Monday 29 May 2023

Atrax Morgue – "In Search Of Death" (Slaughter Productions – SPT01) 1993


Another Ed Gein reference, another photo of a botched suicide victim on the slab, the word vaginal,...it's all adding up to another interchangeable Industrial/Power Electronics cassette.Especially popular in Italy.
Italians like Prog Rock and Industrial culture...rather too much it seems....like me; but I can see the tiresome sameness of 110% of the participants in this genre. Anyone can make a tape like this everyday if they were so inclined,whereas its not so easy to be a punk band.You may require 2 or three chords to write a Punk Rock song,which qualifies as an actual bone-fide song rather than a throbbing noise passing itself off as a tribute to some obscure mass murderer in Siberia(no talent required);but for the Industrial Genre as a whole you only need zero chords to be included. This is Prog Rock for the kids who felt excluded at a Yes Concert,and a far more inclusive experience than Punk Rock pretended to be......"You are Us,but stay down there" (Jimmy Pursey,"Tell us the truth" LP live side 1978)
So it gets to the point where everyone is on the stage and no-one is in the mosh pit. Ultimately making music irrelevant ,we can all do this at home,never bother going out. Do It Yourself,or DIY,....a position heavily promoted by this blog.The trouble with that noble philosophy is that if everyone did it themselves we'd end up with something like 'Bandcamp', a seething morass,mess, of  every genre of the past 70 years turned into a haystack with no needles in.......and there's no way out.DON'T DO IT YOURSELF
If i heard this in 1980 i would have enjoyed it as much as watching The Damned live in 1977.
Don't misunderstand me, this is a great tape,but,what's the point?...and the Damned are still touring.
I Envy those unattainable days, when Pop Stars were the closest we were ever gonna get to having a God......sorry ladies, there were no goddesses back then,although I don't think we are allowed to use the word in these trans-gendered days.....we are ALL Gods.Rather like the problem with relevance modern musicians find themselves nudged off the track by.In a world of Gods,and heaven and Hell are also full of Gods, the one who rejects his God status becomes the God for the Gods,for where there is a need to invent him,he ceases to exist.
...Hmmmm I think i've wrote something like this before?....with a link to the Monty Python Sketch of "Bicycle Repairman";which sums up this quandary very nicely indeed.
Also i may be running out of vaguely unoriginal things to say.....like a literary Bandcamp.
Basically,the best Rock Star on your street, where everyone and his cat has a album out,is the one who has no interest in being a Star in the slightest.....and doesn't even bother making an old school Industrial tape like this one.
What a Guy!? 

Tracklist:

Scum A
A1 Intro (The Next Door) 2:27
A2 Lonely 5:31
A3 RapeTime 3:42
A4 In Search Of Death 5:01
A5 Vaginal Speculum 3:58
Scum B
B1 Gein Blessed 4:42
B2 Death Come 4:43
B3 Necrolessia 5:51
B4 MurderBeat 5:19

8 comments:

Stephen said...

I appreciate all that you do here brother. You are making a difference.

Anonymous said...

Thought it many times before, but this blog is the best thing on the internet by some distance.

SG

Jonny Zchivago said...

SG.....I also have thought this many times too. That's why the British secret service invented the internet.

Industrialnorth said...

Completely unrelated to your post above (or is it?) but enjoy the Championship.....alongside my team, Leeds United. First one to League 1 wins a Jim'll Fix It badge

Jonny Zchivago said...

Hi Industrial North.....not just saying this to relieve football depression,but the footballs better in the Championship,no poncey over-paid boy-band members from Ecuador rollling around on the floor! Great away days to Luton.....er.....they got promoted didn't they?! The M69 derby is back on for the first time in twenty years....my brother actually walked to Coventry from Leicester back in the day, because he was skint!?.....none of these booing fair weather fans who appeared when the 'success' happened would be seen dead doing something as inherently stupid as that!
Glad Leeds are there with us,but leicester are nearly bankrupt, and all the players will be running out the door....they aren't relegated, the bastards...fuck off to yer plastic footy land. Hope Leeds have got a youth squad,they'll need it. I think we'll both struggle......Everton to be relegated next year.....pleeeeze......a Jim'll Fuck You badge for them.

Industrialnorth said...

Yeah I truly wish Everton had gone down instead of Leicester, purely because of the Lampard factor (even if they did sack him). The Champo will be a real bunfight this year; my money is on Southampton to walk it. Looking forward to the endless derbies with Rotherham, Huddersfield and Sheffield Wednesday. Fuck the Prem.

Sinistro said...

On one hand I do understand where your critique is coming from - God only knows how much I hate the all-original-unoriginal masses in which everyone wants to be a musician and a star - but I have to say that Marco (Atrax Morgue) REALLY was the Anti-Star. The man created music that truly gives the listener a sense of wickedness and darkness, which is not just decorative but all around sincere. He actually cared about his own work and the work of others and was a legend of the DIY underground extreme electronic scene in Italy. In a way, the music of Atrax Morgue, despite sounding "easy", was his whole life and reflected his own personality. As an artist, he was sincere. He truly was the God Of Noise. I respect the hell out of musicians that actually kill themselves. To me at least it immediately gives a more profound meaning to their music.

Jonny Zchivago said...

Even killing yourself is becoming a boring cliché;only rarely now do we see these fame after death types emblazoned on T-shirts......also if you do kill yourself..or other people, in the case of Mayhem.....maybe one could be accused of taking things a tad too seriously? We definitely need to reset it all and make it a bit more difficult to be a musician.