Review Summary: Not your everyday stadium rock listen. Cause' We are going to Beachy Head with some weirdos. And they don't want to convince people! This is an industrial music classic and one of strongest material [L]Throbbing Gristle[/L] has released.
The album has three kind of songs: creepy ambient ones, weird disco/synthpop experiments and the heavy industrial tracks. Starting off with groovy synths and bouncy drum machine beats the weirdness has already started. The title track could even fool you as being some kind of "jazz funk", but something still seems to be wrong here.
Then the beat stops and the cinematic, eerie synths of Beachy Head get closer to you and now you are at an English beach with birds flying over your head. You have suicidal thoughts on your mind. Some people are screaming at you but you don't care about them. Suddenly something comes to your mind as you start running as the noisy rhythm of Still Walking surrounds you with its hypnotic voices and industrial noises. Your world is full of people, rush and modern chaos. The next track is kinda of a sleeper. You don't really notice it until it's over. Weird noises are all around you. The sounds of a nightmare. More relaxing than most tracks on this album but still creepy.
The next one could really be called as a song, because it clearly has melody and lyrics. And oh what kind of lyrics those lyrics are! Probably the closest Throbbing Gristle have been to straightforward social criticism. Kraftwerk influences can be heard here. Next track is the one I mostly use to skip. It just doesn't really fit with the rest. The title for the next track Exotica is name of a 50's music genre and maybe it's some kind of inside joke that Throbbing Gristle had.
Hot On The Heels Of Love. That is the title for one of 20 Jazz Funk Greats most danceable tracks. After it the real horror starts with Persuasion. Slow pulsating bass and horrifying spoken-word vocals. And the screams straight from haunted asylum. Next one, Walkabout is a sweet synth ballad, but sadly nothing more.
"What a day, what a day, what a dull day!" shouts Genesis P-Orridge but the whipping mechanical tape loop beat is too strong. Some weird noises you can heard inside your head. Almost like human voices. Chaotic machine sounds that try to kill you. Then it all suddenly stops. The final track Six Six Sixties starts with apocalyptic guitars and repetitive drum machine beat in the background. The lyrics are some real horror poetry. And then the track fades out and the album ends. You have hit the bottom now. There is no escape.
