This day thirty-one years ago, The Pixies released their debut long-player, the sublime Surfer Rosa. The very beginning of the postmodernist, alternative rock movement started with the kick drum of ‘Bone Machine’. A deep-drenched surrealistic track of singalong pre-grunge, with former member Kim Deal echoing the direct screamed vocal of Black Francis.

A brutal mix followed with themes from voyeurism to mutilation, all wrapped in sonic bursts of finely constructed melodies. The sound of Surfer Rosa is a cross of-surf-rock, punk, psychedelic-a mixed with torrential noise and the very twisted lyrics. It slapped in the face more taboos than the Velvet Underground. It is no wonder then that The Pixies were the band which would ignite the flames of Nirvana, Blur, Radiohead and The Strokes. They became the most influential band of the nineteen-eighties, in a very short space of time. And Surfer Rosa was where it started.

The magic of Steve Albini (Nirvana, PJ Harvey ) captures perfectly the raw-assault of The Pixies, whilst the song may be simple in construction, the abstract way in their creation makes them further complex.
This is the album which will remain a classic of the twentieth century, The Velvet Underground And Nico movement of modern times.



Original 1988 Track List;
1. “Bone Machine”

2. "Break My Body"

3. "Something Against You"

4. "Broken Face"

5. "Gigantic"

6. "River Euphrates"

7. "Where Is My Mind?"

8. "Cactus"

9. "Tony's Theme"

10. "Oh My Golly!"

11. "Vamos"

12. "I'm Amazed"

13. "Brick Is Red"

Gigantic;

And this I know his teeth as white as snow
What a gas it was to see him
Walk her everyday into a shady place
With her lips she said
She said, "Hey Paul, hey Paul, hey Paul
Let's have a ball
Hey Paul, hey Paul, hey Paul
Let's have a ball
Hey Paul, hey Paul, hey Paul
Let's have a ball"
Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic
A big, big love
Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic
A big, big love
Lovely legs there are
What a big black mass, what a hunk of love
He'll walk her every day into a shady place
Like the dark, but I'd want him
"Hey Paul, hey Paul, hey Paul
Let's have a ball
Hey Paul, hey Paul, hey Paul
Let's have a ball
Hey Paul, hey Paul, hey Paul
Let's have a ball"
Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic
A big, big love

Kevin Burke March 2019

Today it’s been exactly 29 years since Nitzer Ebb released their third studio album Showtime on Mute Records (STUMM 72 / 20 March 1990).

Soundwise Showtime balances their trademark aggressively sparse EBM rhythms with a less industrial and slightly more subtle synth-pop approach. The album as a whole has a very cohesive, uniform sound, despite each song being very unique, ranging from the more EBM-like Rope to the almost Industrial-Rock-ish Getting Closer.

Three singles were taken from this album and released separately, 'Lightning Man', 'Fun To Be Had' and 'Getting Closer'.

The album opens strongly with probably one of Nitzer Ebb most played underground dancefloor fillers, 'Getting closer', a very powerful song indeed. 'My Heart' is a very gloomy song with Douglas McCarthy singing full with rage and paranoia with an almost apocalyptic song ending. The excessive different musical influences emerge throughout the whole album, resulting in a blues-ish crawling 'Nobody Knows' and the with subtle rhythm shifts and orchestrations filled 'One Man's Burden'. More experiments in all 'All Over', while maintaining a slightly uptempo, but dancable beat. Also the use of a 7/8 beat rhythmn of 'My Heart' is an interesting experiment.
'Lightning Man', the first and previously released single from this album, is probably one the most melodic, jazzy and mesmerizing songs ever to be released by Nitzer Ebb. While next track 'Rope' is clearly one of the darkest songs in this ShowTime album. 'Hold On' has an intriguing, layer-by-layer buildup and maybe the most interesting beat on this album. The album closes with the straightforward EBM sounding track 'Fun To Be Had'.

Showtime - Tracklist

Getting Closer
Nobody Knows
One Mans Burden
All Over
My Heart
Lightning Man
Rope
Hold On
Fun To Be Had

DISCOGS

Seventeen-Years ago today, Ministry released their live album Sphinctour, a collection of tracks recorded on their 1996 world tour in support of the album Filth Pig. This was Ministry’s third solo album, while not their most popular, it does provide a time-capsule moment into the live performance of a band at the height of their powers.

This live performances is absolutely precise and perfectly represents the Ministry full, vast sound of chaos and noise. It is thoroughly un-dubbed, no studio tinkering in the process aftermath.

Recorded direct to the two-track system, this is the sound of Ministers naked and raw, spitting fire under the glare of a spotlight.

The collision of industrial intensity and thrashed- out guitar cranks is enough to unsettle the nerves as the listener is pulled into the world of Al Jourgensen. The real magic to this release is how much better the Filth Pig tracks sound in a live setting, at times transcending the studio release. It may not be for everyone but Sphinctour has become an essential Ministry release.

Track List;
(Complete)

1. "Psalm 69" (Elysée Montmartre, Paris) 5:04
2. "Crumbs" (Congress Center, Stuttgart) 3:54
3. "Reload" (Convention Center, Albuquerque) 2:33
4. "Filth Pig" (Varsity Arena, Toronto) 6:30
5. "So What" (The Warfield, San Francisco) 9:45
6. "Just One Fix" (Aragon Ballroom, Chicago) 4:38
7. "N.W.O." (Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles) 6:04
8. "Hero" (Gaswerk, Hamburg) 2:38
9. "Thieves" (Mercer Arena, Seattle) 5:14
10. "Scarecrow" (Jesolo Beach Festival, Venice) 7:56
11. "Lava" (Dour Festival, Brussels) 8:43
12. "The Fall" (Brixton Academy, London) 8:02
13. "Stigmata" (Roseland Ballroom, New York) 9:14
Track 5 and 13 not included on CD release

Al Jourgensen - vocals, mandolin ("Reload"), harmonica ("Filth Pig"), guitar ("Just One Fix", "N.W.O."), production
Paul Barker - bass guitar, keyboard bass ("The Fall"), production
Rey Washam - drums
Louis Svitek - guitar
Duane Buford - keyboards
Zlatko Hukic - guitar

Kevin Burke March 2019

Today, 39 years ago, Joy Division released "Licht und Blindheit" (Light and Blindness). Originally released on 18 March 1980 by the French label Sordide Sentimental as a France-only single release. It was limited to 1578 copies and featured the tracks Atmosphere (A-side) and Dead Souls (B-side).

Following the death of Ian Curtis in May 1980, "Atmosphere" was released as a single along with She’s Lost Control.

The single was re-released in 1988 to coincide with the release of the Joy Division compilation album Substance. The video that came with this re-release of Atmosphere was directed by Anton Corbijn.

Copies from the one and only original numbered limited edition pressing have been traded for prices well over €1000 on the internet. So, if you happen to come accros this record on a recordfair, it's more likely you found one of the nine bootleg pressings that have surfaced in the following decades.

Atmosphere - Lyrics

Walk in silence
Don't walk away, in silence
See the danger
Always danger
Endless talking
Life rebuilding
Don't walk away
Walk in silence
Don't turn away, in silence
Your confusion
My illusion
Worn like a mask of self-hate
Confronts and then dies
Don't walk away
People like you find it easy
Naked to see
Walking on air
Hunting by the rivers, through the streets, every corner
Abandoned too soon
Set down with due care
Don't walk away in silence
Don't walk away

(Bernard Sumner / Ian Curtis / Peter Hook / Stephen Paul David Morris)

DISCOGS

On 17 March 1985, Depeche Mode released its fifth studio album Black Celebration through Mute Records. The album further cemented the darkening sound created by Alan Wilder. The album reached the fourth place on the UK Albums Chart, making it the group's highest-peaking album of the 1980s decade in their native country. Three years after its release, Spin ranked it at number 15 on its list of "The 25 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Four singles were taken from this album, ‘Stripped’, ‘A Question Of Lust’, ‘A Question Of Time’ and ‘But Not Tonight’ and released throughout the following year.

Upon its release Black Celebration received mixed critics in the British press. Melody Maker's Steve Sutherland brought the album down and wrote that Depeche Mode came off as "pussycats desperate to appear perverted as an escape from the superficiality of teen stardom”, also Sounds published a similar unsparing review criticizing chief songwriter Martin Gore's "adolescent fragments of despair". NME on the other hand praised Black Celebration's "perfectly constructed jigsaw melodies" and concluded "When the songs address topics other than the composer's state of mind – as on the evocative exploration of loneliness that is 'World Full of Nothing' – Depeche Mode sound like a lot more than just a high tech, low-life melodrama”…

Nevertheless the album entered the charts all over the world with some of its highest peaks in Switzerland (1st position, Swiss Hitparade), Germany (2nd of the Top 100), UK (4th of UK album) and Sweden (5th Swedish Top list). It also received Platinum in Germany (500.000 copies sold) and Gold in the US (500.000 copies sold).

But since then Black Celebration has been regularly reappraised in retrospective reviews. In 2007, when the album was re-released Rolling Stone magazine referred to the album as an "instant classic for the band's fans" that at the time of its release had seemingly been "utterly ignored by everybody else".

Depeche Mode (1986)

• Alan Wilder
• Andrew Fletcher
• David Gahan
• Martin Gore

Black Celebration LP (1986)

01. Black Celebration 4:55
02. Fly on the Windscreen – Final 5:18
03. A Question of Lust 4:20
04. Sometimes 1:53
05. It Doesn't Matter Two 2:50
06. A Question of Time 4:10
07. Stripped 4:16
08. Here Is the House 4:15
09. World Full of Nothing 2:50
10. Dressed in Black 2:32
11. New Dress 3:42

DISCOGS