HR019 — Viktimized Karcass — A Matter Of Principle — C60 — 1985
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the first full-length release by Viktimized Karcass
originally released on C60 cassette in 1985 on the Harsh Reality Music label Memphis, Tennessee, USA Side A: Ha! Talk's Cheap Time To Kill Love Song Prelude To: (Crazy) Side B: Crazy Barking Up The Wrong Tree What's In The Box? Rajneesh Baby VK's are Roger Moneymaker — Guitar, Keys, Effects Richard Martin — Vocals, Keys, Clarinet Chris Phinney — Vocals, Keys, Effects, Drum Programs, Clarinet Pete McLean — Drums, Percussion |
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
The first Viktimized Karcass cassette album features the quartet of Roger Moneymaker on guitar, keys and effects, Richard Martin on vocals, keys, and clarinet, Chris Phinney on vocals, keys, effects, drum programs, and clarinet, and the late Pete McLean on drums and percussion.
The fun starts with ‘Ha!’, a zany blend of lo-fi synth-pop and danceable industrial music. While the rhythmic pulse and vocals are industrial, there’s also a wailing spaced out harmonica melody that takes the music into the stratosphere. These guys have a real flair for mashing up pleasant sounds and melodies with brain-on-drugs chaos, and that aesthetic shines on ‘Talks Cheap’. There’s a tinkling pop song synth melody that prances along within a whacked out, noise drenched cosmic stew. Lots happening here. We get deep into anarchic, noisy space rock territory on ‘Time To Kill’. The stoned riffage and guitar sounds like 70s hard rock, but it’s jamming along within a deranged outer ring of disturbing yet fun vocal madness and wildly oscillating effects. One of the more experimental tracks of the set just happens to be titled ‘Love Song’. We’ve got minimal clanging and clattering percussion, droning synth lines, edgily rumbling synth riffs, cacophonous squalls, and manic angry vocals.
Side A wraps up with ‘Prelude To (Crazy)’, a madcap jam that sounds like a lo-fi, industrial, yet heavy rocking take on the more freeform moments of Hawkwind’s Space Ritual. Man, they really crank the oscillators on this sucker! Guitars jamming amid intergalactic BATTLE! And this is just the prelude because the anarchy continues on Side B with ‘Crazy’, with its screaming synths, cosmically carnivalesque electronic melodies, and crazy as hell but riotously fun tape manipulated vocals, all being shepherded along by stoned, chug-a-lug jamming guitars.
‘Barking Up The Wrong Tree’ opens with a brief, tumultuous synth symphony, before launching into a tensely skittish synth-pop tune, though the vocals are trademark effects-laden Karcass insanity. It’s noisy and chaotic but it’s got a cool groove and melody. The star of the show on ‘Whats In The Box?’ is a spaced out clarinet caterwaul of electronic bird chirps and wails, propelled by a stoned industrial pulse. It’s like a duel between the bird horde and vocals, raging at one another as the industrial drone-dance pulse marches along. Later in the song the “What’s in the box!!!” repetitive vocals have a rap-like quality. Finally, ‘Rajneesh Baby’ closes the set with an in-yer-face noise, electronic and screaming mayhem assault. No quarter folks… it ends hard and heavy.
Despite the expected lo-fi nature, the production on this recording is pretty damn good, especially as all the many instrumental and vocal components are distinct from one another, emphasizing how the Karcass brand of chaos is impressively headed in a free-wheeling yet linear direction.
The first Viktimized Karcass cassette album features the quartet of Roger Moneymaker on guitar, keys and effects, Richard Martin on vocals, keys, and clarinet, Chris Phinney on vocals, keys, effects, drum programs, and clarinet, and the late Pete McLean on drums and percussion.
The fun starts with ‘Ha!’, a zany blend of lo-fi synth-pop and danceable industrial music. While the rhythmic pulse and vocals are industrial, there’s also a wailing spaced out harmonica melody that takes the music into the stratosphere. These guys have a real flair for mashing up pleasant sounds and melodies with brain-on-drugs chaos, and that aesthetic shines on ‘Talks Cheap’. There’s a tinkling pop song synth melody that prances along within a whacked out, noise drenched cosmic stew. Lots happening here. We get deep into anarchic, noisy space rock territory on ‘Time To Kill’. The stoned riffage and guitar sounds like 70s hard rock, but it’s jamming along within a deranged outer ring of disturbing yet fun vocal madness and wildly oscillating effects. One of the more experimental tracks of the set just happens to be titled ‘Love Song’. We’ve got minimal clanging and clattering percussion, droning synth lines, edgily rumbling synth riffs, cacophonous squalls, and manic angry vocals.
Side A wraps up with ‘Prelude To (Crazy)’, a madcap jam that sounds like a lo-fi, industrial, yet heavy rocking take on the more freeform moments of Hawkwind’s Space Ritual. Man, they really crank the oscillators on this sucker! Guitars jamming amid intergalactic BATTLE! And this is just the prelude because the anarchy continues on Side B with ‘Crazy’, with its screaming synths, cosmically carnivalesque electronic melodies, and crazy as hell but riotously fun tape manipulated vocals, all being shepherded along by stoned, chug-a-lug jamming guitars.
‘Barking Up The Wrong Tree’ opens with a brief, tumultuous synth symphony, before launching into a tensely skittish synth-pop tune, though the vocals are trademark effects-laden Karcass insanity. It’s noisy and chaotic but it’s got a cool groove and melody. The star of the show on ‘Whats In The Box?’ is a spaced out clarinet caterwaul of electronic bird chirps and wails, propelled by a stoned industrial pulse. It’s like a duel between the bird horde and vocals, raging at one another as the industrial drone-dance pulse marches along. Later in the song the “What’s in the box!!!” repetitive vocals have a rap-like quality. Finally, ‘Rajneesh Baby’ closes the set with an in-yer-face noise, electronic and screaming mayhem assault. No quarter folks… it ends hard and heavy.
Despite the expected lo-fi nature, the production on this recording is pretty damn good, especially as all the many instrumental and vocal components are distinct from one another, emphasizing how the Karcass brand of chaos is impressively headed in a free-wheeling yet linear direction.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
JK: Let’s talk about the recording of A Matter Of Principle. I thought the recording was pretty damn good, especially as all the many instrumental and vocal components are distinct from one another. Did you have better equipment, or were your skills just better after all this time, or both?
CP: Well it was still too low in volume. I was under the impression that the lower the better and I could boost the tape if I dubbed the tape. If somebody bought it or I was trading. And I didn’t want the tape levels to go in the red at that time, which I finally figured out that it doesn’t hurt to saturate analog. You can’t do that with digital. You can only push digital to a certain extent.
JK: But it still jumped out to my ears that… it always makes a difference to me, especially with the kind of music you were doing, that it’s not just dense. I can distinguish the different instruments. It sounded pretty good to me, all things considered.
CP: I thought it was a good tape. That picture on the cover is where I stuck my camera down inside that mausoleum in New Orleans. They’re all above ground. And it was rusted out and the concrete had been knocked out. So I got that skull and the bones that were inside of a metal casket.
JK: I’m looking at the cover shot now. You have to look hard. It’s like a silhouette collage type thing.
CP: I know it’s a shitty Xerox copy. I used to do a lot of Xerox. The cover art got better later on.
JK: But now that I’m hearing your description it looks like trees on the left and right.
CP: And there’s a skull in the middle.
JK: There’s an amazing amount of variety on this tape. Like ‘Ha!’ is a great blend of lo-fi synth-pop and danceable industrial music. But you get into all kinds of space rock on the tape too. And you’ve got some interesting instrumentation, like the harmonica on ‘Ha!’ and the clarinet on ‘What’s In The Box?’.
CP: What’s In The Box?’ was a fun tune. That was an improv tune. I don’t think we ever played that again. Just like ‘Rajneesh Baby’.
JK: I liked the spaced out clarinet and stoned industrial pulse on ‘What’s in the Box?’.
CP: ‘Crazy’ was one of the songs we did quite a bit of. And ‘Time to Kill’. Those two from that tape we played them at live gigs.
JK: I love the way Side A of the tape ends and Side B begins, with ‘Prelude To (Crazy)’ and then ‘Crazy’. That’s one where I used Hawkwind Space Ritual references in my review. It’s got some ass kicking jamming and cranking oscillators.
CP: I had some good synths back then. Before they all died. I had a Moog Prodigy, ARP Axxe, still have the Moog Rogue and Korg Poly 800, which may have lost its patches, but I don’t know how to get them back, done it before. We’ll see when ready to use it.
JK: In an earlier email conversation you had made a comment about you guys would trade instruments. What did you mean by that?
CP: We switched around instruments where Richard Martin would sometimes play a certain keyboard and we’d switch keyboards around. And Richard would play some keys on some of it. He sang most of the time as we got further on. And I just played the keys, and I just kind of quit singing on the later tapes.
JK: So the vocals are mostly Richard on these first tapes?
CP: ‘Time To Kill’ is me. ‘Crazy’ is me. ‘Ha!’ is me. Most of the vocals are split between me and Richard on A Matter Of Principle.
JK: Let’s talk about the recording of A Matter Of Principle. I thought the recording was pretty damn good, especially as all the many instrumental and vocal components are distinct from one another. Did you have better equipment, or were your skills just better after all this time, or both?
CP: Well it was still too low in volume. I was under the impression that the lower the better and I could boost the tape if I dubbed the tape. If somebody bought it or I was trading. And I didn’t want the tape levels to go in the red at that time, which I finally figured out that it doesn’t hurt to saturate analog. You can’t do that with digital. You can only push digital to a certain extent.
JK: But it still jumped out to my ears that… it always makes a difference to me, especially with the kind of music you were doing, that it’s not just dense. I can distinguish the different instruments. It sounded pretty good to me, all things considered.
CP: I thought it was a good tape. That picture on the cover is where I stuck my camera down inside that mausoleum in New Orleans. They’re all above ground. And it was rusted out and the concrete had been knocked out. So I got that skull and the bones that were inside of a metal casket.
JK: I’m looking at the cover shot now. You have to look hard. It’s like a silhouette collage type thing.
CP: I know it’s a shitty Xerox copy. I used to do a lot of Xerox. The cover art got better later on.
JK: But now that I’m hearing your description it looks like trees on the left and right.
CP: And there’s a skull in the middle.
JK: There’s an amazing amount of variety on this tape. Like ‘Ha!’ is a great blend of lo-fi synth-pop and danceable industrial music. But you get into all kinds of space rock on the tape too. And you’ve got some interesting instrumentation, like the harmonica on ‘Ha!’ and the clarinet on ‘What’s In The Box?’.
CP: What’s In The Box?’ was a fun tune. That was an improv tune. I don’t think we ever played that again. Just like ‘Rajneesh Baby’.
JK: I liked the spaced out clarinet and stoned industrial pulse on ‘What’s in the Box?’.
CP: ‘Crazy’ was one of the songs we did quite a bit of. And ‘Time to Kill’. Those two from that tape we played them at live gigs.
JK: I love the way Side A of the tape ends and Side B begins, with ‘Prelude To (Crazy)’ and then ‘Crazy’. That’s one where I used Hawkwind Space Ritual references in my review. It’s got some ass kicking jamming and cranking oscillators.
CP: I had some good synths back then. Before they all died. I had a Moog Prodigy, ARP Axxe, still have the Moog Rogue and Korg Poly 800, which may have lost its patches, but I don’t know how to get them back, done it before. We’ll see when ready to use it.
JK: In an earlier email conversation you had made a comment about you guys would trade instruments. What did you mean by that?
CP: We switched around instruments where Richard Martin would sometimes play a certain keyboard and we’d switch keyboards around. And Richard would play some keys on some of it. He sang most of the time as we got further on. And I just played the keys, and I just kind of quit singing on the later tapes.
JK: So the vocals are mostly Richard on these first tapes?
CP: ‘Time To Kill’ is me. ‘Crazy’ is me. ‘Ha!’ is me. Most of the vocals are split between me and Richard on A Matter Of Principle.