Data Animal – Bad M.F.
Genre: Indie Rock, Garage Rock, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: Kraftwerk, Suicide, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
At the end of the day, getting an audience to clap wildly for your band, or hang on your every word is much like starting a cult or becoming a charlatan, a game of intimidation. Sure thing, some truth has to be sprinkled onto the story once in a while. But, as Charles Manson uncharacteristically eloquently put it, the best way to trick somebody is by telling them the truth.
Wearing shades at night, dressing in black, and, altogether, looking like a bunch of coffee house attendees hopped up on uppers and on their way to start a revolution in South America, has been proven to be an effective way to intimidate audiences and get them on your side.
Data Animal know what they’re doing. They might be reading from the hymnbook of leather-clad minstrels the Velvet Underground and Suicide, but Bad M.F. shows they’ve not only mastered those dark arts but that they’re well equipped to put their own spin on them. Data Animal is what happens before the band truly starts mastering just how much speed they need to take before starting recording.
Rise NYC – Rock ‘n’ Roll Manifesto (Remix by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge)
Genre: Indie Rock, Dub, Witch House
Similar artists: Genesis P-Orridge, Psychic TV, Nick Cave, Amorphous Androgynous, The Clash, King Tubby
If you followed the works of Genesis P-Orridge chances are that you’re confused. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, according to the author, at least if the confusion is not long-lasting.
Among other fascinating things, Genesis P-Orridge sought to carry on the work of Brion Gysin and of William S. Burroughs, two artists who believed in tearing up and reassembling the language that the world had made them learn. The cut-up technique and the dream machine are two of the tools they used to liberate themselves from the shackles of what they perceived to be a limiting and enslaving form of expression.
It only makes sense that Rise NYC’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Manifesto would also feel like a cut-up. It’s a song that’s enjoyable on a superficial level, yet one interpretable in many ways, just like the art created by Psychic TV, one of P-Orridge’s several highly influential groups.
The song is a remix by P-Orridge, and, according to the liner notes one of the last projects with which the artist was involved. The duo also benefits from the production talents of Grinderman’s Jim Sclavunos, making this one of the best-endorsed groups in a very long while.
