- Gary Suarez
- Albums and Singles
LTM
In the summer of 1989 after an extensive tour for that album, perhaps with a desire to escape from chart success and return to his Joy Division roots, Hook got into the studio with musicians Chris Jones and David Hicks to begin writing the first lackluster material for the band. In January 1990, Revenge played their first live show with an expanded lineup featuring Ash and David Potts, the latter of whom became Hook's co-collaborator in the redeeming and poppier Monaco project. The five-piece band toured throughout the world in support of their One True Passion album on Factory, and the recordings on this entirely unnecessary release are culled from two different performances from the tour in Manchester and Kawasaki, Japan respectively.
The key issue I take with Revenge is that their original songs were never all that good to begin with, so logically a full disc of concert recordings cannot do much to change that. Having listened to the studio releases all the way through Revenge's final 'Gun World Porn' EP, the live versions are, on the whole, generally rockier versions of the album mixes. In Manchester, after a short "Intro Jam," the band goes into "Jesus... I Love You," a track full of guitar fuzz, irksomely placed handclaps and cowbells, and, of course, Hook's signature bass. Yet despite his brilliant playing throughout, the material leaves much to be desired and his bandmates do little to help in the process. "Cloud 9" cranks up the guitar considerably and basks in self-indulgent rockstar soloing. Hook's vocals, particularly in a live setting, are not his strongest asset, nor are his lyrics, as evident on the ridiculously penned "Deadbeat." Truth be told, if the group had continued in the funky, poppier direction of "State Of Shock" perhaps Revenge might not have been so wholly forgettable. The final cut from this show is their take on "Dreams Never End," and naturally Hook shines here while the band remains unsurprisingly true to the New Order original. The Kawasaki show, recorded several months earlier than the Manchester gig, features two additional covers, the Rolling Stone's "Citadel" and the Velvet Underground's classic "White Light/White Heat." Sadly, the latter comes across as unnatural and rather unlistenable, much like if it were performed by a band normally not heard outside their drummer's garage... and with good reason.
Judging by the performances presented here, Hook was right to disband the group in 1992 and move on to other musical ventures. Unquestionably a mere vanity project, Revenge undeservedly rode on the coattails of New Order's great success and thanks to LTM's recent attention continues to do just that.
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- Chris Roberts
- Albums and Singles
Mute
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/the_residents-animal_lover.jpg)
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- Jonathan Dean
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/sunburned_hand_of_the_man-no_magic_man.jpg)
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- Andrew Culler
- Albums and Singles
23Five
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/gum-vinyl_anthology.jpg)
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
The Leaf Label
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/a_hawk_and_a_hacksaw-darkness_at_noon.jpg)
samples:
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- Andrew Culler
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/giuseppe_ielasi-gesine.jpg)
samples:
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- Jonathan Dean
- Albums and Singles
Infraction
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/beequeen-music_for_the_head_ballet.jpg)
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- Joshua David Mann
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/everything_comes_and_goes.jpg)
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- Four Tet - Iron Man
- The Anomoanon - Planet Caravan
- Racebannon - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
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- Jason Olariu
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/arthurcome.jpg)
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- Chris Roberts
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/the_perceptionists-black_dialogue.jpg)
Possibly the most heavily anticipated Boston hip-hop release of the past 10 years (ironically released on New York-based Definitive Jux), Black Dialogue represents what is hopefully the once-and-future identity of hip hop: witty, exuberant, politcal, playful and thoughtful all at once. There is also remarkable balance between the players: not once does either Mr. Lif, Akrobatik or Fakts One unfairly steal the stage or fail to shine when called upon, not even when dueting with Boston legend Guru and the notorious big nosed Humpty Hump (!!). Black Dialogue opens with the brash thumper "Let's Move!!," a bombastic call-to-arms that combines the aforementioned dorkiness with the skillful and cerebral rhyming that have served Lif and Ak so well in the past. The two MCs share the spotlight, rhyming line on line, occasionally spitting back and forth, sometimes dropping verses at a time, keeping Black Dialogue's tempo and energy up at all times. Along with hilarious diss couplets like "This ain't no fraternity step-show/ wait, you'll be traded upstate like Bledsoe," Black Dialogue also has social consciousness worthy of Public Enemy. "Memorial Day" decries the war in Iraq and the spurious weapons of mass destruction while honoring those who serve, and the title track is a relevant and timely statement on the status of visible black America, offering a stinging rebuke to the one-dimensional MTV and BET set: "I walk the path my elders laid out/cause acting like a monkey for white folks is played out." Black Dialogue isn't perfect. The attempted ballad "Love Letters" falls flat on its face from the goofy opening lyric "You don't even know I exist/But I want you to/ That's why I'm writing you this love letter," and there's a few too many tracks dedicated to hip hop for hip hop's sake that sound vapid in the face of the heavier fare. But while "Blo" and "People 4 Prez" could be seen as breezy overindulgences, the guest spots provided by Guru on "Party Hard" and Humpty Hump on "Career Finders" simply tear the roof off, more than making up for any shortcoming and sealing the deal on Black Dialogue, a rare combination of relevance and enjoyment -
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/hrvatski-irrevocably_overdriven.jpg)
Entschuldigen
This insanely hecticmix of various breaks, noises, jumbles, and explosions unapologeticallymoves at the speed of light. Averaging roughly 26 seconds per track andrecorded live in 2004, Keith Whitman is assembling, abusing, andthrowing away themes, ideas, melodies, rhythms, and effects so fastthat it is sometimes hard to keep up with what's happening. Thankfully,the Irrevocably Overdriven Break Freakout Megamixalbum develops over a series of tracks, letting some melodies andflurries of intergalactic noise doom sink in before they are slappedaround and left for dead in the wake of Whitman's playful attitudetowards his own brand of electronic grooviness. Up until track 18 orso, Whitman stays pretty loose, not letting many rhythms repeatthemselves whatsoever, but playing around with unified sets of samples.After track 18, Whitman seems to have indexed many of the songs bywhich rhythm he was choosing to use underneath an already establishedarrangement based on instrument timbre and mood. In fact, tracks 18through 58 run around a brass-like horn born of the pits of hell, butby track 59 Whitman has ditched that theme altogether and arrived atsome odd crossing of video-game music and tin percussion static. Out ofnowhere track 61 opens up a keyboard melody that dots across a hazy andsmoky series of buzzed out samples and iron crashes. At every turnWhitman is moving into new territory. Sometimes his breaks soundfamiliar, like something that might get a few people dancing, butbefore any four-on-the-floor action can get going, Whitman tears themusic to shreds with the sound of wrecked civilizations and damagedelectronics. Irrevocably Overdriven is a limited run disc(though the site doesn't say just how limited) and is likely to besnatched up quickly and for good reason; music this much fun is rareand the quality of Whitman's live work on this disc is just as good asanything he does at home or in his studio.
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