Twenty-Three years after the release of ‘Firestarter’, we find ourselves mourning the loss of the demonic figure of chaos which haunted that black and white video. Keith Flint was more than just a performer, he was capable of invading our minds both through the music of The Prodigy and the attitude of destruction that Flint could project. Not since the days of Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious had a figure risen on the British music scene that stirred the same fear and controversy as Keith Flint. Music in the nineties has become split into two categories, the boy/girl band offering or the Brit-Pop sound, The Prodigy were what music was crying out for, what an audience-danger, an edge, all projected in front of infectious beats and venom soaked lyrics with the fiendish grin of Flint to spearhead it.

The Prodigy however, an outfit formed in Essex at the dawn of the nineties struck gold with all that followed ‘Firestarter’. A second lashing of apocalyptic intensity followed in ‘Breathe’, paving the way for one of the most essential albums of the twentieth century.
The eagerly anticipated-The Fat of the Land, the long-awaited follow-up to Music for the Jilted Generation was hailed as a musical savior rising from the grime of the streets. While the two singles-'Firestarter' and 'Breathe' had hit the number one spot in the United Kingdom, this was electronica, cultivated with the long established techno sound that would break the genre out of Britain and finally plant it on the world stage.

The Fat of the Land falls short of masterpiece status, but what it lacks in with context it makes up for in appeal. It delivered exactly what was expected of it, intense hip-hop-derived rhythms, meaningless spewed fragmented lyrics by Flint and Maxim and the added ingredient of clever reconstructed samples. In part the majority of the album does sound quite similar to 'Firestarter,' though Liam Howlett is an inventive producer, and he can make empty songs like 'Smack My Bitch Up' and 'Serial Thrilla' work and become addictive and infectious and even wholly original. The funky hip-hop of 'Diesel Power” and 'Funky Shit,' as well as the mind-bending psychedelic splurge of 'Narayan' stand out. With guests including Crispian Mills (Kula Shakur) and Saffron of Republica who does an intense, toe-curling version of L7's 'Fuel My Fire,' all these passengers on Fat Of The Land give the album a wider scope and a variation between tracks.

The Fat of the Land does not qualify apparently as a flat-out masterpiece, it doesn’t really need to, the context and the image it set out transcends at times the music, what it did do was introduce us to one of the most enigmatic figures of the last thirty years, Rest In Peace Keith Charles Flint (17 September 1969 – 4 March 2019).

I'm the trouble starter, punkin' instigator
I'm the fear addicted, a danger illustrated
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
You're a firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm the bitch you hated, filth infatuated, yeah
I'm the pain you tasted, fell intoxicated
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
You're the firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm the self inflicted, mind detonator, yeah
I'm the one infected, twisted animator
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
You're the firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter starter

[Kevin Burke 4/03/2019]

Today it’s been exactly 34 years since Siouxsie and The Banshees released their second single from their seventh studio album Tinderbox. The single Candyman was released as 7” and 12” on 28 February 1986 and is about child abuse. At the age of 9, she was sexually assaulted by a man, who apparently owned a candy shop. The most damaging aspect was that the assault was ignored by her parents.The episode became an unspoken item. From that moment on, she started to acquire disrespect for adulthood. Years later, she stated: "I grew up having no faith in adults as responsible people. And being the youngest in the family I was isolated – I had no-one to confide in. So I invented my own world, my own reality. It was my own way of defending myself – protecting myself from the outside world. The only way I could deal with how to survive was to get some strong armour".
It became Siouxsie and the Banshees' 13th top 40 hit, peaking at number 34 in the UK single charts.

The 7” has the track Lullaby on the b-side, the 12” also featured Umbrella on the b-side.
Candyman Lyrics

Sickly sweet, his poison seeks
For the young ones who don't understand
The danger in his hands
With a jaundiced wink see his cunning slink
Oh trust in me my pretty one
Come walk with me my helpless one
Candyman

Syrup lies upon your tongue
Ge latine saliva spills
The flash of a guillotine a smile

Candyman - oh candyman
No pity for him, their misery screams
Unspeakable things

A cool missile, yes it's in his smile
With open arms to welcome you
Beware the masked pretender
He always lies, this candyman
Those lips conspire in treachery
To strike in cloak and dagger, see!

Candyman - oh candyman
And all the children, he warns ''don't tell, ''
Those threats are sold
With their guilt and shame they think they're to blane
For candyman - oh candyman

Songwriters: Matthew David Clayden / Mark Williams

Discogs

Today, exactly 17 years ago, American Industrial Metal band Ministry released their eighth studio album Animositisomina (18.02.2003). It was the last Ministry album to feature Al Jourgensen’s longtime partner in crime and bass-player / composer / producer Paul Barker, ending the Luxa/Pan production era. Later, Jourgensen would reveal in an interview that this is one of his least-favourite Ministry albums saying “it was no fun to make” as he was forced to quit his heroin habits during the recording sessions.

Animositisomina Tracklist:
Animosity
Unsung
Piss
Lockbox
Broken
The Light Pours Out Of Me
Shove
Impossible
Stolen
Leper

On February 17, 2014, Bob Casale died at the age of 61, in Los Angeles, California, due to heart failure. As with most musicians their legacy is both the influence and the music they leave behind, in the case of Casale what he accomplished with Devo is astounding.

The debut full-length album by Devo-“Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!” broke into the UK charts reaching a high of number-twelve, that set the chain reaction of legend.
Although released to mixed reviews, since then Rolling Stone has listed in amongst the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, it is also listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die-for a reason. It is the punk-electronic crossover, somewhere balancing between all-out rage and novelty recording. Produced by Brian Eno and David Bowie on the back of their experimental Berlin-trilogy, Devo became the perfect project.

“This is the band of the future”-David Bowie on Devo.

The strangest album-title comes from the lead single, released this month in 1978-“Jocko Homo" introduced the call-and-response "Are we not men?-We are Devo!". Indeed that single charted in the UK’s top-100.
“Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!” broke down barriers as it reflected perfectly the state of rock-music. The death of glam, the cliches which were already falling into the punk movement and the heavyweight stadium acts who played for the money and not the audience is meshed into every inch of the album. It flung back the pretentious notions of the old-guard with a cover of The Rolling Stones “Satisfaction”, became spokespeople for the hippy-drug generation with “Too Much Paranoias”. In time Devo could be perceived as journalists, highlighting their perception of what the music business had become.

Bob Casale was intricate in the Devo sound, providing back vocals, keyboards and that sixties-based rhythm guitar sound. Though his later years was spent in the field of soundtracks to movies such as - Four Rooms, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, the past would always reach for him in the form of reunion shows from 1996 until 2007.
Along with bands like Kraftwerk, Talking Heads, and Pere Ubu, Devo hailed a new era of electronic based compositions that set the trajectory for much of modern music. Looking deep with the modern framework of music points directly in the sound of LCD Soundsystem, Radiohead, even in Arcade Fire, you frequently find strong traces of Devo.

[KB]

Continuing the promotional campaign for their current album “Pitfalls”, Norwegian Rock outfit LEPROUS are now launching a drum playthrough video for the most epic track on the album, “The Sky Is Red”. Check it out below:

LEPROUS drummer Baard Kolstad comments:

“I always like to do full honest video playthroughs of certain LEPROUS songs after the different album recording processes. A nice way to share details and a different kind of energy for the listener/viewer. There’s no secret that “The Sky Is Red” is a tough one and after 27 shows playing it live, it’s interesting to see how the interpretation of the song and performance has evolved and changed.”

LEPROUS are kicking off their next European tour with support by Klone fom France and fellow Norwegians Maraton this weekend in Dortmund, Germany. The band checked in as follows:

“The shows and response of the 1st leg of the “Pitfalls” European tour was mind-blowing, and we had some of the greatest moments of our career. There was no doubt we needed to play way more territories and countries for this album than “only 4 weeks”, so here we go again, with a full production, headlining for 3 more weeks in several new countries that never have seen the new live show. Klone and Maraton as guests! We cannot wait!“

Here is a list of the upcoming LEPROUS dates (Recent updates marked ***):

LEPROUS – European Tour 2020

Supports: Klone & Maraton

08/02 – Dortmund (Germany) - Junkyard

‪09/02 – Strasbourg (France) - La Laiterie

‪10/02 – Grenoble (France) - l'hyliade

‪11/02 – Fribourg (Switzerland) - Fri-Son

‪12/02 – Graz (Austria) - Explosiv

‪13/02 – Istanbul (Turkey) - Zorlu Turkcell Stage *

‪14/02 – Tel Aviv (Israel) - Havanna *

‪15/02 – Athens (Greece) - Fuzz Club

‪17/02 – Bucharest (Romania) - Quantic

‪18/02 – Cluj-Napoca (Romania) - /Form Space

‪19/02 – Budapest (Hungary) - Durer Kert

‪20/02 – Krakow (Poland) - Kwadrat

‪21/02 – Warsaw (Poland) - Progresja

‪22/02 – Gdansk (Poland) - B90

‪24/02 – Nijmegen (The Netherlands) - Doornroosje

‪25/02 – Savigny (France) - l'empreinte

‪26/02 – Toulouse (France) - Le Rex

‪28/02 – Porto (Portugal) - Hard Club

‪01/03 – Lisbon (Portugal) - Lisboa Ao Vivo

* = Without Maraton

LEPROUS – Festival Appearances 2020

19/06 – Clisson (France) - Hellfest

26-27/06 – Madrid (Spain) - Rock The Night

3-5/07 – Cluj-Napoca (Romania) - Form Days Festival
20-22/08 – Bristol (UK) - Arctangent Festival ***

And many more international dates are to be announced soon...

LEPROUS line-up:

Einar Solberg - vocals/synth

Tor Oddmund Suhrke - guitar

Robin Ognedal - guitar

Simen Børven - bass

Baard Kolstad - drums

LEPROUS online:
www.leprous.net
www.facebook.com/leprousband
www.youtube.com/leprouschannel