A Sexy Mouth to Taste It

Brainiac - Electro-Shock for President

Touch & Go, 1997

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This really isn't a great collection of music, but it's a really interesting CD. It's like one really good but poorly recorded song, the introduction to one really good song, and some interesting electronic gibberish that would work better as filler between good songs on an album.

I'm not finding a lot to say about Electro-Shock. So here's a brief history: This was a promo for a new Brainiac album which was still in recording when Tim Taylor died in a "one-car accident, driving home from the studio." (that's as per AllMusic.com) So this disc is one of those interesting missing links between periods for an artists, only the next period never came.

Electro-Shock is noisy and dark. In the last track the production is so loose it's almost terrible, but it's good like that. It seems natural as what it is. The production on the first track sparkles and rumbles. The other songs mix around recorded nonsense, computer singing, and lots of looped beats that cut each other up and audibly fold and distort and conflict.

It's music to go crazy to. With a grin, and dancing like a twiggy freak in the rain holding a flare in your teeth or making out with a sweaty girl who's holding a knife. Or maybe it sounds like a headache.

As a side note: anybody who really got into Saddle Creek bands Bright Eyes, Cursive, and the Faint should really heart this at least once, just for a little perspective.