pork-like.
Markedly different from previous offerings, this is still an intriguing spanner
in the works of the industrial machine.
Of course, telling Raymond Watts to do a hundred lines in penance for some of
the lyrics on this album would be a bad idea.
He'd probably take you up on the suggestion.
Still, some people are just too easy to forgive.
I mean, the guy wrote pretty much all of KMFDM's greatest songs, not to mention
the delights of Pig's extensive back catalogue and the odd Schaft CD.
The guy's got talent, and there's no denying it. Still, honestly: "Rock this
shotgun/up your motherfucking ass" is a far cry from the good old days of such
lines as "glutton dressed as glam".
One track even goes so far as to be effectively a read-off of the track-list
of the past four or five albums.
Infinite shame, indeed. On the other hand, it is actually a bloody good record.
Granted, it's not as immediate as 'Wrecked' but then neither was 'The Swining'
- it actually takes time to pick out the subtler arrangements.
'Wrecked' was a very instant album - each song battering you over the head with
an infectious chorus and memorable hook line.
'Genuine American Monster' is a grower - with only one or two stand-out tracks
such as 'Flesh Fest' and 'Riot Relision and Righteousness' with its outrageous
"Get signed/get sealed/get fucked for real" chorus.
It's more experimental, as well - instead of simply retreading the familiar
Foetus or Ministry territory of previous releases it has a fair few ideas of
its own.
The vocoder on 'Riot...' and the almost Ricky Martin-esque 'Salambo' are just
two surprises.
The general attitude towards arrangement is very uncharacteristic on this release
- although it keeps the standard issue slightly-outdated percussion lines, some
of the little touches such as basslines and wibbly noises keep this firmly routed
at the turn of the millennium.
He doesn't croon, either - there aren't any 'Save Me'-style heartbreakers, where
he breathes in that fabulous melted-chocolate voice that sends the girlies swooning.
However, it is haunting ('Black Brothel') and energetic ('Disrupt Degrade and
Devastate') in all the right places.
It's like painting your room an odd colour that you're really not sure of for
several weeks, but after a month you cannot imagine your house without it.
Yes, in all, a standard issue piece of excellence from Watts and pals.
Even if the lyrics are pants.
As a debut release from the latest Big Thing, this
isn't half bad.
Yet another of those releases that actually takes about six months to decide
you like (thank... EMI... for promos, eh?), this is a fine effort from a very
promising young man. Like all of the above, this is a one man band that is augmented
- in this case by a brother - and several mates for live shows.
Rico is a Scottish songwriter of the Reznor-esque complaint rock persuasion,
all sexy dark curls and tortured screams.
Still, the finished product is actually not very industrial. At all. They may
harp on in the press releases about comparisons to Nine Inch Nails, but looks
and set-up aside this is actually a lot closer to Tricky.
'Shave Your Head' is a clever little rant against the dozens of Oasis clones
out there - "Music is dead/this ain't the sixties any more/that was mum and
dad on the dancefloor".
'Attack Me' is a storming, powerful punch of a pop single, and particularly
effective live.
The album as a whole is a fairly devastating crusade against, well, pretty much
everything and despite his protestations to the contrary, there really isn't
anything that hasn't been said before.
Yet despite its familiarity, it really is unclassifiable.
It may be too hard for the indie kids and too soft for the industrial scene.
Despite all its puff, it's somewhere between pathos and bathos as it inevitably
fails to quite ignite in the pure rage it so desperately wants to.
It's like watching a three-year-old lose their temper. And just as cute.
It's a good record, and Rico obviously has (have?) a lot of potential.
He just needs to have a clearer vision next time around.
The reissued, repackaged double CD set of some
of the finest music to come out in absolutely ages.
For those not in the know, Delerium are Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber, otherwise
known as Front Line Assembly.
Yet, instead of singing "cherish your hate", they're actually not singing at
all, leaving these duties to Sarah McLachlan and her erstwhile backing vocalist
Kristy Thirsk.
This little tactic, blended with the Enigma-esque blend of sultry beats and
Gregorian chants, ensures them a regular income from practically living in the
Canadian top ten.
The first CD is simply the album 'Karma' which has already been out for some
time.
Fans will recognise this as the album with tracks such as 'Incantation' and
'Flowers Become Screens' that goths bounce happily to at Slimelight.
There are many instrumental passages on this and it is really only the aforementioned
tracks that stand out.
Enjoyable as it is, it all becomes very wearing very quickly.
For fans only.
CD two is the one to listen to.
Packed with stunning remixes of some of their finest tracks, this is the ultimate
trance/industrial/ambient crossover release.
The success of the incredible 'Silence' is justification indeed - number two
in Ireland, number six in Australia... a monster hit in the UK clubs (Ministry
of Sound and Cream open and close sets with it) and Pete Tong's most highly
recommended.
There are stylish remixes of 'Incantation' and 'Flowers Become Screens' which
promise this to be the DJ's best friend CD for a long time to come.
After all - powerful mixes of the fabulously hypnotic songs - each flavoured
by the frankly incredible quasi-operatic vocals - are addictive enough to ensure
a place on the request list of pretty much every club in the world.
Topped off with the devastating original mix of new single 'Heaven's Earth',
this new package of 'Karma' is one of the most desirable releases to have reached
our ears in living memory.
CD one:
CD two: