Once upon a time, all I needed in order to deem an album worthy of purchase was to know that Al Jourgensen had a hand in its creation. That was my only reason for purchasing Ministry's Twitch sight-unseen in March 1986 and a large part of the reason why I stuck with it even though it initially challenged my musical sensibilities so much so that, on first listen, I honestly believed my vinyl copy was defective.
By the third or fourth listen, though, my ears finally adjusted and I began to see the album for the completely singular visionary sound achievement that it was. Of course, I eventually came to realize that much of the album's genius was due to the involvement of producer Adrian Sherwood.
Jourgensen, like many musical greats before him, went to England not just to work with Sherwood, but to learn as many of the master's tricks as he possibly could. While Sherwood seems to have taken offense to Jourgensen's approach, such liberal "borrowing" is as much a part of the foundation of music as the music itself.
Thus, by the time Jourgensen hooked up with Front 242's Richard 23 and Luc Vam Acker in a Brussels recording studio in late '85, the information Jourgensen had gleaned from Sherwood was still fresh in his head, giving the first Revolting Cocks album a similar atomic punch to that heard on many a Sherwood production.
Of course, the fact that Jourgensen only retained bits and pieces of those special herbs and spices that Sherwood employed to get his trademark sound forced him to rely upon his own instincts to fill in the blanks and, in doing so, succeeded in created his own identity.
Big Sexy Land, while vaguely similar to Twitch, is different enough that those looking for more of the Twitch aesthetic were better served seeking out Keith LeBlanc's Major Malfunction, which was co-produced by Sherwood and goes so far as to utilize a number of the same samples found on Twitch.
What makes Big Sexy Land its own ferocious sonic beast is a combination of brutal social commentary and a complete disregard for anything that had come before it.
The album's main impetus seems to be Jourgensen's outrage over two chemical disasters directly linked to Union Carbide; one was an industrial accident that, by official accounts, killed over 3,000 people in Bhopal, India, and the other was a "toxic cloud" released into the air in Charleston, West Virginia, inspiring the two versions of "Union Carbide" that provide the thematic foundation upon which the rest of the album is built.
Meanwhile, "38" directs its ire at those responsible for a soccer riot in Belgium that left 38 people dead while "Attack Ships On Fire" borrows its title from a line of dialogue from the movie "Blade Runner" and then proceeds to construct its own universe of depravity and desperation from a funk bass line and a wall of throbbing electro percussion.
What makes the whole album so jaw-dropping is not only its unrelenting fury and diabolical percussive throb, but the fact that we listeners have a front row seat as Jourgensen, Richard 23, and Luc Van Acker bring a new genre to life before our very ears.
While Jourgensen has since wandered off the reservation in favor of a career spewing indecipherable speed metal rants, Richard 23 and Luc Van Acker are teaming with former Ministry co-horts Paul Barker and Chris Connelly to keep the industrial dream alive by recreating Big Sexy Land in its entirety tomorrow night at Metro.
Amazingly, incredulously even, tickets are still available. Get yours HERE.
Details:
Revolting Cocks with Front Line Assembly
Metro
3730 N. Clark St. Chicago
Doors 8PM, Showtime 9PM
Ticvkets $29
Tags:
you often forget