Alan Vega, IT, A Review (2017)
Alan Vega, IT, A Review (2017)
By: Ghost Writer
Rock N Roll Animal
Does Alan Vega knew he was going to die, probably I
guess, pretty much like CHUCK, by Chuck Berry, IT comes like a posthumous album
(Vega died in July last year) by a legendary underground NYC star that perhaps
was aware that his end was near, Vega might be dead by now, but he went away
fighting, IT is a powerful recording, close to the noise artists he he
genuinely influenced with his band Suicide, instead of the synth pop acts that
tend to drop his name as a way to get some critical respect, opener DTM could
be seen as a hardcore version of the rocking Suicide classic Ghost Rider, as
Vega create a primitive aural attack with a basic strident percussion and
blaring loop sound attack, but Vega is not shy about his legendary strengths
and his voice of course takes a stellar role here, DTM, "death to
me", I'm sure he knows and he wanted to go with a bang, Dukes God Bar is
less brutal, but the gut crunching surroundings are nevertheless disconcerting,
ruthless and minimal, but despite the enormous cacophony of cosmic proportions
here, Vega knew how to keep things rolling with a good industrial strength
blues like on Vision, a tune so distorted and abrasive that immediately recalls
Pan Sonic, the Finnish abrasive electronic duo that featured the also recently
deceased noise genius Mika Vainio, with whom Vega once performed with in a
project.
You can bet IT is an ugly record, ugly in a noise
music way, is obscene, you will probably be in shock with Vega's scream at the
begging of...yes...Screamin' Jesus, but the overall aural attack is also the
stuff of a genius, a wonderful wall of sound that slowly drill holes in the
brain, all this while Vega's voice slowly swells and become almost hypnotic, if
you thought that Suicide or Vega were fancy synth pop pioneers better think
about IT twice, this is not only music to get your head fucked up, it can also
make you dance like one of those George A. Romero (also recently deceased)
living dead, but fun is just waiting around the corner on the almost
industrially dynamic Motorcycle Explodes that sounds almost like one of those
weirdo blues by the great Captain Beefheart but in a distant future, in a way
is like Captain´s wonderful disjointed blues, once again confirming the
primordial influence of Beefheart on modern Avant Garde music, and it also
could be seen as the continuation of a musical tradition coming from Beefheart,
through Mark E. Smith´s The Fall and embraced here by Vega, although surely
Vega was a big influence on Smith first).
Prayer is not exactly the most prominent piece here,
it’s another type of music, less confrontational, almost hypnotic, trance
inducing, building a slow piece of exquisite static, almost immovable, also
tangentially touching the mighty CAN, a true exercise of stamina and only for
true lovers of Suicide or Vega´s brand of sound mayhem, even relaxing itself in
the end and leaning towards a bit of fun, the fact that Prophecy follows the
same formula is not exactly a good sign and it shows a little bit of exhaustion
creatively speaking, or perhaps Vega becoming as obnoxious as Lou Reed on its
most experimental phase, Vega challenging the listener sonic assaulting them as
part of his impressive performance act as a street thug, and then finally going
into really surreal territory with the nearly abstract Stars, a lovable sonic
fuck you in order to prevent form letting down hardcore fans, an aural goodbye
from a truly legendary character, the end of a musical legend, but one that is
going away with a very high note, with a powerful and iconoclast creation, a
musical testament that demands to be heard in order to be believed, the spirit
of the Mighty Suicide present all over IT, and yes, this is IT.
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