Search - Lydia Lunch :: Stinkfist

Three underground giants=excellent collaborative project

10/03/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A short collaborative between punk rock diva Lydia Lunch,industrial pioneer Clint Ruin (aka Jim "Foetus" Thirwell), and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, Stinkfist is a must-have for any fan of industrial music. Brilliantly mixed and sampled, the album consists mostly of distorted tribal percussion from a number of odd sources, blended with Ms. Lunch's moans, spoken word, and chanting. Something of an apocalyptic "STOMP", I suppose. To be experienced at a high volume on good speakers."

A Good Lullaby if it Weren't So Funny

03/29/2000

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Fans of Foetus, Thurston, and Lydia should be careful with this one. If you're unaquainted with this trio you might find this hodgepodge of bumps, screeches, and half-hearted apocalypse-prosody interesting. But if you love the best work of these artists you'll be alternately snoozing (at the music) and laughing (at Lydia's third-rate Goth-raps).There's nothing especially annoying about this disk (maybe there should have been), it just sounds like all three musicians' usual tricks watered down to a bland consistency. And I'm not sure if the word "industrial" means anything any more; it's thrown around so often that it's becoming an umbrella term for anything with no tune, energy, traditional instruments, or content besides poseur morbidity. Get Foetus's "Thaw," Sonic Youth's "Sister," and Lydia's "Hysterie", and if you're still curious, pick this one up for archival purposes. Just don't expect it to do much for you."

BRUTAL, GROSS AND POWERFUL

Pieter | Johannesburg | 05/22/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Lydia Lunch is a confrontational artist on the utmost far-away fringes of rock. The title track of this 1983 collaboration with Clint Ruin opens with nervous percussion, metallic sounds and strangled voice samples, occasionally falling into a chant of the title. In this inimitable way it meanders on to eventually conclude with a whimper, but not before some spooky synthesizer burps have their say, or shall I say their boing boing boing.



The Meltdown Oratorio track of this gross collaboration opens with a world-weary sigh, then Lydia starts mumbling over a threatening repetitive foghorn sound, something about them having outlawed everything that spells pleasure (they didn't even want you to think about it!). Other claustrophobic sounds join the mix as Lydia's sobbing monologue gets ever more agitated, including the mention of slag heaps, flytraps, a mental institution for 1960s movie stars and steel walls that come crashing down. This must be part one of the Oratorio: The Reckoning.



It bursts from neurosis to psychosis into a cacophony of frenzied drumming and industrial noises with Lydia shrieking and yelling obscenities far in the background while glass shatters all around and sirens wail over the feedback and distortion. It ends with the phrase: `I'm terminally (censored) up.' Verily, Lydia speaks the truth!



In part two: The Crack, the frenzied drumming reaches demented heights in an infernal blend of warbling, squeaking, thundering, clanking noise & gale force winds as Ms Lunch repeatedly affirms the aforementioned truth. Finally in what must be part three: The Meltdown, the tempo winds down, Lydia's whimpers & gasps start dominating the mix, symphonic synths & whirring helicopter noises enter, and this extraordinary Oratorio peters out in the last phase of entropic decay.



Son Of Stink is more of the same but with more shouting and chanting, like a dub version of the title track. I'm sure that fans of Diamanda Galas, The Pop Group and diverse industrial noise merchants like Merzbow & Nitzer Ebb & their ilk will love this. As for me, I don't play it very often. It scares my pets. A more sedate albeit more chilling Lydia may be heard on Queen of Siam. (If you must).

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