1001 Albums: Suicide

#386

Album: Suicide

Artist: Suicide

Year: 1977

Length: 32:07

Genre: Synth-Punk / Electronic Rock / Synth-Pop / Electronic / Minimalist

“Ghost Rider motorcycle hero

Hey baby, baby, baby he’s a-lookin’ so cute

Sneak around-round-round in a blue jump suit
Ghost Rider motorcycle hero”

Ghost Rider

How do you even begin to talk about an album like this? An album whose sole purpose was to shock and terrify the listener. When performance art duo Alan Vega and Martin Rev conceived of this musical idea, their goal was to scare audiences. Alan Vega would aggressively get into audience members faces in hopes that they would beat the shit out of him in response, screaming gutturally in their personal bubbles., all while Martin Rev was behind his keyboards playing droning bass synths that felt like they were trying to eat your soul and attacking synth sounds with his right hand that pierced through your ears like a sharp needle. As a whole this is not meant to be a pleasant experience, it’s supposed to be disturbing and horrible… and yet… it’s absolutely beautiful in its execution.

Hauntingly beautiful is the words I would use to describe it, because no matter how sinister the album gets, there’s always the strange ethereal beauty just underlaying the whole thing. The best example of this is Cheree, which feels like a love song for two haunted souls finding each other in the afterlife. It’s like the soundtrack to a demented rom-com taking place on a creepy graveyard and I’m here for this. For all of this. Maybe it’s the halloween-esque synth sounds that feel possessed or the added reverb to Alan Vega’s vocals that give it this haunting beauty. Whatever it may be, this is one hell of an experience in the world of synth-punk that you will truly never forget.

How does one even convince people of the dark, sinister beauty of this album? Any average listener would run screaming at the very mention of it. The name of the band is provocative enough, but if they even make it to their ten-minute opus “Frankie Teardrop” there’s no way this person you’re trying to sell the experience on will be by your side. The second Alan Vega’s blood-curdling screams exit his mouth and travel through the speakers into their ears, they’ll be done. Their souls shrivelling up and decaying on the spot. A shiver down your spine is an understatement and he does it not once but multiple times and all to the story of a man snapping and shooting his wife and kids before shooting himself, the horrifying screams replacing the gun shots… how do you sell an album like this to someone?!

I would like to say I can spread the word and convince everyone of the haunting beauty that is Suicide’s Suicide. But, alas, with a piece of music like this, there’s more chances of a rejection happening than an acceptance. I would urge everyone to listen to this album at least once in their lives and experience it for themselves. If I can get just one person to see the album’ for what it is’s haunting beauty then I know I will have done my duty.

Favourite Song: Ghost Rider

-Bosco

Mixtape Monday: Week of September 18th

Weekly Mixtapes based off the albums I listened to in the previous week!

For the last two months or so, I started creating weekly mixtape playlists based on the albums I listened to that week. Seeing as I listen to more than 20 albums a week, it made sense to start making playlists which would give way for a varied taste of music (depending on how my listening trends were that week of course). It started as a fun thing to share amongst good friends of mine, but recently my girlfriend, Cristina, told me I should start adding more variety to my blog and thought it’d be a good idea to share my playlists here as well. Seeing as she’s always full of great ideas when it comes to things like this (she does work as a producer afterall), I wasn’t one to doubt this and decided to go for it, why not share music with the world at large and not just my friends?

So here’s to the first one! With every playlist I share, I will also share a little blurb of the every album I listened to!

Playlist:

1. The Residents – Duck Stab / Buster and Glen
   This week I was very much in the mood to listen to music that was more unconventional and experimental in nature. At the beginning of the week, I just had this craving to listen to The Residents, and not being one to stop myself from listening to what I want to, that’s exactly what I did. It definitely scratched that itch I had because The Residents approach to music is incredibly unconventional and at times almost anti-music.
2. KISS – Dressed To Kill
   So the entire week wasn’t just experimental music, that would drive any person insane, but it’s funny how after having that itch for that kind of music scratched, I immediately followed it up with pretty standard rock music. Kiss always had this style and theatrics though to back that up (no matter how divisive they may be as a band). There’s a lot of bands that I have playlists of their discographies with the pan to just listen through them all, Kiss is one of them and just decided to listen to the next on the list. It’s nothing great but still a lot of fun.
3. The Kinks – Kinks
   I adore The Kinks and it was always surprising to me that I had never ventured into a lot of their albums outside of their run from Face to Face to Lola. Their debut includes their big hit “You Really Got Me” which has always been a favourite of mine, so I figured, why don’t I finally check out their debut once and for all. For some reason I was expecting more to sound like their hit, with that fuzz guitar sound, but they felt more like straight-forward 60s rock that was still hanging onto the sound of the 50s, pretty normal for all the British bands of the early 60s. That didn’t take away from my enjoyment of it though.
4. Killing Joke – Night Time
   Killing Joke is one of those bands I enjoy but often forget about, not because they’re forgetful as a band but they don’t cross my mind as much as I’d like them to. I was originally going to revisit their debut but was reminded of Night Time, an album I hadn’t heard in maybe years, even though it has my favourite Killing Joke song, The Eighties (a song I absolutely annihilate in Guitar Hero). I’m happy I did because not only did I get reminded of how much I enjoyed this album but I enjoyed it even more this time.
5. Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges – Clube Da Esquina
   In the last 7 years, I have fallen in love with Brazilian music. My journey through the 1001 Albums challenge has had me discover a large amount of Brazilian musicians and albums but also taught me a lot about their history and culture, which is equally as fascinating (It also helps that I have had quite a few Brazilian friends who have helped me discover a lot of it too). Two weeks ago, I had started a challenge to listen to one album from every country and started with Brazil. There were so many options and this album was right there at the top. I went with Os Mutantes instead, but when the week started I found myself still thinking about this album, so put it on. It’s quite a remarkable album.
6. Pere Ubu – The Modern Dance
   Pere Ubu is one of my favourite bands and The Modern Dance is in my top 50 favourite albums of all time. My itch for unconventional music was started to reappear again and I just had the sudden urge to listen to The Modern Dance because it had been quite awhile since I had last heard it. “Non-Alignment Pact” still stands as one of my favourite songs and I swear I will learn the bass line to it one day! They have such a unique voice and David Thomas’ vocals are incredibly fun to imitate!
7. Japan – Quiet Life
   The opening notes to Japan’s Quiet Life just do something very special for me. I can’t quite explain what it is but everytime I hear them it just hooks me in and I’m ready for the ride that is this album. It’s dreary, misty and melancholic and at times bitterweet, but always engaging. It’s another I hadn’t heard in a long time and felt I was due to hear it again.
8. Robert Wyatt – Rock Bottom
   In my 1001 Album post about Rock Bottom I mention how I find it incredibly difficult to categorize this album. Sure Art Rock might be suiting but it just feels undefinable as an album and hearing it again, my feelings have not changed. It really is a unique experience that cannot be described only heard. I always revisit this one every few months.
9. ·  Frank Zappa – Make a Jazz Noise Here
   Frank Zappa is one of my favourite musicians of all time. I love the unique approach he has to music, the wide experimentations he does, the explorations of genres and of course, his witty, dark and sardonic sense of humour. For years I kept trying to listen to his entire discography (which is vast) and kept failing because I would forget which album I had last listened to. This year, however, things have changed thanks to me finally starting to catalogue everything I listen to, I can never lose my spot and this is the farthest I’ve made it into his discography. The finish line is near!
10. ·  David Boring – Unnatural Objects and Their Humans
    In my new challenge of listening to an album from every country, I was doing research to find an album from China. Out of all the bands I was given, two had stood out to me, this being one of them. I went with the other but this band still remained on my radar and I decided, what the heck, let me check them out. I didn’t know what to expect going into it and I still don’t know how to feel about it coming out of it. It definitely fulfilled that desire to listen to more experimental and unconventional music but sometimes teetered on the edge of those styles that end up being more obnoxious in a bad way (And that’s saying something from me because I love a lot of obnoxious music and a lot of noise rock).
11. ·  The Only Ones – The Only Ones
    Another Girl, Another Planet is a wonderful song and is usually the main reason I come back to this album as a whole. If it wasn’t for that one song, I probably wouldn’t revisit it as much as I do. Not to say i don’t like the rest of the album because I do, but I often find myself just forgetting it pretty easily, which isn’t a reflection of the band and the album but more a reflection of my own personal experiences with it. I always find myself enjoying though, so that’s definitely something. At least I remember that.
12. ·  Kajagoogoo – White Feathers
    I was rewatching old episodes of this VH1 show called Bands reunited. A lot of bands from the 80s that I love are featured on this show and it’s always a fun watch to see these members get back together after not having seen each other sometimes in over ten years. One episode was on Kajagoogoo. After watching it I wanted to revisit their album White Feathers as I hadn’t heard it in over 8 years (which is funny seeing as I own it on vinyl). I’m happy I did because I always remembered the album being pretty corny 80s pop fluff, fun pop fluff though! But it wasn’t that at all, other than their song Too Shy, it was some delicious New Wave music with fun bass lines and great synths. I’m kind of shocked I left this one in the shadows as much as I did.
13. ·  Andrew WK – I Get Wet
    I reached album 700 of the year and I always love to celebrate those milestones by listening to something special. It only made sense to me to listen to the party rock anthems of the great I Get Wet, one of my top 10 favourite albums of all time. This is definitely one of my most listened to albums in the last few years and every time it just gets me going. It’s pure, raw, positive energy perfectly packaged into 30 minutes of pure adrenaline fuelled bliss. I will never get tired of this album.
14. ·  Brian Eno – Here Come the Warm Jets
    I found myself perusing through the recommended section of Spotify, looking for something new to listen to. What I always find funny is how it always recommends me albums I’ve already listened to, but that being said, if they didn’t do that, I’d probably forget about some albums I enjoyed and not have a chance to revisit them. This is a case of that. I don’t know how much I would have thought about this album on my own terms, but it’s a shame I don’t because I like Brian Eno and the music he produces, he really should be on my mind way more. I mean, he’s produced a lot of my favourite albums, but I’m always mainly thinking of the main band and he becomes an afterthought. This album is one of those that basically set the blueprint and foundation for the post-punk and new wave genres that I love so dearly. I’m sure Brian Eno will forgive me.
15. ·  Camel – Breathless
    My best friend, Vishesh, and I have this running inside joke about camels, which would be too long to explain here (but just know they are the most beautiful creatures to exist). So, of course, when I stumbled upon a band called Camel and their album cover showed a majestic camel smiling on the desert, I just had to check it out. What started off as a joke though turned into a fun experience as I was met with some wonderful Prog Rock music I did not expect! I feel bad I only listened to it due to a joke but then again sometimes those absurd things lead to fun discoveries.
16. ·  Adam and the Ants – Kings of the Wild Frontier
    Kings of the Wild Frontier is in my top 5 favourite albums of all time. This album holds a special place in my heart as 4 year old me had listened to it on repeat over and over and over again. It meant something profound to me in those days and it’s a feeling that has stuck with me up to today. In my pursuit to listen to new music and all the music, I realised I hadn’t heard this one in awhile and put it on. Those feelings haven’t changed, it still means a lot to me.
17. ·  John Martyn – Solid Air
    Sometimes I find myself listening to a lot in the same realm of music, which makes sense we all gravitate towards a specific flavour because that’s just what our tastes happen to be. When I catch myself doing this I try to find something that is different in style just to give for some variety in my listening but also to explore more outside of my tastes. Solid Air was a safe choice because I had already heard it before and knew I had loved it, so I wanted to listen to it again! It’s just such beautiful psychedelic folk that you don’t need any drugs to trip on.
18. ·  Pere Ubu – Dub Housing
    When I started doing these playlists I tried really hard not to listen to more than one album from the same band in the same week but this time, I just couldn’t resist. I listened to The Modern Dance and all it made me do was really want to listen to Dub Housing as well. Both a continuation and an evolution of their sound from their debut, Dub Housing just crashes and rages with industrialness and crunchy guitars. David Thomas wails and screams through these soundscapes and avant-garage has never been more satisfying than it is here.
19. ·  OMD – Architecture and Morality
    I was reading through one of those top album type lists and Architecture and Morality happened to be on it. I had remembered listening to it long time ago but never revisited it because it was a version of it disjointed on Youtube that would play with ads between each song, not the most pleasant experience. Recently though, Spotify had added a bunch of albums that were previously not on there, and this was one of them, so in my excitement I put it on! I always remembered it as being way more experimental in nature than it turned out to be but was pleasantly happy with how synth-poppy it was in the end!
20. ·  Yellow Magic Orchestra – Yellow Magic Orchestra
    18/19 year old me had his world turned upside down when he discovered the electronic genius of Yellow Magic Orchestra. That same kid would also be disappointed to see how much his older self has forgotten about them and not listened to them in ages.
21. ·  Yellow Magic Orchestra – Solid State Survivor
    To make up for this disappointment, his older self has listened to not one but two Yellow Magic Orchestra albums in a row to appease that young kid. I hope he is happy now.
22. ·  Depeche Mode – Violator
    I always wonder if Depeche Mode were theatrical in the perfect way or were too brooding and melodramatic for their own sake. Regardless what these dark synth goths in bondage clothing do for you there’s no denying Violator is a monster of an album for them. I’ve personally always preferred their earlier synth pop days over this but it fit nicely into y search for more experimental sounding music and Depeche Mode were definitely experimenting with darker synth sounds and vibes in this album. Ehhhhh… Whatever.
23. ·  Gigi D’Agostino – L’Amour Toujours
    This was a case of choosing an album based on one song I absolutely love. The Riddle has been in my rotation and favourites playlist since I was in High School and I never checked out anything else by the man known as Gigi. After listening to The Riddle for the trillionth time, I figured why don’t I check out the album it originally came from, not realising the album was also over 2 hours long. Nothing against long albums but over 2 hours feels excessive.
24. ·  Suicide – Suicide
    Now, this isn’t an album you would listen to everyday, and if you do then, well, good for you. But it is an album that sticks with you long after you’ve heard it and keeps drawing you back to experience it again. This album is hauntingly terrifying at times and is actively aggressive towards the listener, something the band aimed to do in their live shows and recreate on the album. I absolutely adore this album but it always takes some time before I find myself in the mood to listen to it, they happen though, and this was one of those times.
25. ·  Snakefinger – Chewing Hides the Sound
    My week was coming to an end and I felt I hadn’t sufficiently scratched that experimental itch I had so I went onto the profile of The Residents and clicked on similar artists to try and discover something new. Snakefinger immediately stood out to me and boy did it ever scratch that itch I had. It book-ended the week perfectly as well because not only was this guy good friends with The Residents but The Residents also played on this album, and it does sound like they did. This was definitely one of my favourite newest discoveries I made.
26. Tuxedomoon – Desire
    Tuxedomoon is an interesting case with me. They had been on my radar since I was 18/19 but for whatever reason I never actually sat down and listened to a full album by them. I had heard very few songs, songs I had enjoyed, but still never sat down to listen to an album. Which is odd because back in those days, when I was 18/19, I had downloaded a bunch of Tuxedomoon albums with the purpose of listening to them and… never did. It’s about fucking time.

-Bosco