From: awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Al Crawford)
Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial
Subject: Re: ACID HORSE?
Date: 14 Sep 92 12:16:44 GMT
Reply-To: awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Al Crawford)
Organization: The University Of Edinburgh - Department Of Computer Science

Aaargh, can'o'worms time - do I step into the neverending what is/isn't
industrial argument or not? Oh, what the hell, everyone else has...

In article <1992Sep12.160241.22628@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> carlwu@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Carleton Wu) writes:
>
> Any hear anything by ACID HORSE?  I read in an article that they are a 
> collaboration between  Alien Jourgensen/Paul Barker and Cabaret Voltaire.
> This would seem to be a clash in musical tastes.

One single that I know of - "No Name, No Slogan". Came out last year, I
seem to remember.

> The industrial of Al versus  the funky disco grooves of CV. No, I don't
> consider Cabaret Voltaire as industrial--except maybe The Covenent Sword
> and the Arm...album.  Their older stuff is purely techno/disco.

WHAAAAT? Oh yeah, there's nothing I like more after an evening of
grooving to "Saturday Night Fever" in my white John Travolta Discomatic
Suit with the 36 inch flares than to put on _Red Mecca_ or _The Mix-Up_ and
boogie the night away to "Photophobia"...

Al Jourgensen = industrial while Cabaret Voltaire = "funky disco grooves"?
*deep sigh* While I don't like recent CV much (well, let's be honest, I'd
rather have my fingernails ripped out than listen to _Groovy, Laidback And
Nasty_) saying that the only industrial thing they've ever done is _The
Covenant, The Sword And The Arm Of The Lord_ is an exaggeration on the same
scale as saying that Genghis Khan, ferocious leader of the Mongol Hordes,
slaughterer of his foes, ravisher of women, and all round rape-and-pillage
merchant was Not A Very Nice Man. Time for...

The Three Ages Of Cabaret Voltaire as handed down, carved into Bloody
Enormous Lead Slabs, from generation to generation since the Dawn Of
Creation, or at least since 1974 or so.

The First Age - 1974-1981/2 or thereabouts. Noise. Dissonance. Distortion.
Feedback. Electronics. Processed vocals. Weirdness. _The Mix-Up_, _Voice Of
America_, _Red Mecca_, _Hai!_. Industrial writ large. Listen to "Nag Nag
Nag". Note the distortion and the distinct lack of "Beeeooooow!" syndrums
and choruses of "Night fever, night fever"....

The Second Age - 1982-1987. Watson departs, sound smooths a bit. More
synths, less noise. _The Crackdown_ is a halfway house between these two
stages. Signed to Virgin, less noisy, danceable. Sound gets lighter as time
progresses until _The Covenant, The Sword And The Arm Of The Lord_ which is
the lightest of the lot. _Code_ is a step sideways rather than forwards or
backwards, with Adrian Sherwood's production dominating the sound.

The Third Age - 1989-present. IMHO, The Third Age = senility, but I know
there's a lot of folk who actually like the music they make these days, so
I won't say it. _Groovy, Laidback And Nasty_ was their shot at a house
album and is (IMHO) ghastly beyond words. Later stuff like _Body And Soul_,
_Percussion Force_ and _Colours_ is less blatantly commercial but I don't
like it much anyway. Yes, it's dance music, pure and simple. So's
_Technology_ which attempts to update their Second Age "hits" to their
Third Age sound and ends up performing the musical equivalent of a frontal
lobotomy on it.

--
			Al Crawford - awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk
	  Department Of Computer Science, The University of Edinburgh
   Rm 1410, JCMB, Kings Buildings, Mayfield Rd, EDINBURGH, EH9 3JZ, Scotland
	     Tel: +44 (0) 31 650 5165  Fax: +44 (0) 31 667 7209