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Archived Reviews
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I’ve been chomping at the bit to get my hands on this album for months now, so imagine my delight when it dropped into my sweaty palms a few weeks ago. Given the strength of their previous album (Disco Flesh: Warp 99), being the second album I was sure only good things awaited here. Track one did not disappoint – ‘Gay Boys in bondage’, besides having a great title, is the sort of hammer to the skull blood-rush you’d expect from PY. Frantic cyber thrash and screaming vocals open the doors on this album – this is typical PY and it’s so good to lose yourself in the mayhem that’s on offer here. This is a club dance floor filler for sure! With your heart still beating, ‘Primitive’ draws you in with it’s female vocal samples, and grunge laden guitars. This is far calmer than the previous track, and is quite wide of the typical PY sound. This is almost cheesy, with an anthem-esque quality – easy to sing along and tap your feet to, this song could have come from the ‘music by numbers’ book. Strange. The third track is ‘Rock n’ Roll machine’ – a well crafted, multi-layered affair, that while starts off with some haunting loops, soon builds up into the distorted guitar laden affair you’d expect. This again is typical PY, but does draw heavily from early Ministry sounds in terms of pounding bass and regimented guitars. The samples that lurk within the musical layers work well, and make this a PY track for the thinking man. Next up is ‘Holy Trinh Thi’ – another track that takes a minute to get up to speed, but when it does, this is another wild and frantic smack to the face. This compels you to get up and thrash around on a dance floor. Given the construction of this track, I’m partially reminded of Sigue Sigue Sputnik, especially when it comes to the vocal and lyrical delivery. ‘Eastern Western’ follows on from here, and is a one minute filler track, comprising of GW Bush samples… interesting. This leads nicely into ‘CNN War’. Who said ‘Politics’? But OH MY GOD! What an impact of a track?!?! Possibly the best slamming guitar riffs I have EVER heard. This WILL get you up and moving – and probably give your speaker cones a good work out too. THIS is what PY are all about – giving you an electric enema at 10,000 volts! I would so love to see this song played live, and be a part of the thrashing mosh pit that would be taking place in the crowd. Top Stuff! Calming things down… a bit… is ‘See you Aligator’. Now we’re back on the usual PY train… pounding beats and loops are the order of the day here. This is yet another frantic track that will take no prisoners, and get your heart pounding. The music is again very well constructed, giving us a tight delivery of some superb tunes. With a slight nod to PWEI in terms of some of the samples used, this is a track to have you pogoing around a dance floor like a loon! Another track that will work well with strobe lights I feel. Following this is ‘Gimme Cocaine’ – some French vocal samples start this off, while the guitars warm up in the background. Taking us on a trip, the bass line slowly takes the listener into a wall of guitars that with some careful manipulation smash your brain apart. NOT a track for the hung-over. This will sort out the epileptics amongst us. Brutal! Next up is ‘U.S.D (we are ready)’ – some great use of drum n’ bass loops here, but these get drowned out by the drumming and the guitars again. It’s more of the same PY we know and love, but with that slightly cheesy slant with it’s anthem-esque chorus. Cleaver stuff, and we love it! ‘Shadosteelplastic’ is a slower, more demanding number. Like a leviathan crawling towards you, this track lumbers its way forward. Loud and heavy is the best way to describe this. The mind enema continues with ‘They don’t want you’ – frantic bursts of energy and screaming vocals adorn this track, and again I am reminded of Ministry. This is no bad thing, and this track is a good head-rush of a number. Last of the main tracks is ‘T4 song’ – a more contemporary track in terms of music construction, with driving guitar and melodious rhythm. The vocal style is ever so slightly Sheep on Drugs, and it works well. Bonus tracks on the album include ‘Gimme (more) Cocaine’ – this is a mix of the original version, and slightly more off it’s head. ‘Mole IX’ is just bloody weird – lots of white noise cutting in and out. It’s enough to tip you over the edge of sanity. The last track is ‘Les Elephants’ – a typically frantic PY offering, but nothing to blow you apart. I notice that reading back through this review, I have drawn comparisons with other land mark bands and PY – I don’t think this is a bad thing, as PY while having their own sound, have successfully used elements of successful bands to pass before them. But that said, this album does not in my mind push PY’s boundaries – it keeps them stable, but I would really expect to hear something VERY special for the next album, but for now, this fix is enough to keep me happy! Nice work guys! |
