Review Summary: Less 'electronic body music' than a 'sterile and hypnotic dilemma'
'To Have The Second Crack' was, contrary to what the title suggests, the first album of the Hamburg electro combo Abortive Gasp. The rump music of the very experimental songs was written by Harry Luehr, the tracks were mixed over a year later in 1989 at the 'Deutsches Elektronen Synchroton' (DESY) in Hamburg-Bahrenfeld with lyrics by singer Tim Paal. For this and the next two albums, the physicists at DESY provided the band with a large lecture hall for rehearsals and recording, which was rarely used by the scientists during the day. Paal and Luehr have always denied that the smallest physical particles, some of which were accelerated almost to the speed of light in endless tubes just a few meters below the band, would have had a mental or at least electromagnetic influence on the musicians and the sound above them - but who could rule that out with absolute certainty? Especially since Abortive Gasp's recordings always had a very strong live character due to their dub and improv concept, and thus the immediate environment had a greater influence on the recordings than, for example, on musical material that would have been extensively reworked in various recording studios after the recording.
With a few exceptions, the songs have a rather calm character due to numerous pre-ambient elements and frequently used reverb effects. That's probably why on the matching Motordummy cover penned by Paal you can find the ironic to slightly helpless hint that "To Have The Second Crack" is not "Electronic Body Music" (EBM), but simply a "sterile and hypnotic dilemma".
Atmospherically, many of the rather simply structured songs on 'Second Crack' are reminiscent of the early recordings of Cabaret Voltaire, Portion Control or Skinny Puppy, without reaching their genius, but partly their originality and stylistic open-mindedness. With 'Bye Bye, Honey' and 'Church Is Empty' two tracks stand out, which deliver a successful mixture of early EBM/Industrial and experimental electronic music with a pleasantly steady hand on the synths and samplers. And also the very first Abortive Gasp song 'Experimental Surviving' can convince with its cyborg style in Nitzer Ebb/DAF garb and lure to the dance floor.
