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Monday, December 4,1989
The Battalion
Paqe 7
iHard-core radical theatrics flavor
[Ministry, Skinny Puppy’s albums
,asy on the nihilism: Ministry finds less violent frame of mind
d
By John Righter
Of The Battalion Staff
Ministry
The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To
Taste
Sire
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? I From a man who knows some
thing about minds, tastes and terri
ble things, Alain Jourgensen (he
now spells it Alien, but he’ll always
be Alain to me), the main schizoid
behind the industrialized hallucina
tions of Ministry, has injected a dark
and violent antibody into the pastel
dreaminess of the “Just Say No” de
cade.
The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To
Taste, the fourth full-length release
by Jourgensen, offers a gritty taste
oflast year’s 77ie Land Ot Rape And
Honey. Fortunately, however, it pro
gresses beyond that album’s hard-
core-inspired nihilism into a more
vivid and complete trip.
Along with fellow mate Paul Bar
ker, a returnee from La/rd, Jourgen
sen has culled his experiences from
not only his past Ministry projects,
but also from his various work with
Revolting Cocks, Pailhead, Lard,
Skinny Puppy and other under
ground-industrial projects.
In fact, it’s impossible to know ev
erything Jourgensen has been in
volved in, since he uses so many
pseudonym ns, a practice popular
within the rebellious acid-house
scene. (For example, who are Hypo
l.uxa and Hermes Pan, the produc
ers for this album and most of Jour-
gensen’s work? Jourgensen?).
On The Mind Is A Terrible Thing
To Taste, Jourgensen continues to
shock and perplex, but eases from
the perpetual, numbing spasms of
Rape.
Compared with the unpredictable
leap from I986’s Twitch to Rape,
Mind is a safe and easy tab to swal
low. Even for an someone as enig
matic as Jourgensen, it’s hard to
freak the hell out of everyone twice
in a row.
Not that Jourgensen doesn’t give
it his best shot. A self-proclaimed
, acid-head and all-around masochist,
Jourgensen comes out ripping on
“Thieves,” the album’s opening
track.
“Thieves” was a welcomed adjust
ment for me, not in intensity, but in
the fact it helped lessen my feelings
that Jourgensen is a fascist and a rac
ist.
Working with radically-tinged hu
manitarians like Skinny Puppy and
ex-Minor Threat frontman Ian
MacKaye would lead you to believe
otherwise, but songs like “Stigmata”
and “Flashback” left me doubting
Jourgensen’s intentions on Rape.
It also didn’t help that in that
same time period Jourgensen
shaved part of his head and inserte-
diron crosses, got a tattoo of a goat
hung on an upside-down cross and
admitted to having a fixation on vio
lence and LSD. 1 felt justified in my
feelings.
Now I feel confused. “Thieves,”
though reactionary in its presenta
tion and depiction (an electric drill
plays a prominent role in the song),
is an anti-bigotry song that plays off
the ignorance of racists and hate-
mongers.
“Cannibal Song” and the rapper
“Test” also lay question to Jourgen
sen’s true beliefs and feelings.
I tend to believe that Jourgensen
plays along the lines of Alice Cooper
in his shock-value theatrics and fla
vors his messages with the reactio
nary pro-ness of Skinny Puppy.
It is the modern philosophy, seen
elsewhere in the writing of William
Burroughs and the directing of Da
vid Lynch, that it takes a shocking,
albeit excessive statement to get your
message recognized. Ministry and
croonings and bizarre orchestration
of “Cannibal Song” sound peculiarly
reminescent of early P.I.L., circa
Flowers Of Romance.
In fact, I was pleased to hear this
diversification, something missing
within the continuous drumming of
Rape.
The implementation of shock and
Compared with the unpredictable leap from
1986’sTwitch to Rape, Mind is a safe and easy tab to
swallow. Even for an someone as enigmatic as
Jourgensen, it’s hard to freak the hell out of everyone
twice in a row. Not that Jourgensen doesn’t give it his
best shot. A self-proclaimed acid-head and all-around
masochist, Jourgensen comes out ripping. . .
Jourgensen are definitely excessive
and shocking.
Radical is a good description for
“Breathe,” a pro-conservation, envi
ronmentalist song that shows the in
fluence of Jourgensen’s work with
Skinny Puppy, and more specifically
his enrollment in the industrialized-
conglomerate Revolting Cocks.
On the other hand, the previously
mentioned “Test” and bassy “So
What” mix in the flavorings of his
rawer work with Pailhead. The
shock-value theatrics is certainly ef
fective in terms of drawing attention
and response to an issue or feeling.
But that effectiveness is squandered
if it is completely engulfed in a mass
of archaic noise and subliminal tricks
without pause or relief.
Mind is much stronger and defi
nitely more appealing than Rape be
cause it switches gears and throws
loops like the militant-rap of “Test”
(The Grand Rapper, whoever he is,
does the vocals). Jourgensen even
enlists other singers (The Grand
Rapper and Chris Connelly) for
three of the tracks and leaves vocals
off another.
Apparently, Jourgensen felt the
necessity to produce the nihilistic
Rape to distance himself from the
earlier With Sympathy and Twitch
albums. He even has gone so far as
to block the release of Twitch on CD.
He was certainly successful, but
quite frankly, I was really disturbed
by the hatred and subliminal proc
esses of Rape (and I’m not easily dis
turbed).
Mind is much' more ambiguous,
which I suspect is Jourgensen’s goal,
and 1 don’t leave it feeling as if I just
had my head kicked in by a Doc
Marten boot. It works through con
ciliation.
Case in point: the finale “Dream
Song” is probably the most disturb
ing song Ministry has ever done, yet
it is also probably its softest and pret
tiest number.
Ambiguity? Maybe Jourgensen is
becoming more confident in his feel
ings. Maybe Jourgensen is becoming
more serious with his music. Maybe
Jourgensen has finally just fried his
brain to mush and doesn’t know
what the hell he is doing.
I don’t know, but I do recom
mend Mind to those of you with a
mind for terrible things and ambi-
gous tastes.
Rabies:'Stranger than you have ever imagined’
By Chuck Lovejoy
Of The Battalion Staff
Skinny Puppy
Rabies
Capitol
“Be prepared to enter a world
stranger than you have ever
imagined,” a voice warns on
“Hexonxonx,” the second song
on Skinny Puppy’s new album,
Rabies.
I wouldn’t exactly go that far,
but Rabies, the Pups’ seventh mu
sical compilation, comes pretty
close.
In fact, the whole project that
is Skinny Puppy is a trip to a
world more bizarre than most
people care to hear about.
The whole thing started in the
summer of 1983, when the band’s
founders, Cevin Key and Nivek
Ogre, stumbled on the idea of
Skinny Puppy — a look at the
world through the eyes of a hun
gry, homeless and helpless dog.
That vision is not a pretty one.
The band, which now includes
Dwayne Goettel (formerly of the
band Psyche) and guest artists
such as Alain Jourgensen (of
Ministry and Revolting Cocks
fame), has tackled several contro
versial topics with its electronic
wizardry.
For example, the group’s last
album, Vivisect VI, dealt with ani
mal research and testing. The
tour supporting the album
sported a live show in which vo
calist Ogre transformed from an
man oblivious to the plight of ani
mals used in medical testing to
one enlightened about them.
In between, Ogre took on the
persona of the vivisectionist, and
in the end seemingly became the
tortured test animal, writhing to
the band’s haunting synthesizer
sounds.
On Rabies, Skinny Puppy’s ap
proach to the problems of the
world is considerably less ex
treme, although still incredibly
pessimistic.
The entire project seems more
mainstream and more accessible
than Vivisect VI, which was char
acterized by computerized distor
tion and reverberation of already
amorphous songs. (This change
obviously is attributable to the
presence of Jourgenson, who
helped produce the album.)
Still, there’s still more than
enough haunting and heavy syn
thesizer rhythms and sampled
(and real) screaming to make you
only want to listen to Rabies with
the lights on.
The album begins with “Ro
dent,” a danceable, almost sub
dued effort that shows how syn
thesizer rhythms should be used.
From there, the LP’s songs run
the industrial dance gamut.
“Hexonxonx” features a (I
hate to say it) peppy beat that is
surprisingly similar to Book of
Love’s “Witchcraft” — but the
similarities end there. There is no
way anyone could confuse Book
of Love’s smooth chantings with
Ogre’s gravelly vocals.
“Fascist Jock Itch” comes as
close to thrash-type punk as mu
sic can come without Suicidal
Tendencies leaping out of your
speakers amidst the machine-gun
drum and guitar repetitions.
“Rain” is a beatless stew of syn
thesizer noises, sampled laughter,
sobs and screams and Ogre’s
computer-garbled wailings.
The only complaint I have
about Rabies is that you can’t
quite make out the band's lyrics —
half the words are screamed and
the other half are lost amid the
hypnotic computerized pound
ings. Words are printed on the
cassette liner, but I wasn’t able to
fit them wdth any individual
songs.
In fact, the only words truly
discernable are sampled voices
and bits of conversations, as in
“Hexonxonx.”
But perhaps the band is using
these to make statements above
and beyond the lyrical meanings
of the songs.
“Tin Omen,” the album’s
dance floor-bound first single,
contains the voice of a woman
who repeatedly cries, “All good
people-are asleep and dreaming.”
“Fascist Jock Itch” is distin
guished by a man who says,
“Brothers should be close, don’t
you think?” And a man in “Wor-
lock” declares, “Now is the only
thing that’s real.”
The lyrics of “Rivers” are com
posed entirely of a myriad of
sampled musings from a variety
of people speaking in different
tones and accents.
Still, it’s almost frustrating that
it’s so hard to understand Skinny
Puppy’s songs. If you pay $10 for
a cassette and $15 for a CD, it
would be nice to know what point
the artist is trying to get across —
especially when they insist on
screaming it at you.
On the other hand, maybe I
don’t want to know what Skinny
Puppy is trying to tell the world. I
don’t like nightmares.
r
CO-OP STUDENTS
REQUIRED MEETING
FOR ALL CO-OP STUDENTS
SCHEDULED TO WORK IN
SPRING 1990
MONDAY
December 4,1989
5:15 p.m.
601 Rudder
At this meeting you will:
* Receive final reminders that you will need as you go to work
and instructions on how to ensure that you get to pre-register
early for summer and/or fall classes.
* Meet in small groups with your faculty co-op advisor who will
give you hints and requirements for your co-op term paper.
* Meet with other students who will be working in the same
geographical locations in order to discuss taking night classes, ar
ranging car pools, types of available housing in your area, and
roommates.
Spark Some Interest!
Use the Battalion Classifieds. Call 845-2611
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