FACTORY
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult
“I See Good Spirits And I See Bad Spirits”
Chris & Cosey
“Trust”
This week I have decided to review two albums by bands I have heard plenty about, but never got a chance to actually listen to until now. Neither of these are the bands latest works. They are the two I could get a hold of, thanks to my wonderful artist friend Jean. She loaned them to me.
First up, “I See Good Spirits And I See Bad Spirits” is the debut album by My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult. This trio’s album is a dark delight to listen to. The music is made up of industrial dance beats, buzzing guitars, movie samples, and electronic whining vocals singing Satanic lyrics. It’s sort of King Diamond meets Information Society meets Skinny Puppy meets Anton LaVey meets The Pet Shop Boys. The result is an astonishing, banefully groovy dance funk fest with enough references to satanism, rituals, and cults to make Jesse Helms, Tipper Gore, and the other censoring bastards blue in the face.
Side one begins with devious instrumental “Heresy”, complete with chimes, bongos and whispers. It sounds like it belongs on the soundtrack to Conan the Barbarian or some medieval Harem movie.
The second song is “XCommunication”. I think it refers to being excommunicated from a church or something. It begins with a guitar riff and mentions of satanic rituals. It then winds up in a funky dance beat which is hypnotic in its tempo. It is an excellent song with an interesting theme.
Another fascinating song “Do You Fear For Your Child” follows. It too is a dance scream. The best line is: “You lose your soul and you lose your style.” Now that’s pretty scary.
Next is “Easy Girl” which makes good use of a saxophone sound and a few samples about religious wars. It is a simple beat song, sort of like a Prince nightmare.
Side one ends with “Universal Blackness” which proclaims “My dear, that is NOT an act of love!”. It is an atmospheric song featuring a middle eastern flute and spoken lyrics.
Side one starts with a cute little ditty called “And This Is What The Devil Does”. Actually it is the best and longest song on the album. It has a heavy industrial beat, which bring to mind factory machines pounding away, and features sharp, distorted vocals.
This is followed by “These Remains” which has a slower, more sensual tempo and relatively normal vocals. Great background music for that strangely intimate moment. Try it on your next date, after you show him/her your etchings.
Next, is “On The Rack”, a furiously fast-paced song for slam dancing or speeding along the highway. As the song puts it: “This won’t last forever!” And neither will your life if you speed.
The beginning of the last song, “Gateway To Hell”, has a great sample of a tough female voice saying “You want danger, huh? I’ll show you what danger is, baby!” From that point, a screeching guitar blazes away into the best groove on the album. It is a perfect grand finale to a great album.
Overall, “I See Good Spirits And I See Bad Spirits” is a fine example of the eclectic versatility of industrial music. It is fast and furious in parts and slow and sleek in others, all the while retaining the element of fear and horror which is the staple of industrial music. I am reluctant to buy into their Satanist motif. To me it is all mock-satanism used purely for the shock value it holds. But their music and style are good enough to guarantee that I shall further explore My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult’s newest album “Confessions Of A Knife”. This seems to be the kind of music that devil worshippers listen to on their day off.
Moving away from industrial Satanists, is my next review from one half of the Industrial purists who helped create the genre. Chris Carter & Cosey Fanni Tutti are former members of Throbbing Gristle. Along with Genesis P-Orridge (Psychic TV) and Peter Christopherson (Coil), Throbbing Gristle were the band that actually invented the term “Industrial music”. While Genesis and Christopherson continued to explore dissonant sounds after the split, Chris & Cosey found a melodious home in sleek and pretty electronic beats.
“Trust” by Chris & Cosey suffers from the same syndrome as “Happy?” by PiL and others. Namely, it is an album with one great side and one boring side. Side One of “Trust” has a few great dance songs dripping with pure sexuality. Cosey’s soft vocals serve as a sensual counterpoint to Chris’ disciplined electronic music. The two best songs are “Deep Velvet” and “Rise”. These two tracks are amazing and should satisfy anyone’s need for a superior and innovative dance sound.
Unfortunately, the second half of “Trust” bored me to sleep. It started off promising, but soon devolved into a wall of cold and impersonal electronic instrumental noise. Every song began to sound alike, and my interest soon faded. Chris & Cosey should take a note from My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and add more variety and vocals to their work. It was all one note to my immature ears.
Due to their musical pedigree, I will keep an open mind and listen to their other works like “Take Five” and “Exotica” before I write them off with a permanent judgment.
A reminder: Don’t forget to see Skinny Puppy live tomorrow, November 16th at The Ritz in NYC at 10:00pm.
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