A Year of Music

After spending the week wrestling with my own bad conscience, trying to decide just how accountable to hold myself for the music I own by murderers, anti-Semites, neo-Nazis, and other sorts of people with whom I do not hold, it’s something of a blessing to listen to something I can wholeheartedly support: the most recent Ministry record is loud, it is pissed, and it is pissed for all the right reasons. We are tangled in the thresher of a very stupid war, we are governed by mendacious, authoritarian idiots who have committed very real crimes against whatever morality we collectively share, and our society is beset by corruption – corporate, environmental, moral – on all sides. Al Jourgenson belts out all these sentiments and more with the same cartoony hard-edged clarity that has always been Ministry’s stock in trade.

The Last Sucker is a very fine Ministry album on its own merits, being at least as good as Psalm 69, and having one or two songs that are far better than anything on that album. Somewhere along the line Ministry transformed from an arty industrial techno parody of thrash metal into the real thing, and on this album they can stand toe to toe with Strapping Young Lad – the band who, in my opinion, took the latent promise of Burning Inside and converted it into something powerful and real, in much the same way that the Pinocchio at the end of the tale is more real than the puppet at the beginning. It’s not real subtle, but isn’t that the point?

I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that Ministry is a product of Clan Bush. Ministry’s finest albums (StigmataThe Land of Rape and Honey and Burning InsideThe Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste, of course) were a product of Bush I, and during the Clinton years, Jourgenson – and Ministry – sunk into a torpor that has only lifted in the last couple years of Bush II’s seemingly endless reign. There have been tons of distractions in Jourgenson’s life (smack, booze, swingin’ dick contests with ex-bandmates and miscellaneous others), but I have this pet theory that he takes the Bushes personally, and that’s what reignited his fire. They’ve fucked up his country, they’ve fucked up the world, and – most importantly – they’ve fucked up the reputation of Texas, and that shit will not stand.

Looked at in that light, it makes sense that Jourgenson claims The Last Sucker will be the final Ministry album. This time next year, the Texans will have left the White House (at least until the Jenna / Barb ticket in 2024), and the United States will in all likelihood have an entirely different set of problems to confront. Jourgenson’s bête noir will have retired to the ranch, obdurate in his refusal to take any responsibility for the wholesale fuckup that was the 43rd Presidency. In my mind I see Jourgenson with a bottle of Jägermeister in one hand, watching the George W Bush Library burn to the ground as the tears stream down his face, having come as close as he dares to facing down his own Colonel Kurtz at last.

Stuck in my head this morning: Mozart’s “Sonata in C Major” K545, as played by an Apple //c. I even found myself whistling bits of it in the shower. How dorky is that?

It’s a huge improvement over last night, though, when I had Throbbing Gristle’s “Hamburger Lady” looping its way through my noggin. The studio version is basically old Tangerine Dream with Genesis P-Orridge mumbling vaguely over the top; live, it turns into a truly disturbing portrait of trauma and pathology. Latecomers to Throbbing Gristle can be forgiven for thinking they were kind of tame or overrated, because on record they’re basically just a strangely diverse synth-driven noise unit. Live, though, everything take a back seat to Genesis’s insistently chanted / shrieked / growled vocals, and the darkness at the heart of the project becomes manifest. “ASSUME POWER FOCUS” live is a totally different animal. They remain strangely diverse.

I recently picked up Daft Punk’s Alive 2007. It’s pretty good, but has nowhere near the raw fury of the first time I saw Daft Punk live. That was at Even Furthur 1996, one of the legendary series of outdoor raves thrown in BFE Wisconsin by the infamous Drop Bass Network. That year, the main tent had sound by the Badger Sound crew, which meant that there was who knows how many watts going into 32 15” speakers along the front of the tent. The sound was very clean and LOUD. I’ve since decided it was the best sound system I’ve ever heard: it gave everything played through it a brutal, hard-edged clarity that was in keeping with the spirit of the weekend (15-year-olds on K face-down in the mud, 60-watt xenon lasers burning the sky over the tops of the trees, Deadly Buda playing a gabber rendition of the Close Encounters of the Third Kind theme at 220BPM at 7:30 in the morning, Dan Doormouse and friends keeping their Rottweiler with them in their smaller side tent as they rinsed out old Reload records and beat on their speakers with a wiffle ball bat, everyone bundled up against the rain in hoodies and huge pants).

This was before Homework, and Daft Punk were still a cult phenomenon known mostly to DJs and hardcore ravers, so there was a certain amount of anticipation among the crowd, but I remember the crowd were more excited for Phantom 45’s and Woody McBride’s sets later in the night. I think we were all a little caught off-guard when Daft Punk proceeded to throw up a set of headbanging, ass-shaking hard house and acid techno to rival just about anyone who’s ever played dance music live. They didn’t have the pyramid or robot costumes, their setup was minimal, and they barely acknowledged the crowd. That didn’t matter. It was a hallucinatory, blistering half-hour of loops, acid, and slamming electronic beats. I remember the high point of the set being a psychedelically intense version of “Rollin & Scratchin” that practically slammed its way into my head. I don’t know how much of it was the music and how much was the insane sound system, but now you can judge for yourself, because as I discovered today, some kind soul put the entire set online. You’ll just have to imagine the bass and the volume for yourself. And ignore the bald dude.

In my opinion, it’s mostly been downhill for Daft Punk ever since. Homework and the subsequent albums have played up their frothy pop take on French loop-house / electro-disco, and while that makes for awesome videos and it is, after all, what made them famous enough to afford the pyramids and robot suits, I was disappointed to find that the only remnants of the tough, abrasive sound I’d heard in Wisconsin were a comparatively anemic rendition of “Rollin & Scratchin” and a couple other b-sides to their early singles. I’m glad they released Alive 2007, because it shows that they still retain some of that 1996 energy. Still, finding that old set has made me a very happy boy.

Stuck in my head this morning: …I really don’t want to say. It’s embarrassing.

No, seriously. I’ve been bitching about these guys for years!

…

Oh, all right. I had uh Step On by Happy Mondays playing in a relentless, remorseless, jackhammer loop when I woke up this morning. MAN did those guys suck, but I guess that song had sorta a catchy guitar line.

Anyway, I did not wake up in a great mood.

But seriously, man, fuck Shaun Ryder. Just fuck that guy. His voice makes baby Jesus want to die.

The problem with drinking from a firehose is that sometimes you asplode. This just happened to me, and I’m trying to deal with it by sharing my total insanity with you, the semi-random passersby on the internet.

As I’ve mentioned several times, I recently discovered the awe-inspiring zombie amusement park that is Blogspot’s coterie of MP3 blogs. I’d never really paid them much attention before, because most of my exposure to MP3 blogs had been through dodgy Eastern European metal blogs that were dedicated to scene rips of upcoming releases, and I’m really not all that into pissing all over the people who make my favorite music, which is basically what these blogs are all about (somebody has to pay for music, somehow, if it’s going to continue to be made).

However, Mutant Sounds and its brethren opened my eyes to the vast amount of music that exists in a twilit state with respect to copyright; thanks to the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act™, most of the recordings shared via these blogs won’t be public domain until the end of this century – if ever – yet the vast majority of this material can be had neither via love, money, nor diligent browsing of GEMM. Most of the artists involved really don’t seem to care, as the bloggers are all pretty careful to avoid posting material that is readily available, and in some cases the creators send the blog owners better-quality recordings of their own material to replace inferior rips.

It didn’t help that one of the first of these blogs I discovered, dualtrack, has posted nearly every record I deeply coveted between 1989 and 1992. I sometimes forget that I got my start as a major music nerd through RE/Search’s Industrial Culture Handbook, but when I was learning about this stuff, I was also your average broke college kid and therefore could only read about these records in The Ooze’s monthly new-releases newsletter, saving up for stuff I really, really wanted, like :zoviet*france: reissues on CD or the occasional bizarre overindulgence. Now that I’m all grown up, most of those records, CDs and cassettes are beyond gone, appearing only in Amoeba’s used bins or on eBay (sometimes for plainly hurtful prices). It was with delight bordering on awe that I discovered that almost all of these records I’d been searching for for many, many years were freely available, generally with high-quality scans of the included artwork.

So, armed with a not entirely flimsy rationalization, a sense of burning need, and a month’s Premium subscription to Rapidshare, I went completely bonkers. Most of the stuff on this list came from either dualtrack, The Thing on the Doorstep, No Longer Forgotten Music, Rusted Noise, Mutant Sounds, Phoenix Hairpins, Boomkat, Amoeba and Other Music Digital. (NOTE TO RECORD LABEL FOLK: My copy of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black is on a shiny aluminized plastic platter purchased new from Amoeba Records, with the latest lame cover art you have chosen for it. The original cover art was much nicer. Thank you for your attention.) A lot of it I even bought, as I took this opportunity to fill in long-standing gaps in my collection. As you can see, it would take me a very long time to even summarize what’s here, so I’m going to leave that to other postings. Suffice it to say that just about every weird kind of music you can imagine, and some you probably can’t (the Masstishaddhu record, in particular, defies description to anyone who hasn’t already heard it).

It’s going to take me weeks to listen to all this stuff, much less comprehend it. There’s a lot of amazing, weird and profound music in here.

1. ABGS: Werkbeschallung: Live
2. Abwärts: Amok Koma
3. Gunter Adler: Minute Music
4. Gunter Adler: Polysyntetica
5. Gunter Adler: The Silver Book
6. Ain Soph: Kshatriya
7. Alpha Omega: Electronic Mind Project
8. Au Revoir Simone: The Bird of Music
9. Autonomic Computing: Mutantextures
10. Henry Badowski: Life is a Grand
11. Erykah Badu: New Amerykah, Part 1: 4th World War
12. Biochemical Dread: Bush Doctrine
13. Biota: Rackabones / Vagabones
14. Bipol: Ritual
15. Black Sun Ensemble: Black Sun Ensemble
16. Blacworld: Subduing Demons (In South Yorkshire)
17. Burning Witch: Crippled Lucifer
18. Monte Cazazza: To Mom on Mother’s Day / Candy Man
19. C-Schulz: 7. Party Disco
20. C-Schulz: 10. Hose Horn
21. Chrome: Alien Soundtracks
22. Chrome: Half Machine Lip Moves
23. Chrome: 3rd from the Sun
24. Chrystal Belle Scrodd: The Inevitable Chrystal Belle Scrodd Record
25. Coil / Zos Kia: Transparent
26. Cold Sun: Dark Shadows
27. Cosey Fanni Tutti: Time to Tell
28. Cranioclast: A Con Cristal
29. Cranioclast: Koitlaransk / Ration Skalk
30. Crash Worship: This
31. Crawling Chaos: Sex Machine / Berlin
32. Helios Creed: X-Rated Fairy Tales / Superior Catholic Finger
33. Crispy Ambulance: From the Cradle to the Grave
34. Crispy Ambulance: Live on a Hot August Night
35. Crispy Ambulance: Sexus
36. Crispy Ambulance: The Plateau Phase
37. Crispy Ambulance: Unsightly and Serene
38. Crispy Ambulance: Live at the ICA
39. Current 93 & HÖH: Crowleymass
40. Current 93 / Nurse With Wound: Mi-Mort
41. Daft Punk: Alive 2007
42. Danava: UnonoU
43. Danielle Dax: Pop-Eyes
44. Danielle Dax: Jesus Egg That Wept
45. Danielle Dax: Inky Bloaters
46. Danielle Dax: The Janice Long Session
47. Danielle Dax: Comatose Non Reaction: The Thwarted Pop Career
48. Amy Denio: No Bones
49. Dead Meadow: Old Growth
50. Dethklok: The Dethalbum
51. Die Form / Asmus Tietchens: Face to Face, Volume 1
52. Die Form: Duality
53. DF Sadist School: Les Cent Vingt Journées de Sodome
54. Doxa Sinistra: Via del Latte
55. Drowning Craze: Trance / I Love the Fjords
56. Frankie Dymon, Jr.: Let It Out
57. Earth: The Bee Made Honey In The Lions Skull
58. Einstürzende Neubauten: Kollaps
59. Einstürzende Neubauten: Zeichnungen des Patienten OT
60. Elohim: A L’Aube Du Verseau
61. Erste Weibliche Fleischergesellin Nach 1945: Ferien Auf Dem Lande
62. Étant Donnés: Aurore
63. Étant Donnés: L’eclipse
64. Étant Donnés: Re-Up
65. Etat Brut: Mutations et Protheses
66. Exterminator: Anna Blume
67. Factrix: Empire of Passion
68. Factrix: Scheintot
69. Fanzine: 1980
70. Fanzine: 1981
71. Fanzine: 1982
72. File Under Pop: Heathrow
73. Brigitte Fontaine & Areski: L’incendie
74. Brigitte Fontaine & Art Ensemble of Chicago: Comme à la Radio
75. Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle: Telinehmende Beobachtung
76. The Fugs: First Album
77. The Fugs: Second Album
78. BC Gilbert & G Lewis: Ends With the Sea
79. The Gothic Archies: The Tragic Treasury: Songs from “A Series of Unfortunate Events”
80. Bruce Haack: Electric Lucifer: Book 2
81. Bruce Haack: The Electric Lucifer
82. Hanadensha: Acoustic Mothership
83. Hanadensha: Astral Pigmy Wave
84. Hanadensha: Doobie Shining Love
85. Hip Hop Pantsula: YBA 2 NW
86. Lars Hollmer: Fran Natt Idag
87. Lars Hollmer: Vill Du Höra Mer
88. Lars Hollmer: XII Sibirska Cyklar
89. Hoola Bandoola Band: Fri Information
90. Hoola Bandoola Band: Garanterate Individuell
91. Hoola Bandoola Band: På Väg
92. Hoola Bandoola Band: Vem Kan Man Lita På?
93. The Horrorist: Attack Decay
94. The Human League: Being Boiled
95. The Human League: The Dignity of Labour
96. Hunting Lodge: Tribal Warning Shot
97. In the Woods…: Three by Seven on a Pilgrimage
98. Islaja: Meritie
99. Kallabris: Considération sur / sous lé café
100. Richard H Kirk: Darkness at Noon
101. Richard H Kirk: Disposable Half-Truths
102. Kotazo: Papy Mbavu / Papa Komanda
103. Korpiklaani: Korven Kuningas
104. Korpiklaani: Spirit of the Forest
105. Korpiklaani: Voice of Wilderness
106. Lava: Tears Are Goin’ Home
107. Thomas Leer & Robert Rental: The Bridge
108. Lemon Kittens: Spoonfed and Writhing
109. Lemon Kittens: The Big Dentist
110. Lemon Kittens: We Buy a Hammer for Daddy
111. Lesbian: Power Hor
112. Liquid Sound Company: Exploring the Psychedelic
113. Machinic Indices: Untitled Kompositions
114. Malombra: Malombra
115. Masstishaddhu: Shekinah
116. Men/Eject: Men/Eject
117. Metabolist: Drömm
118. Metabolist: Hansten Klork
119. Metabolist: Identify
120. The Metronomes: Regular Guys
121. Mimir: Mimir
122. Mimir: Mimyriad
123. Mnemonists: Biota
124. Mnemonists: Horde
125. Moctan: Suspect
126. Morphogenesis: Prochronisms
127. Mysticum: In the Streams of Inferno
128. nEGAPADRÉS.3.3: nEGAPADRÉS.3.3
129. Joanna Newsom: Walnut Whales
130. Joanna Newsom: Yarn and Glue
131. Nocturnal Emissions: Spiritflesh
132. Non: Mode of Infection / Knife Ladder
133. Nurse With Wound / Spasm: Creakiness / Firemoon
134. Nurse With Wound / Termite Queen: Nurse With Wound / Termite Queen
135. Nurse With Wound / Organum: A Missing Sense / Rasa
136. Nurse With Wound: A Sucked Orange
137. Nurse With Wound: Brained by Falling Masonry
138. Nurse With Wound: Crocodile Krazy Glue
139. Nurse With Wound: The Musty Odour of Pierced Rectums
140. Opal: Early Recordings 2
141. Orchestra Terrestrial: Here and Elsewhere
142. Organum: Horii
143. Organum: Ikon
144. Organum: Sphyx
145. Organum: Tower of Silence
146. Michael O’Shea: Michael O’Shea
147. La Otracina: Fauna & Animated Floral Arrangements
148. P16.D4: Distruct
149. P16.D4: Kühe in 1/2 Trauer
150. Penumbra: Skandinavien
151. Permutative Distorsion: Brückenkopf im Niemandsland
152. Pitch Black Afro: Split Endz
153. Eddie Prévost / Organum: Flayed / Crux
154. Problemist: 9 Times Sanity
155. Project 197: IP001
156. Pseudo Code: Europa
157. Psychic TV: Allegory & Self
158. Psychic TV: Dreams Less Sweet
159. Psychic TV: Force Thee Hand ov Chance / Blinded Eye in Thee Pyramid
160. Psychic TV: Mouth of the Night
161. Psychic TV: NY Scum
162. Punch Inc.: Fightclub
163. The Raveonettes: Lust Lust Lust
164. Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians
165. Steve Reich: Tehellim & The Desert Music
166. Steve Reich: Triple Quartet
167. Steve Reich: You Are (Variations) / Cello Counterpoint
168. Robert Rental: On Location / Double Heart
169. The Residents: (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
170. The Residents: Commercial Single
171. Graeme Revell: The Insect Musicians
172. The Revolving Paint Dream: Flowers in the Sky: The Enigma of the Revolving Paint Dream
173. Boyd Rice and Friends: Music, Martinis & Misanthropy
174. Salon Music: La Paloma Show
175. Sandoz: In Dub: Chapter Two / Extra Time (Under the Stones)
176. Shock Headed Peters: I, Bloodbrother Be
177. Shock Headed Peters: The Kissing of Gods
178. Sielwolf: IV
179. Sielwolf: Nachtstrom
180. Sielwolf: V - Remixes
181. Sigillum S: 23|20
182. Sigillum S: Bardo Thos-Grol
183. Sigillum S: Studs and Divinity
184. Sixth Comm: Grey Years
185. Smegma: 33 1/3
186. SPK: Slogun / Meccano
187. SPK: Live At Garibaldi’s, 1979
188. SPK: Information Overload Unit
189. SPK: Auto Da Fe
190. SPK: Leichenschrei
191. SPK: Angst Pop: Live
192. SPK: From Science to Ritual
193. SPK: Human Post Mortem (Despair OST)
194. SPK: Live at Pandora’s Music Box
195. SPK: Live at the Crypt
196. SPK: No More
197. SPK: Off the Deep End
198. SPK: See-Saw / Chamber Musik
199. SPK: The Last Attempt at Paradise: Live in Lawrence, Kansas
200. SPK: Wars of Islam: Live in Rome
201. SPK: Machine Age Voodoo
202. SPK: Metal Dance / Will to Power
203. SPK: In Flagrante Delicto
204. SPK: Zamia Lehmanni
205. SPK: Gold & Poison
206. SPK: Compilation Tracks (2nd version)
207. Snakefinger: Manual of Errors
208. Snakefinger: Chewing Hides the Sound
209. Snakefinger: Greener Posters
210. Sol Invictus: Lex Talionis
211. Somatic Responses: Digital Darkness
212. Spektr: Mescalyne
213. Sun Ra: HelioCentric Worlds, Volumes 1 & 2
214. Sweet Exorcist: Spirit Guide to Low Tech
215. Symphonique Elegance: Act One
216. Syrup Girls vs Sick Girls: Shotgun Wedding, Volume 8
217. Teenage Jesus & The Jerks: Orphans / Less of Me
218. Thick Pigeon: Thick Pigeon
219. Throbbing Gristle: AR-TT-010
220. Throbbing Gristle: United
221. Throbbing Gristle: DOA: The Third and Final Report
222. Throbbing Gristle: Adrenaline
223. Throbbing Gristle: 20 Jazz Funk Greats
224. Throbbing Gristle: Nothing Short of a Total War
225. Throbbing Gristle: Rafters
226. Throbbing Gristle: CD1
227. Tools You Can Trust: Again Again Again
228. Tools You Can Trust: Say It Low
229. Tools You Can Trust: Sharpen the Tools
230. Trop Tard: Ils etaient 9 dans L’obscurite
231. Tuxedomoon: Dark Companion / 59 To 1 Remix
232. Tuxedomoon: Desire / No Tears
233. Tuxedomoon: What Use? / Crash
234. Tuxedomoon: Joe Boy The Electric Ghost / Pinheads on the Move
235. Tuxedomoon: Une Nuit au Fond de la Frayére / Egypt
236. Tuxedomoon: Scream with a View
237. Tuxedomoon: Half-Mute / Scream With a View
238. Tuxedomoon: Ship of Fools
239. Tuxedomoon: The Ghost Sonata
240. Týr: Ragnarok
241. Ultravox: Slow Motion
242. Vas Deferens Organization: Zyzzybaloubah
243. Verhören: Death is Safe
244. Vidna Obmana: Noise / Drone Anthology 1984-1989
245. Virgin Prunes: Heresie
246. Von Zamla: No Make Up!
247. Vox Populi! / HNAS: Face to Face, Volume 2
248. Amy Winehouse: Back to Black
249. Xasthur: A Gate Through Bloodstained Mirrors
250. Damien Youth: Festival of Death
251. Damien Youth: Fluttering Briar
252. Damien Youth: The Man Who Invented God
253. Z’ev: Elemental Music
254. Z’ev: Salts of Heavy Metals
255. Stefan Weisser: Poextensions
256. Zahgurim: Moral Rearmament
257. Zero Kama: The Secret Eye of L.A.Y.L.A.H.
258. Zos Kia Meets Sugardog: That’s Heavy Baby
259. v/a: 2005 Hands
260. v/a: 4 in 1
261. v/a: Ach Hanover
262. v/a: Angst in My Pants
263. Alban Berg / Anton Webern / Arnold Schoenberg / James Levine / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra: Orchestral Pieces
264. v/a: Can You Hear Me? Music from The Deaf Club
265. v/a: Colorado
266. v/a: Dada > Antidada > Merz
267. v/a: Devastate to Liberate
268. v/a: Dokument: Ten Highlights in the History Of Popular Music, 1982-1983
269. v/a: Earthly Delights
270. v/a: The Elephant Table Album
271. v/a: Er Ist Tief Und Dein Wasser Ist Dunkel
272. v/a: Feature Mist
273. v/a: Fluxus Anthology
274. v/a: Für Ilse Koch
275. v/a: A Gnomean Haigonaimean: A Compilation of Fantasies Intoxication Concepts
276. v/a: Gut Level One
277. v/a: Hare / Hunter / Field
278. v/a: Harmony of the Spheres
279. v/a: Hate’s Our Belief
280. v/a: Iberico
281. v/a: Internationalism
282. v/a: The Last Supper
283. v/a: Machines
284. v/a: Masse Mensch
285. v/a: Palatine: The Factory Story
286. v/a: Passage du Trou Marin
287. v/a: Perpetual State of Oracular Dream
288. v/a: Riposte
289. v/a: A Selection
290. v/a: Short Circuit: Live at the Electric Circus
291. v/a: The Virus Has Been Spread: A D-Trash Records Tribute To Atari Teenage Riot

“Let’s Free Your Head From Your Ass And Worry About Tibet Later” is a near-perfect name for a song, especially when the band playing it sounds suspiciously like early Nirvana.

Dark White didn’t make much of a mark; they (or he, as only one guy is pictured on the sleeve) made 500 copies of an EP in 1985 and disappeared. There’s nothing that original about The Grey Area, either. If you’ve heard WaxTrax!-era Ministry or Visage or a;GRUMH you’ve heard the various pieces of their sound. Sometimes the vocals are out of tune, or not delivered with much confidence. The recording is clean but unremarkable. The songs have the bouncing-octave minor-key synth lines you’ve heard in a million industrial / electro / electroclash / New Wave songs.

Of course, I like old dance-industrial a lot (as long as it’s not the turgid, tuneless churning of Antler-Subway bands like Noise Unit), and the way Dark White put everything together is actually charming. “Charming” may seem like an odd word to describe death-obsessed darkwave, but the band that made these tracks was young, and as such all the moodiness comes across as direct and earnest, and the whole package is so utterly and obviously a product of its time and place. The total Americanness of it all appeals to me. Over at Mutant Sounds, the commenters compare some of the sounds on the record to Big Black, and I don’t really hear that, but I do agree that the vocal delivery is pretty damn Midwestern.

Apparently this record trades for hundreds of dollars on eBay, so grab it from Mutant Sounds while you can.

It doesn’t matter how many times I hear it, every time I hear “Polygon Window”, it gives me chills. Richard James made some genius music before he turned into techno’s very own Rumpelstiltskin.

One of the many pleasures of the digital download revolution is that it means that people who like raw, tracky electronic music can get high-quality techno in a portable form without having to jump through hoops to get it. I haven’t ripped my vinyl yet, and may never get around to it, because doing it right is a lot of work. And a huge chunk of that stuff was originally available solely on 12” and 10” records which never made it to the west coast of the US. But who cares, when I can hit Beatport or Bleep and download acres of high-quality MP3s at more or less reasonable prices?

Especially when it’s stuff like Surgeon’s, or a release like East Light? East Light came out in the middle of Surgeon’s most fertile period of the end of the 90s, when he was running two labels (Dynamic Tension and Counterbalance) and putting out material on two others (Soma and the legendary Tresor). Upon first listen, it is a clinically dry collection of tracky dancefloor techno, unrelenting and very mechanically composed. All four tracks are pure percussion workouts, and this is precisely where their most appealing qualities lie: while they sound unremittingly electronic, almost all these tracks are made from carefully chosen samples of real percussion instruments, orchestrated into a smoothly ticking orrery.

Because these tracks were, after all, intended to be worked into a dancefloor set by a DJ, they don’t have the sophisticated progression and complexity of Surgeon’s dense, sui generis Force+Form, or the easy appeal of records by Model 500 or Underground Resistance, but first listens can be deceptive. I’ve had East Light kicking around my iPod for years, and it continues to grow more interesting and immersive each time I hear it.

So there was once this pseudo-band called The Dukes of Stratosphear, which is actually XTC wearing floppy shirts and playing British psychedelia that is the definition of “pastiche”. Which is to say that while I love their music for historical reasons, my enthusiasm for it is sapped after spending some serious time with Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, to which it is beyond indebted. The Dukes are one step above being a cover band, and while their ear for that style is uncanny, the resulting songs aren’t very strong. That said, I will yield to no one when it comes to “What in the World”, which is by far the finest song on the album. None of it’s bad, I just thought it was niftier before I knew what a clone job it is.