Wumpscut - Music For A Slaughtering Tribe

Released
1993

Label
Metropolis

Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund

Contact
Metropolis Records
PO Box 54307
Philadelphia, PA 19105
USA

Visit

Last Edit/Update
01 February, 1998

:Wumpscut:

MUSIC FOR A
SLAUGHTERING TRIBE

Track Listing

1. Soylent Green
(Extended)
2. On The Run
3. Bleed
4. Fear In Motion
5. Default
(Remix by Aghast View)
6. Concrete Rage
7. She's Dead
(Remix by Kirlian Camera)
8. Koslow
9. Default
10. She's Dead
11. Believe In Me
12. Dudek
13. My Life
14. "Untitled"*

* hidden track

          An obsession with skulls and photographs from the holocaust dominates the booklet of :Wumpscut:'s CD Music For A Slaughtering Tribe. And, like another black plague, this preoccupation with horror and death also courses through every track of this extremely dark and morbid release. The music on Music For A Slaughtering Tribe is characterized by brutally distorted percussion, media samples, shrill synth themes, Rudy Ratzinger's nihilist lyrics and processed vocals that sound like death itself.
          Ratzinger recieved assistance from other musicians on a few of the tracks, breaking the otherwise rather monotone and repetitive sound of this album. "On The Run," "Bleed," "Concrete Rage," "Koslow," "Default," "Dudek" and -- to some extent -- the original version of "She's Dead" all feature the grating, noisy, but quite simple :Wumpscut: song structures. Departing somewhat from his conventional formula, the two collage-like tracks "Believe In Me" and "My Life" -- both located towards the end of the CD -- contain gratuitous use of samples and contorted spoken words by Ratzinger.
          "Fear In Motion" features Aleta Welling as guest vocalist. It is a short, but, very powerful piece, based on a deep hollow beat, with Welling delivering her vocals in a manner reminiscent of Nico -- reciting and screaming rather than actually singing the angst-ladden lyrics.
          The remixes of "Default" and "She's Dead" (by Aghast View and Kirlian Camera, respectively) are quite extensive reworkings of the originals. Neither mix features Ratzinger's vocals, and both make subtler use of percussion, and places greater emphasis on the melodic and atmospheric possibilities of :Wumpscut:'s sound. Kirlian Camera adds some melancholy female vocals to the mix -- the singer is uncredited in the liner notes, but sounds suspiciously like Aleta Welling again.
          The extended piece -- "Soylent Green" -- which opens the CD is this album's extreme manifestation of :Wumpscut:'s sound, and as such, the most successful -- by all means a great song. In the spirit of the Charlton Heston sci-fi film of the same title, Ratzinger yells "soylent green" incessantly and insistently throughout the song like a warning, while samples from an alleged earlier German version of the film accentuate the atmosphere of paranoia. A fast-paced, aggressive synth beat drives the song forward with strong synth string melodics adding volume and weight to the apocalyptic gloom of the song.
          Music For A Slaughtering Tribe will certainly appeal to fans of the darker end of the musical spectrum, and make for great fare in those clubs dedicated to bodily injuries on their dance floors. For the less fanatic crowd, the CD still has a number of good tracks to offer, although on repeated listenings it will inevitably outstay its welcome.

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