Suicide, along with so few other musicians or recording artists,
\nhad the ability to musically recreate intense human emotions;
\nsuffocation, sexual desire, alienation, desparation; and they
\nmanaged to accomplish such visions using some cheap electronic gear
\nand a demented frontman – Alan Vega.<\/p>\n
Vega was one truly schismatic member of human society: Some
\nrandom quotes:<\/p>\n
“It’s not worth living unless you can move on”<\/p>\n
“When I feel satisfied I get worried”.<\/p>\n
Like Dostoevsky’s Raskolnikov, Vega was beyond the realm of
\nsociety; Vega felt what was really there, and was prepared to spill
\nblood toward his cause. The reader of genteel disposition should be
\nwarned here, that we’re not discussing someone in the Carly Simon
\nstable. No, Vega was a thoroughbred, an intense, dynamo of a
\nperformer. Vegagod (as some are wont to term him) is a very
\ndifferent apparition – a deviant even by punk rock standards. When
\nthe Clash toured the UK in 78, with Suicide as support – the
\npro-Clash lobby bottled and attacked the band on a nightly basis,
\nwhilst Vega – an electric wire, charged with amphetemines and a
\nwarped sense of narcissism assualted himself, with his microphone –
\nbeating himself about the head – slashing himself up – screaming
\n“Ahm on your side maaaaan”.<\/p>\n
Suicide’s ’77 debut offering is a masterpiece, and pioneering
\nlo-fi. It features some tremendous reverb and echo effects (dub
\nfans take note, there’s some ear shattering delay) and the songs
\nare generally built around two-chords only serving to increase the
\nintensity. Martin Rev (credited with ‘Instrument’ on the back
\nsleeve (and wearing the biggest and coolest pair of shades you’ve
\never seen) is the maestro; clearly one of few men alive who can
\norchestrate Vega’s verbal psychosis.<\/p>\n
\nSuicide<\/i> begins as it means to continue; with “Rocket USA” –
\ntwo chord viterol against the hedonism enveloping America in the
\nlate 1970’s;<\/p>\n
It’s nineteen hundred and seventy seven\/<\/p>\n
the whole country is doin fix\/<\/p>\n
its doomsday, doomsday.<\/p>\n
In these words the hypocracy, degeneracy, desparation and
\ninevitable burnout is conveyed to the listener within two minutes
\nof the needle touching the vinyl – a world of “TV stars ridin
\naround in killers cars”. Genteel listener beware, it goes
\ndeeper.<\/p>\n
“Ghost Rider” (remember the Marvel superhero?) kicks in where
\n“Rocket USA” offers reprieve, taking up a similar theme – “America,
\nAmerica is killin its youth” chants Vega before Rev’s keyboard riff
\nis joined by a jarring guitar refrain hammering the image into the
\npsyche (this, let me remind you is the second track). What’s also a
\nkey feature here is the instrumental minimalism – making the voice
\nof Vega stand out, amplifying every grunt, groan, sigh – in fact
\nyou can imagine Vega’s sneer (you can hear the dissatisfaction), it
\npunctuates passages of music, like percussion (which I’ll get on to
\nlater).<\/p>\n
“Cheree” slows down the pace; but it’s no less intense –
\ndevoloping the group’s overwhelming sound into areas of fetish and
\nextereme sexual desire. It unravels so many addictive, complex and
\nconfusing states of desire into a four minute epic; “Cheree” feels
\nlike cocaine bugs, the caress of long, sharp, bright red
\nfingernails, six inch heels, pale white flesh; pleasure which you
\nknow can be had, but you can’t have it, it’s out of reach – a high
\npiched xylophone sound soon permeates the music, with delicious
\nmelody – disorientating – sort of queasy, while Vega succulently
\ndescribes his “black leather lady”, wanting her to “come play with
\nme” – teasing the listener; the appetite aroused but never
\nfulfilled. “Cheree” is tight and shiny. Not since “Venus In Furs”
\nhas masochism been so accuratley represented as an audio
\nexperience.<\/p>\n
OK so this leaves the centerpiece – “Frankie Teardrop.” It’s a
\nstory. A New York story. A 20 year old man, out of work, no luck,
\ngot a wife and kid, “just tryin to survive”; he’s fighting a losing
\nbattle. Feelings of inadequacy, claustrophobia, uselessness,
\nisolation, despondency layer over Frankie like a veil; a mask he
\ncannot remove, New York is hell; Vega’s skillful lyricism and Rev’s
\nrythmic intensity, set the New York slums ablaze with hellish
\nfeelings of worthlessness and alienation; it all becomes
\noverbearing, too much, there’s no escape, he can’t take anymore,
\nthe volume increses the beat pounds into the mind; when
\nfinally:<\/p>\n
Frankie takes a gun…<\/p>\n
points it at the three month old kid in the
\ncrib…<\/p>\n
points it at his wife…shot her…<\/p>\n
Frankie with a gun to his head…Frankie’s dead<\/p>\n
But there’s no escape in death, Frankie finds himself in hell –
\nno different than before. Then “We’re all Frankies…We’re all lyin
\nin hell” – the introverted, (self) obsessive nature of the song is
\nturned outward, and we are all forced to assess our own situation;
\nin this case New York projects (like a humourless Hubert Selby
\npenetrating Eraserhead). I often worry about the sheer adrenaline
\nfixated addictiveness “Frankie Teardrop” has…<\/p>\n
Oh yeah, the percussion. Well, it’s all heavy beats and loops;
\nrapid fire. However, let’s not confuse with Heavy Industrial Rock \/
\nTechno. This music, albeit of a level of excrutiating intensity, an
\nassualt on the senses has roots – this is music recorded not just
\nfor its own sake, but because its creators have felt like this;
\nthey have experienced outpourings of these emotions. OK so
\nSuicide<\/i> may have provided the groundwork for much of today’s
\nelectronica and techno styles; but many of the current crop of
\navant garde (yeah you know who you are!!!), well they use machines
\nto make music, machines are inhuman, therefore no content – WRONG:
\nSuicide<\/i> represent the opposite; they prove the contrary.<\/p>\n
Before I go, let’s put Suicide into context; into the grand
\nscheme. They were a post-Velvets, pre-no wave band of New York
\nlunatics, who made some of the most creative and imaginative music
\ntape machines have ever had the pleasure to be allowed to
\nrecord.<\/p>\n
Not for lightweights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":24470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5783],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-35674","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-suicide","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35674"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}