Big Black - 1986 - Atomizer

After countless rock and neo-industrial outfits attempted to one-up each other's levels of extremity over the years, Atomizer holds up extremely well. It's not every day that one hears a song considering self-immolation as "just something to do" or another that tackles the case of an alleged parent-child molestation ring from the viewpoint of the offender. Instrumentally, Atomizer is a wailing behemoth of assaultive Roland beats, Steve Albini and Santiago Durango's clanging and whirring guitars, and new member Dave Riley's lumberjack bass. Their musical invention went a couple steps further, most obviously on the warped-beyond-recognition guitars of "Passing Complexion" and "Kerosene." The latter is undeniably Big Black's brightest/bleakest moment, an epically roaming track that features an instantly memorable guitar intro, completely incapable of being accurately described by vocal imitation or physical gesture. It's also Albini at his most plainspoken and bleak: "Stare at the wall/Stare at each other and wait 'til we die." It's Big Black's "Light My Fire," literally. "Bad Houses" tops Killing Joke in affecting moodiness, serving as a perhaps unintentional reply to John Mellencamp's "Pink Houses." Both Albini and Mellencamp were commenting on the Midwest, so why not? Other points of interest include the demented, storming menace of "Fists of Love" and a live version of "Cables" that features an extended guitar wobbly from Albini. The record remains as horrifying as the day it was recorded. [Atomizer was released on CD as part of The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape. The mediocre, largely instrumental "Strange Things" was removed from the digital version. Touch & Go kept the original record in print on vinyl.]

		1		Jordan, Minnesota	Big Black
		2		Passing Complexion	Big Black
		3		Big Money	Big Black
		4		Kerosene	Big Black
		5		Bad Houses	Big Black
		6		Fists of Love	Big Black
		7		Stinking Drunk	Big Black
		8		Bazooka Joe	Big Black
		9		Strange Things	Big Black
		10		Cables [live]	Big Black

¡Aquí!

Mono - 2002 - One Step More And You Die

More structured and with a greater feel for dynamics than many Japanese noise rock releases, Mono's One Step More and You Die shows that noise rock shouldn't be afraid to explore quieter sonic spaces -- in fact, the opening track, "Where Am I," is downright pretty. Of course, that doesn't last long. The next track, "Com(?)," builds from a similarly placid opening into a climax, nearly 16 minutes later, that sounds like Larks' Tongues in Aspic-era King Crimson fed a steady diet of steroids and Red Bull, all crashing drums, clashing harmonics, and fragmented power chords. The album never quite gets to that level of ecstatic release again, but shorter tracks like "Mopish Morning, Halation Wiper" (which makes excellent use of an out of tune piano and guest cellist Udai Shika) and the slowly unfolding "A Speeding Car" smartly build an almost subliminal tension before quietly resolving. Akin to Mogwai, Larval, or Sonic Youth's more delicate moments, One Step More and You Die is a phenomenal instrumental rock album.

		1		Where Am I	Mono	2:41
		2		Com (?)	Mono	15:55
		3		Sabbath	Mono	4:51
		4		Mopish Morning, Halation Wiper	Mono	2:54
		5		A Speeding Car	Mono	8:51
		6		Loco Tracks	Mono	6:39
		7		Halo	Mono	7:43
		8		Giant Me on the Other Side	Goto, Mono, Takada, Tamaki, Yoda	1:37

¡Aquí!

Unsane - 2005 - Blood Run

Listening to Unsane's "business-as-usual" comeback album, Blood Run, one is hard-pressed to believe that all of seven years have passed since the New York noise rock stalwarts' released their previous studio effort, Occupational Hazard, and went their separate ways amid no small amount of acrimony. Even more amazing is recalling the innumerable musical cliques that have had their day and vanished in the interim; it seems perfectly reasonable that the infamously obstinate, fame-avoiding trio should see absolutely no reason to alter, or in any way update, their original songwriting M.O. for this new release (especially since it was largely the critical and public acclaim lavished upon 2003's career-spanning Lambhouse collection that actually egged the band out of retirement in the first place). So it is that Blood Run welcomes listeners back into Unsane's dingy, oppressive, and overcast soundtrack to urban decay -- a frightening place where every word uttered is a ragged scream, guitars clang against drums like hammers upon anvils, and unnerving shards of melody echo from standout tracks like "Backslide," "Killing Time," and "Latch" (all delivered with the nails-on-chalkboard shrillness of a New York City ambulance siren). Elsewhere, sludgy, drunken shuffles like "Hammered Out" and "Dead Weight" threaten disorienting, bowel-loosening miasma; and even the energetic, hard-driving numbers like "Release" and "D Train" leave one feeling as if they are the chased, not the chaser. Assembled as they are here, side-to-side like so many suspects in a police lineup, all of the above variations are unmistakably Unsane, making Blood Run an excellent and surprisingly seamless addition to the band's canon.

		1		Backslide		4:11
		2		Release		2:35
		3		Killing Time		4:55
		4		Got It Down		3:42
		5		Make Them Prey		4:21
		6		Hammered Out		4:43
		7		D Train		2:19
		8		Anything		3:27
		9		Recovery		3:45
		10		Latch		2:42
		11		Dead Weight		7:03

¡Aquí!