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Sudden Infant, "Invocation of the Aural Slave Gods"
Nothing could possibly convince me that these songs were all conceived to be part of one record. Joke Lanz and Annie Stubbs (of Lustmord and SPK) are either comediansor seriously devout industrial fans gone simultaneously slapstick andblood hungry. Blossoming Noise
When the music becomes too dense or intense, SuddenInfant doesn't just lighten the mood up with light tones and opencompositions, they include the sounds of shit falling into a toilet anda track called "Tandoori Chicken Scooter II." The cover of the albumwould force me to align these musicians with the prankster efforts ofV/VM, the song titles do little to convince me that I should thinkotherwise, but the music and various lyrics are outright malignant attimes, predisposed to the sounds of pornography, murder, and intensephysical labor with a jackhammer. Going back and forth, Sudden Infantmanage to build a ridiculous architecture out of gimmicks, jokes, andunforgiving noise burps, never quite deciding on which path they'd liketo take more. Variety might be deliver most albums unto excellence, butthe problem with Invocation of the Aural Slave Gods lies in theabsence of any recognizable or enjoyable thread. Other than the albumopening and closing with Stubbs' raspy and esoteric voice, there'snothing to hold onto over the album's 42 minutes. The covers included,Cabaret Voltaire's "Nag Nag Nag" and Roxy Music's "In Every Dream Homea Heartache," are well performed and can do nothing other than fit wellonto an already disorganized record. The Roxy Music cover is, however,the best piece of music on the whole album, the thumping destruction atthe end is absolutely orgasmic in its delivery and the entire song issensually slimy and dark. When Lanz and Stubbs succeed most, they'reeliminating ambivalence and playing a very specific card: theatmospheric and uneasy composition slowed to a beautiful crawl."Angelic Agony" is a perfectly uneasy rendition of noise gone soft andslow and "Putrefied Puppet Master" is the beat-laden arrival of doommade real and heart stopping. Aside from this, none of the originalmaterial is anything new, but worse than that, it isn't cohesive. Hadall the parts come together well enough, the lack of originality mightbe forgiving. Until then, four tracks from this album will likely makean appearance on some of my mix compilations, the rest of the disc cango die along with the failed invocation that the album promised.
