33 rebellions per minute
"Doot doot, the cruel immersion! Doot doot, the flaming tongue!"
1986
Shriekback, BIG NIGHT MUSIC
Having already mastered both loud synthesized dance-rock and quiet synthesized atmospheric pop on OIL AND GOLD, Shriekback decided to make a record with "no sequencers, drum machines, or digital heartbeats of any kind". They came up with a gem. They still used synths for shading here and there, on the horn-and-drum driven dance tracks "Black Light Trap" and "Sticky Jazz" (major-key, anthemic) and "Running On The Rocks" (an ominous rumble), and the soothing Fairlight synth of "the Shining Path" ("we are blind, we hear nothing, we know nothing, so we can live without blame") and "Underwaterboys". Excellent stuff, say I, but this album also features "Gunning For The Buddha", perhaps my favorite Shriekback song, in which a serious attack on Buddhist pain-averse passivity hides behind eccentric humor and Hawaiian (but of course) instrumentation; and "Pretty Little Things", in which Barry Andrews trades his wonderfully effective deep voice for the world's cheesiest falsetto and also plays kazoo over milk-bottle percussion; and "the Reptiles And I", with a dozen acoustic percussion instruments woven in a rhythm more fascinating than any they'd ever programmed. And the final track, "Cradle Song", played softly on piano in 3/8 time and modulating through unexpected chords with intuitive finesse, wins my Favorite Lullaby nomination, which I thought I'd long since retired: "...May you hold to your truth as you walk the dark night of unreason. The stone walls that surround us, may your spirit fly round them like the wind from the sea. May the fire be your friend, may the sea rock you gently. May the moon light your way til the wind sets you free". That done, Shriekback returned to making electro-dance. But be thankful they detoured this once.
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