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PRIMAL
SCREAM -
SCEMADELICA
 Primal
Scream are a band that move musically in so many different guises &
Sounds, that If you became a fan of theirs, through a particular album,
there's nothing to say that the next album is going to resemble the
previous album, in any...way, shape or form. A band that reflect the
musical landscape of the current time, and arguably take contemporary
influences and ideas, and fashion albums that bookmark certain
periods in their career.
The year is 1991, and Britain is in the midst of a change in the current
movement of music. "Dance Music" has become one of the more
dominant sounds to have shaped Britain's music scene. And the majority of
the music buying public has become enthralled by it, many acts producing
the majority of the dance music, had discovered the drug
"Ecstasy" years previous, and were, making scintillating fusions
of acid, House, Techno & Alternative Dance. Primal Scream themselves
had become no strangers to the Drug, and although their form of
all-encompassing rock was extremely diverse, it wasn't truly
representative of the explosion of Dance orientated music entering the
charts. That's when the band hooked up with highly regarded Dance producer
"Andy Weatherall", who'd worked on everything from: downbeat,
Experimental techno, IDM, Acid, Dance. And would lend his considerable
dance productions skills to embellish the album with a sunny-eyed
optimism, and Hedonistic glow, (along with a helping of deep psychedelic /
Exuberant arrangements).
"Movin' on Up", begins with a gospel-tinged soaring & joyous
chorus, opening everything wide open and turning their previous sound of
alternative dance-rock inside out by easing back on the rock dynamics, but
not completely abandoning it, and fusing it with a effervescent exercise
of modern dance sounds & imagination, with singer/frontman "Bobby
Gillespie" singing plaintively "I've found what I'm looking
for!!"...what exactly Gillespie has found isn't made entirely clear,
(although it wouldn't take a genius to guess), and it's here that
throughout the album a lot of the lyrical content can be open to more than
one interpretation.
"Slip inside This House", locks 80's rave beats with a slightly
psychedelic eastern guitar (possibly a "Sitar"), it's a highly
imaginative fusion of two distinctly different sounds, and the influence
on the production has "Andy Weatherall's" ideas stamped all over
it. Something of a throwback to the days of Warehouse Raves, through a
restrained slower melody, this is far more considered & slower paced
than anything the band have previously attempted, over which Gillespie
cryptically chants "Trip inside".
"Don't Fight It, Feel It" uses a reverberated bass, to elastic
effect, over which the tune is stretched over, before the bassline is
interupted, with female vocals, and prominent squelchy synths, take
precedence, almost neo-psychedelic in approach, and such a monumental step
forward for what the band is primarily known for, that it seems impossible
to link this new sound, to anything the band have ever previously done.
Interestingly the female vocals sing: "I want to Dance to the music,
before getting High", alongisde minimal drum percussion, with the
occasional euphoric looping keyboard bursts free, with surprising gusto.
"Higher Than the Sun", brings a spooky-ambience to begin with,
with various sampled vocal wails, throwing the listener into (slight)
confusion, before giving way to a slow horror-soundtrack inspired
arrangement, that begins to gather pace, then disjointed beats with synth
melodies soar & Conflict against each other, with Gillespie singing a
ballad-like "Higher than the Sun" vocal. Layers of booming
almost Breakbeat beats begin to take hold....a very unusual track by
conventional song structure methods, but still arguably stunning.
The centrepiece track in-amongst this beautifully Euphoric rush of an
album, is the breathtaking "Come Together", with a snippet of
movie dialogue saying "It's a Beautiful Day", "We are
Together", as church organs begin to swirl into the sound, mixed with
synchronised hand-clapping (Possibly sampled from an actual Church
congregation), and the minimal Drum Hi-Hat gaining momentum, before a
gradually soaring arrangement of Dance Beats, begin to thump into action,
driving the sound into a truly ambitiously soaked sound of Dance/Gospel
Fusion......."Together as one" is the chanted message of the
group of female voices singing in harmony, and it quite a breathtaking air
of euphoria surrounding it, unquestionably one of the best tracks on the
album.
"Loaded", another of the albums strongest tracks, opens with
more snippets of movie dialogue, with the sample "We Wanna get loaded
& have a good Time", showing the tracks statement of intent, and
couldn't be more apt. Trumpet sections soar, minimal dance beats
intertwine with everything, and shredding Guitars punctuate halfway
through, being interspersed with more Clips of movie Dialogue saying
"We Want to Be free, to do what we want to Do!!?", liberal use
of backing female choruses, gives the track a level of unity &
hedonism, that most conventional dance music couldn't possibly had to
emulate....and to end the track with the sampled "We wanna get
loaded, and have a good time", is a tremendous closer, for a truly
stunning track.
To compare this albums against Primal Scream's previous albums is a
redundant exercise, as it so out of step with what they've previously done
before, that a reasonable judgement, becomes incredibly hard. This is such
a brilliantly realised and produced album, that is such a monumental step
forward for the band, that those that listen to it for the first time,
will (initially) have difficulty believing it to be the same band. Even
more astonishingly, is the fact that even though this was created around
the time of the Dance music boom (in the U.K.) in the early 90's, it
doesn't sound horribly dated, listening to it some 13+ years later (partly
due to Andy Weatherall's incredible production). Few would argue, that
this & XTRMNTR are the finest two albums Primal scream have ever made
thus far, utterly essential.
DISCOGRAPHY
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