Category Archives: Greatest Album In The Universe
AFX – Analogue Bubblebath 3
AFX
Analogue BubbleBath 3
1993 – Rephlex Records
Origin: Ireland
Style: Electronic
It happens in threes. Analogue Bubblebath 3 is the third release in the Analogue Bubblebath series, marking this the third release by Richard D. James, under the AFX pseudonym.
James is better known for his work as Aphex Twin but is also known for a slew of other monikers like Polygon Window and Mike & Rich.
Not that sources like Trouser Press or the Internet give AFX much credit, if any at all. It’s understandable given the anonymity of James’ project that paired up with early Aphex Twins releases: the album was released in a clear slimline jewel case, wrapped in bubble wrap with no liner notes, and no print on the disc. Unless you were lucky enough to snag a copy of the vinyl at the time of its release from Rephlex Records, you were left trackless. The album used random decimal numbers as track names. I cannot even imagine talking to James today and him being able to flawlessly remember a track like “.000890569.” It would be a prestigious bet to have him be able to rattle off every track name from memory and see how far he gets.
Analogue Bubblebath 3 came right before Warp and Warner Bros. picked him up to release Selected Ambient Works Volume II. Understanding the scope of Selected Ambient Works, 85-92 (Volume I) and its sparseness, you can only imagine James using AFX to embrace his wild side and signs that eventually point to I Care Because You Do, and Drugz.
I had always found it odd that he just went from his ambient work to a more brazen guerilla electronic approach without a gradual transition. I now can use The Analogue Bubblebath series to bridge the gap between the two varied styles and have it make sense. It does not just make this an important release in that aspect, but looking back, it is more important to the history of electronic music.
“.55279037732581” (try and remember that) explores an obscene view of electro destruction that pummels you over the head, and “AFX/6” is the Aphex Twin we are all well-acquainted with. But it’s the song “.215061” that makes us aware that he can dabble in traditional acid house while making it seem very interesting, even if it was made 18 years ago. And “.1993841” is what I envision to be the early conceptions of Polygon Window.
Very few tracks seem dated, and the songs that do are so far gone with ‘90s sentimentality that they fit right next to Plastikman’s first album. The lines are obscure enough to make you appreciate how far he was willing to go even in a normal context. You can almost taste the blotter sheets just from the sound.
For James, Analogue Bubblebath 3 further confirms him as a true electronic auteur.
Cross Reference: Aphex Twin, Polygon Window, and Mike & Rich.
A Perfect Murder – Strength Through Vengeance
A Perfect Murder
Strength Through Vengeance
2005 – Victory
Origin: Montreal, Quebec
Style: Metal
If you want a perfect example post-millennium Victory Records-style hardcore that is influenced from the classic Victory days (think Warzone), then this album is it. Not only does it shine on the Victory roster, it shines within the bands hierarchy of releases.
A sound that is influenced from south of the border, the band holds tight of that East Coast mentality. However, there is a certain sign that the band, or part of the band was leaning towards another direction, that of the Northwest sludge scene and bands like Clutch and Alice in Chains. But A Perfect Murder does not stray too far and head back into hardcore territory towards the end of the release.
However, before this album, the band was as heavy as steel girders into the metal scene. They ripped and shredded with the best of them. What caused the shift in dynamic is uncertain, but they did create a significant change in their sound just from the previous year.
Soon after this release, the leave of an original guitarist eventually caused a doom and gloom scenario that would ruin the band until 2007 when they tried it one more time and released War of Aggression.
Cross-Reference: Warzone, Sick Of It All, Clutch
Rema-Rema – Wheel in the Roses
Rema-Rema
Wheel In The Roses
4AD
Origin: England
Style: Post Punk
Rema-Rema was a band that became as important for what they musically created as for what the members became.
An early imprint on the 4AD label — the label’s fifth release — Rema-Rema’s sound serves as a sonic monument to what the 4AD imprint started as, which was nowhere near the iconic sound we now know 4AD for; that being bands like Cocteau Twins, Pixies and Lush to Dead Can Dance. At the time, 4AD was bringing in singles from the Axis label as well as a serving as a subsidiary to the Beggars Banquet label. This not only brought in short-lived bands like The Bearz and The Fast Set, but also bounced off single releases from Bauhaus (“Dark Entries”) (Dave Thompson, Alternative Rock. Miller Freeman Books, San Francisco: 2000, p. 738-39). Rema Rema also gave 4AD owner Ivo Watts-Russell the hope that 4AD would become a lasting label and a reason for continuing (http://www.4ad.com/remarema/profile/).
Wheel in the Roses — their only release — begins “Feedback Song” with (guitar/vocals) Gary Asquith and Mick Allen (bass/vocals) howling “Rema Rema” over and over like wolves clawing into the night. The song turns into a Velvet Underground-inspired number as guitar feedback, with the help of other guitarist and original member of Siouxsie and the Banshees Marco Pirroni, drapes over a brooding minimal rhythmic pulse. Drummer Max Prior (her real name is Dorothy), pounds out a lethargic tribal beat that almost defies to keep the song together.
The mono recording presents a ghostly feeling to their noisy dance-based title track. By the end of the song, you will not forget their name.
Even though you may have a difficult time differentiating between the two, the final two songs are recorded live. “Instrumental” gives off the illusion of an instrumental piece, but its deceiving title makes for their most accomplished number on the album as the vocals sound like a lower-lipped Lux Interior singing “You kicked me right between the eyes.”
“Fond Affections” highlights the minimalism of the band as well as the atmospheric effects from keyboardist Mark Cox. Whether intentional or not, the echo effects of the vocals that dissipate to crazed laser blast guitar notes is what gives the song its aura.
Despite its quick listen, these are four songs that are worth going over again and again, each time getting even more wrapped up in their amalgam of experimental post punk and minimal pop sound.
Years later, the band would later help contribute to This Mortal Coil’s It Will End In Tears, as well as having TMC cover the song “Fond Affections” for the debut. Big Black remembered Rema Rema with their cover of “Rema-Rema.” (http://systemsofromance.blogspot.com/2007/12/rema-rema-wheel-in-roses-ep.html)
As quickly as the band formed, it disbanded shortly after the EPs release. Pirroni went on to join Adam and the Ants. Asquith, Allen and Cox formed another short-lived 4AD band called Mass. Asquith went on to join Renegade Soundwave while Cox and Allen stayed with 4AD to form Wolfgang Press.
Max Prior became friends with members of Throbbing Gristle after sharing the bill at several gigs. She went to form El Trains and then a solo project under the name Dorothy, collaborating with Genesis P. Orridge. Her final stop was with Psychic TV after expressing a mutual disinterest with the doom and gloom and destruction of late ‘70s punk (http://kidshirt.blogspot.com/2006/01/story-of-i-confess.html).
Youth Brigade – Sink With Kalifornija
Youth Brigade
Sink With Kalifornija
1984 – BYO
Origin: Los Angeles, California
Style: Punk/Hardcore
If the Clash taught me to fight for my rights, Youth Brigade taught me that the youth can make positive change. One of the rare West Coast bands that really made a difference in the social aspect of punk rock was also one of the lesser known bands at the time, unless you were entrenched into the Los Angeles punk scene or saw one of the several re-releases of Another State Of Mind.
It was a hot summer in 1987. Skateboarding was a brutal affair that sometimes led from overtly steamy August nights to air conditioned abodes. What do skaters do when it is too hot to skate? They watch videos of other people skating — Tony Hawk, Lance Mountain, Mike Vallely.
“Oh, look at that trick.”
“Damn, I cannot believe he just cleared that entire staircase, that guy is insane!”
“I need to go try that trick out now.”
What do you do if you are a skate punk? You intermingle skate videos with your favorite hardcore punk vids or watch movies like Repo Man and fake mosh around the room to Iggy Pop.
One day I was at the record shop scanning through cassettes, adding things like Bad Brains or X Ray Spex or Gorilla Biscuits to my collection. As I was about to check out with a handful of tapes, I spotted a VHS release of Another State Of Mind. I went over to see what it was about and noticed familiarity within the description: Minor Threat, Social Distortion, and some band called Youth Brigade.
After a night shedding blood and sweat out on the pavement, myself and a few others settled down with some cheap burritos, cheaper beer, and that video. In a haze of cigarette smoke, we were mesmerized at the documentary and how well it captured the movement. These bands gave us a perspective of punk rock that none of us were fully able to experience in the scale of a small town environment. The interviews while on tour, the community aspect, and the devotion these bands had were inspiring. This was our Endless Summer for the punk generation.
And it was this inspiration that made me go out and find a copy of Sink With Kalifornija.
In the year 1984, Los Angeles was a strange conglomeration of inner city conflict glossed over by the event of the 1984 Summer Olympics, and the impending Presidential election between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale. The punk and hardcore scene in 1984 was a raging fire of social and political protest against the state of the country. Reagan Youth came out with Youth Anthems For The New Order, Black Flag with My War, and Agnostic Front with Victim In Pain. The charm about Youth Brigade was that they focused more on positivism and the individual. Towards the end of a horrible cover version of “Duke Of Earl,” the band goes into a military drum cadence in punk rock speed while the three brothers — Mark, Shawn, and Adam Stern — bounce the call and response, “Who’s an individual?” “We are individuals.” This is further enhanced as it goes into the song “What Will The Revolution Change.” They knew that their music would not change the state of affairs in this country, as well as the world, but they did know it could create a reaction in the individual and help people come to a realization that to have a better life, it begins with the “self,” a similar concept for Shawn and Mark Stern and their creation of BYO (Better Youth Organization) as a means to promote the positive things within a punk rock structure (http://www.readjunk.com/interviews/youth-brigade-and-byos-shawn-stern).
It also had a lot to do with seeing Youth Brigade in action. During the film, they shot a live version of the song “Violence,” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6BuoXNGbMg) and to see the way the band communicated with their audience was something the kids could bond to. It gave them hope, even from within a chaotic frenzy of the mosh pit.
And what is odd is that the most popular song from the band is only featured as a live version; a handful of live songs got added to the end of the album to celebrate their last show with Adam, as he left the band and went to art school.
But luckily this release did give a full retrospect of the band as a whole and a degree of success after a career start that was plagued with problems. They initially released Sound and Fury before pulling it from the shelves, re-recording it, and re-releasing it later because of dissatisfaction from its bad sound quality (“All Music Guide” entry on Youth Brigade).
Sink With Kalifornija builds positivism with activism. Although imperfect, the Stern brothers gave 110 percent with their band and label. This album is a collective of songs that provides an essential retrospect of the band with the racing “Sound and Fury” to the punk anthem “Fight To Unite.”
Overall it was a West Coast philosophy that Youth Brigade fell into. Unfortunately, the band did not proceed along the successful path as bands like Bad Religion, but the Sterns stayed true to their beliefs as they do to this day (Shawn Stern gets interviewed at the premiere for Punks Not Dead – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzj0TmZUIWM ), a noble persistence to what the band was always about.
Sink With Kalifornija is an album that if you had not lived it, may not make such an impression beyond a few exceptional standout punk anthems, unless you have an appreciation for the history of punk rock. The live songs are raw, messy, and outdated to modern recording techniques, and part of this album needs a degree of toleration especially the faux rap on “Men In Blue,” but you cannot deny the influence these guys had on the local punk community that eventually reached out to the world.
Cross-Reference: Bad Religion, Crucial Youth, Gorilla Biscuits
Young Widows – Settle Down City
Young Widows
Settle Down City
2006 – Jade Tree
Origin: Louisville, Kentucky
Style: Noise Rock
Purchase this album at Indie Rocket
Louisville, Kentucky, does not seem a likely city for a band like this to properly exist. You have to drive about 300 miles north to the city of Chicago and engulf yourself with the musical verbage of the Jesus Lizard or Rapeman via 1990 for the concept of the Young Widows to make sense . For Chicagoans, the obliteration of post-punk into a secular chant of jangling guitar noise incorporated with accentuated pounding bass and drum accompaniment gave the windy city a sense of identity.
But then again, 2006 does not seem like a good time for a band like this to exist. Or maybe it was the perfect time for this music to stand out. With indie rock all over the place and bands looking deep into the heart of rock and roll for expression, Young Widows do as best as any to bastardize the style and send it all crashing back down.
Where Big Black created, Young Widows progressed.
Originally the vocalist for the Louisville hardcore act Breather Resist, Steve Sindoni, left the other three members standing around while he went and formed the Jade Tree act Pusher. Wondering what they were going to do with a vocal-less band, it was a decision to continue on the path of Breather Resist and develop a sophomore album sans Sindoni. As they were developing the songs, something happened, their sound was no longer the belligerent hardcore the band had initially created. So instead of keeping the same name to coexist with the new style, they took on an entirely new persona. The change was drastic. Sure there are hints from their hardcore past as in “Glad He Ate Her,” but to even compare this with what Breather Resist did is insane. It’s a monumental shift in sound and style that one could argue sounds a little too close to what The Jesus Lizard did in the past (http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=167788) or (http://www.drownedinsound.com/release/view/8027).
With more of a bass and drum accompaniment, the low end is muddy and the notes are distorted down beyond coherence. And the guitars on this album are like shrapnel. With Breather Resist, their was a distinct direction, with Young Widows the only direction this band gives is the driving force of the rhythms that pound into your skull like ramming your head into the corner of a door frame and pulling the splinters out.
Whatever happened between the gritty hardcore days to the sloppy and oddball time configurations, it’s a choice that was well made and a direction that could be developed well beyond what Breather Resist could do, even if the Young Widows sound too much like they sit around the shrine of David Yow.
If you are or were not dedicated to that unruly sound of late ‘80s/early ‘90s Chicago, you probably won’t find this album as appealing to those who are. Taken as a whole, Settle Down City is an opus of austere angularity, individually, and the songs are hardly distinct to pick out of a lineup with the common ear.
Features ex-members of Breather Resist
Cross-Reference: Big Black, The Jesus Lizard, Rapeman
