Suicide
American Supreme (Mute)
by Lex Marburger
When you think about disappointments, you think about great artists blowing it. Like when Sting decided that there was a jazz musician inside him dying to get out (there wasn’t), or when The Chemical Brothers thought the world would follow them from innovative Big-Beat Electronica to redundant Trance-House techno (they didn’t). Not to say that musicians shouldn’t go off in new, unfamiliar directions and try stuff they’ve never thought of (Refused, Beastie Boys, The Beatles – if you want to get into it, we can [email me], but just follow me for a minute while I lay this out), but they’ve got to keep some core principals, else the product suffers. Which brings us to Suicide. What’s that? The core is still there, you say? Still just Martin Rev & Alan Vega, just a synth and a voice? I didn’t say core elements, I said core principals. It doesn’t matter if The Who still had a drummer on Face Dances, it just wasn’t the same. Look at Tom Waits’ albums: All of them sound different, but there is some certain feeling that ties them all together (and it’s not just Tom’s voice, smart ass).
I’m not saying that Suicide needs to stay the same & sound like they did in 1978. Everyone’s gotta change. But I have to say that it seems to be Suicide who’s not changing very much. What they did 20 years ago doesn’t translate on new machines. They need new approaches & techniques to their music if they want to achieve the same violent emotional explosions they used to. I’d like to mention a few bands that did in fact make it through the technological chasm while maintaining their focus and their strengths: Wire, Pigface, Chris & Cosey. And that’s that.
(www.mute.com)