Released
1999

Label
Invisible Records

Reviewed by
Matt Simpson

Visit
Invisible Records

Last Edit/Update
07 October, 1999

Meg Lee Chin

Piece And Love

Track Listing

1. thing
2. heavy scene
3. nutopia
4. sweat
5. swallowing you
6. sweet thing
7. bottle
8. london
9. deeper
10. swallowing you (subgenius mix)

    Ever since I heard that "Sexy Beat" comp from Invisible... actually, no, it's been since I saw Pigface live over a year ago, I've been in love with Meg Lee Chin & her vocal stylings. She easily had the best track on "A New High in Low" - nutopia - and the track from Chemical Warfare (mix mix bang bang) was orgasmic, IMO. Check my earlier review if you don't believe me, y0.
    Now it's September and her full-length CD has finally been released. Did it live up to what I was hoping?
    YES. and more.
    The CD is 10 tracks of RAW attitude. Her energy live definitely translates well into an album form. Her track from "A New High in Low", nutopia, is on here. It's probably the most mellow one on the CD, but it's definitely a gem. The music styles? Hard to really nail down. I guess it could be likened to the direction of Rx, but not as polished. The production was mainly done in her London apartment by herself, with Atkins & Lee "Bagman" Fraser doing the final mix and basically smoothing (not too much though) it all out. What ends up is a very raw sound. This is very refreshing, actually. Her voice cuts through the mix with just a ripping quality...it's clear that this girl knows exactly what she's doing when she's engineering music.
    A bit of background on Ms. Chin: She's been engineering and making music for a number of years. One of her former bands, "Crunch", holds the distinction of being the first Western band to play in the Ukraine after the Soviet Republic fell. Also, she was asked to be the lead singer of Garbage a year before Shirley Manson was chosen. She declined, since the band wanted her to basically follow their set rules. She's toured with Pigface for years, as a number of you know. As said before, for those of you who liked her raw styles on stage, here it is.
    I wholeheartedly love this CD. The music is raw but very tight, the vocals send a refreshing jolt to the brain, and everything flows together very smooth. Stand out tracks? I'd have to go with track 1, "thing", track 2, "heavy scene"; and track 5, "swallowing you". Hopefully this CD gets more word of mouth - this is just good enough to really become popular, yet stay true to its roots.