HR064 - Viktimized Karcass - Strangled — C90 — 1988
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Side A: Got To Be (Sports Version) #2 Molly Anns 4 X 4 Stroll Dance Little Jimmy The Keeper Rollover Side B: Old Man Moon Sure Looks Wierd Tonite Eye Of The Beholder (Beholds) No Control Dickin' My Love |
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
On Strangled Viktimized Karcass were the quintet of Chris Phinney, Mike Jackson, Robert Henson, Richard Martin, and Roger Moneymaker (Henson not on one song). Strangled has some of the zaniest Viktimized Karcass music I’ve heard yet. Many of the songs and jams are absolutely nuts, yet in their lo-fi and weirdly offbeat way are busily complex and really lots of fun.
The set begins with ‘Got To Be (Sports Version) #2’ a rocking punk-pop song with a zany edge from the goofy vocals and wacky keys and pennywhistle sounding bleepy keys. I love the part where the guitar is cranking out ripping solos and is combined with the crazy keys. A fun rocking song to open the set.
‘Molly Anns 4 x 4 Stroll’ is another wacky tune, with crazy sound efx’d vocals and a looney bin rapping rhythmic pulse, which is weirdly tempered by haunting keys and excellent soloing guitar. It sounds so completely nuts, yet a close listen reveals that there is quite a lot going on, with all kinds of nutty contrasts coming together in a stumblingly seamless way.
Imagine a drunken punk marching band with a killer guitarist and you might get something like ‘Dance Little Jimmy’. Actually this is very much like Chrome circa Alien Soundtracks, but with a free-wheeling Yaaaaaaaa-HOO sense of experimental punk and hard rock partying fun.
‘The Keeper’ is still nutty but more overtly space rocking. Menacing Robert Fripp-ish and rocking guitar licks lead the way amidst a cauldron of pulsating keys, cool grooving rhythmic pulse, intensely spooky atmospherics, and gnarly jumbled vocals. Nearly 15 minutes of wild and woolly space-punk jamming and parade of cosmic carnival effects.
Viktimized Karcass jam along in their freaked out volcanic way on ‘Rollover’, as the guitar rips off solos that sound like James Blood Ulmer gone drunken punk blues. And in the spirit of the rest of the album the entire jam is riddled with crazy effects and vocals.
Side B kicks off with the nearly 17 minute ‘Old Man Moon Sure Looks Wierd Tonite’. Against a dense wall of spacey noise-grunge and a lumbering beat, low-key tasteful guitar solos, getting increasingly deep space angst-ambient as the music progresses, which sounds fascinatingly bizarre against all the wildly whirring and frenetically chattering synths and other effects.
‘Eye Of The Beholder (Beholds)’ is somewhat similar in that the guitar leads the way, this time with a jazz-rock soloing flavor, encased in a droning and pulsating atmosphere and, of course, oodles of wigged out effects. After a while we’re treated to a killer combination of spirited rocking and space-ambient guitar solos.
‘No Control’ is a space-punk funky tune, with slappy styled bass, hip-hoppy scratch effects, spooky growling vocals, and yet more absolutely killer rocking guitar.
Finally, ‘Dickin’ My Love’ is a psychedelic space-punk ‘n’ roll with a doomy edge but also warbly 80s synth-pop keys. But also ripping guitar and a flurry of flying saucer effects. More gorgeously crazy and fun contrasts! As the piece progresses the music melts… devolves… into a psychedelic morass. Give this a listen and then realize that it’s Viktimized Karcass’ take on the Robert Palmer’s song, ‘Addicted To Love’!
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
Jerry Kranitz (JK): This was about the craziest Viktimized Karcass album I’ve heard yet. But there is a LOT going on. It’s very complex, in a fucked up free-wheeling way.
Chris Phinney (CP): It was hard to mix there’s so much going on. You can hear how jam packed it is. There so much going on music-wise, you can tell by the mix. There’s a lot of shit piled on top of each other.
JK: You recorded it live, but a lot of what I’m hearing has to do with the way you mixed it?
CP: The songs on this tape are from four different recording sessions. ‘Dickin’ My Love’ is from 1986. That was a leftover piece I wanted to use because it’s a funny song, making fun of Robert Palmer’s ‘Addicted To Love’. And then there’s three other different time periods. October ‘87, December ’87, and May ’87.
JK: I see you’ve got the dates on the cover.
CP: These were all outtakes recorded during those sessions. Some labels didn’t want a C90, they wanted a C45 or C60. But I wanted to do a C90 so I released it myself on Harsh Reality.
JK: It had been a while since the last Viktimized Karcass tape. This was the first since the HR047 Alien Karcasscapes and HR048 Viktimized Karcass/Alien Planetscapes Live at Harsh Reality July 18, 1987. So this one just compiled previous recordings you wanted to make into an album?
CP: I finally had a enough material to make an album. This is probably the last time you’ll hear the song ‘Got To Be’ (laughs).
JK: Speaking of that song, what does ‘Sports Version’ mean in the title ‘Got To Be (Sports Version) #2’?
CP: Just some crazy ass Richard Martin idea (laughs).
JK: It really sets the tone for the album. I described it as rocking punk-pop with zany keys and synths that sound like a pennywhistle. Are those keys?
CP: It’s keys. Korg Poly 800.
JK: I commented that this is the closest to a pop song I’ve heard from Viktimized Karcass.
CP: You’ve probably heard that song around seven times across the past tapes. We change it up every time. Every one of them has been different, but this one, yeah, is kind of pop-ish.
JK: The next song, ‘Molly Anns 4 x 4 Stroll’, your daughter Molly was an ongoing presence in your song titles and on your recordings throughout the 80s.
CP: Yes, she hung out with us quite often. There’s several versions of ‘Molly Anns 4 x 4 Stroll’. There’s also ‘Molly Anns Robot Walk’, which is almost the same thing as the 4 x 4 Stroll really. But she’s the one of my kids that hung out with us the most. My sons both recorded with me once. And my daughter Bela, in 2005 I taught her how to become her own band using Acid in Tapegerm.
JK: The song ‘Dance Little Jimmy’. Was Jimmy a particular person?
CP: No, we just made it up. The song title had nothing to do with anything.
JK: I continue to be really impressed with Roger as a guitarist. On ‘Got To Be (Sports Version) #2’ we hear great ripping solos. And on ‘The Keeper’ at times there’s a Robert Fripp sound.
CP: He’s great. I really like that song ‘The Keeper’.
JK: That was one of the more overtly space rocking songs of this set.
CP: Ed Drury said Moneymaker is great for a guitarist to have as a last name (laughs).
JK: Yeah, if he got signed to a label! And then on the song ‘Rollover’ I described the guitar as like James Blood Ulmer doing a punk-blues. That was a cool song too.
CP: It’s a good tune. And all improv.
JK: I also like ‘Old Man Moon Sure Looks Wierd Tonite’. It has some of Roger’s more low-key tasteful guitar solos.
CP: That’s a good LONG ass spaced out tune.
JK: Almost 17 minutes. I love the spacey wall of noise and grunge and lumbering beat. It develops nicely for such a long track.
CP: It was fun to do.
JK: I like the jazz rocking feel to the guitar on ‘Eye Of The Beholder (Beholds)’, but the music still has this droney pulsating atmosphere.
CP: Yeah, this was really a different tape. I can see someone who is familiar with Karcass hearing this tape and not know it’s us.
JK: Yes! That’s what struck me. It’s a great tape but so different from previous Viktimized Karcass music. It includes tracks recorded between 1986 and late 1987, yet there’s a cohesiveness. I’m guessing you were careful about selecting tracks that followed a theme?
CP: I was conscious of a flow for the tape.
JK: ‘Dickin’ My Love’ sounds like it was live in front audience. I love the psychedelic space punk ‘n’ roll with 80s synth-pop keys.
CP: No, not live. That song is just crazy shit. We like to do a cover song every once in a while. We made ‘Addicted To Love’ into ‘Dickin’ My Love’. If you compare it to ‘Addicted To Love’ I don’t know if you’ll recognize it as a cover. It’s as close to a cover as we were going to get. There will be bits and pieces of ‘Dickin’ My Love’ on the upcoming Karcass tapes we’ll be getting to. We drank too much that night (laughs). That ‘No Control’ was a crazy ass tune too. Where Richard came up with the lyrics for that is beyond me.
JK: That’s another song with lots of great contrasts. I described it as space-punk funky, with slappy styled bass, hip-hoppy scratch effects, and these weird growling vocals. And more killer rocking guitar.
On Strangled Viktimized Karcass were the quintet of Chris Phinney, Mike Jackson, Robert Henson, Richard Martin, and Roger Moneymaker (Henson not on one song). Strangled has some of the zaniest Viktimized Karcass music I’ve heard yet. Many of the songs and jams are absolutely nuts, yet in their lo-fi and weirdly offbeat way are busily complex and really lots of fun.
The set begins with ‘Got To Be (Sports Version) #2’ a rocking punk-pop song with a zany edge from the goofy vocals and wacky keys and pennywhistle sounding bleepy keys. I love the part where the guitar is cranking out ripping solos and is combined with the crazy keys. A fun rocking song to open the set.
‘Molly Anns 4 x 4 Stroll’ is another wacky tune, with crazy sound efx’d vocals and a looney bin rapping rhythmic pulse, which is weirdly tempered by haunting keys and excellent soloing guitar. It sounds so completely nuts, yet a close listen reveals that there is quite a lot going on, with all kinds of nutty contrasts coming together in a stumblingly seamless way.
Imagine a drunken punk marching band with a killer guitarist and you might get something like ‘Dance Little Jimmy’. Actually this is very much like Chrome circa Alien Soundtracks, but with a free-wheeling Yaaaaaaaa-HOO sense of experimental punk and hard rock partying fun.
‘The Keeper’ is still nutty but more overtly space rocking. Menacing Robert Fripp-ish and rocking guitar licks lead the way amidst a cauldron of pulsating keys, cool grooving rhythmic pulse, intensely spooky atmospherics, and gnarly jumbled vocals. Nearly 15 minutes of wild and woolly space-punk jamming and parade of cosmic carnival effects.
Viktimized Karcass jam along in their freaked out volcanic way on ‘Rollover’, as the guitar rips off solos that sound like James Blood Ulmer gone drunken punk blues. And in the spirit of the rest of the album the entire jam is riddled with crazy effects and vocals.
Side B kicks off with the nearly 17 minute ‘Old Man Moon Sure Looks Wierd Tonite’. Against a dense wall of spacey noise-grunge and a lumbering beat, low-key tasteful guitar solos, getting increasingly deep space angst-ambient as the music progresses, which sounds fascinatingly bizarre against all the wildly whirring and frenetically chattering synths and other effects.
‘Eye Of The Beholder (Beholds)’ is somewhat similar in that the guitar leads the way, this time with a jazz-rock soloing flavor, encased in a droning and pulsating atmosphere and, of course, oodles of wigged out effects. After a while we’re treated to a killer combination of spirited rocking and space-ambient guitar solos.
‘No Control’ is a space-punk funky tune, with slappy styled bass, hip-hoppy scratch effects, spooky growling vocals, and yet more absolutely killer rocking guitar.
Finally, ‘Dickin’ My Love’ is a psychedelic space-punk ‘n’ roll with a doomy edge but also warbly 80s synth-pop keys. But also ripping guitar and a flurry of flying saucer effects. More gorgeously crazy and fun contrasts! As the piece progresses the music melts… devolves… into a psychedelic morass. Give this a listen and then realize that it’s Viktimized Karcass’ take on the Robert Palmer’s song, ‘Addicted To Love’!
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
Jerry Kranitz (JK): This was about the craziest Viktimized Karcass album I’ve heard yet. But there is a LOT going on. It’s very complex, in a fucked up free-wheeling way.
Chris Phinney (CP): It was hard to mix there’s so much going on. You can hear how jam packed it is. There so much going on music-wise, you can tell by the mix. There’s a lot of shit piled on top of each other.
JK: You recorded it live, but a lot of what I’m hearing has to do with the way you mixed it?
CP: The songs on this tape are from four different recording sessions. ‘Dickin’ My Love’ is from 1986. That was a leftover piece I wanted to use because it’s a funny song, making fun of Robert Palmer’s ‘Addicted To Love’. And then there’s three other different time periods. October ‘87, December ’87, and May ’87.
JK: I see you’ve got the dates on the cover.
CP: These were all outtakes recorded during those sessions. Some labels didn’t want a C90, they wanted a C45 or C60. But I wanted to do a C90 so I released it myself on Harsh Reality.
JK: It had been a while since the last Viktimized Karcass tape. This was the first since the HR047 Alien Karcasscapes and HR048 Viktimized Karcass/Alien Planetscapes Live at Harsh Reality July 18, 1987. So this one just compiled previous recordings you wanted to make into an album?
CP: I finally had a enough material to make an album. This is probably the last time you’ll hear the song ‘Got To Be’ (laughs).
JK: Speaking of that song, what does ‘Sports Version’ mean in the title ‘Got To Be (Sports Version) #2’?
CP: Just some crazy ass Richard Martin idea (laughs).
JK: It really sets the tone for the album. I described it as rocking punk-pop with zany keys and synths that sound like a pennywhistle. Are those keys?
CP: It’s keys. Korg Poly 800.
JK: I commented that this is the closest to a pop song I’ve heard from Viktimized Karcass.
CP: You’ve probably heard that song around seven times across the past tapes. We change it up every time. Every one of them has been different, but this one, yeah, is kind of pop-ish.
JK: The next song, ‘Molly Anns 4 x 4 Stroll’, your daughter Molly was an ongoing presence in your song titles and on your recordings throughout the 80s.
CP: Yes, she hung out with us quite often. There’s several versions of ‘Molly Anns 4 x 4 Stroll’. There’s also ‘Molly Anns Robot Walk’, which is almost the same thing as the 4 x 4 Stroll really. But she’s the one of my kids that hung out with us the most. My sons both recorded with me once. And my daughter Bela, in 2005 I taught her how to become her own band using Acid in Tapegerm.
JK: The song ‘Dance Little Jimmy’. Was Jimmy a particular person?
CP: No, we just made it up. The song title had nothing to do with anything.
JK: I continue to be really impressed with Roger as a guitarist. On ‘Got To Be (Sports Version) #2’ we hear great ripping solos. And on ‘The Keeper’ at times there’s a Robert Fripp sound.
CP: He’s great. I really like that song ‘The Keeper’.
JK: That was one of the more overtly space rocking songs of this set.
CP: Ed Drury said Moneymaker is great for a guitarist to have as a last name (laughs).
JK: Yeah, if he got signed to a label! And then on the song ‘Rollover’ I described the guitar as like James Blood Ulmer doing a punk-blues. That was a cool song too.
CP: It’s a good tune. And all improv.
JK: I also like ‘Old Man Moon Sure Looks Wierd Tonite’. It has some of Roger’s more low-key tasteful guitar solos.
CP: That’s a good LONG ass spaced out tune.
JK: Almost 17 minutes. I love the spacey wall of noise and grunge and lumbering beat. It develops nicely for such a long track.
CP: It was fun to do.
JK: I like the jazz rocking feel to the guitar on ‘Eye Of The Beholder (Beholds)’, but the music still has this droney pulsating atmosphere.
CP: Yeah, this was really a different tape. I can see someone who is familiar with Karcass hearing this tape and not know it’s us.
JK: Yes! That’s what struck me. It’s a great tape but so different from previous Viktimized Karcass music. It includes tracks recorded between 1986 and late 1987, yet there’s a cohesiveness. I’m guessing you were careful about selecting tracks that followed a theme?
CP: I was conscious of a flow for the tape.
JK: ‘Dickin’ My Love’ sounds like it was live in front audience. I love the psychedelic space punk ‘n’ roll with 80s synth-pop keys.
CP: No, not live. That song is just crazy shit. We like to do a cover song every once in a while. We made ‘Addicted To Love’ into ‘Dickin’ My Love’. If you compare it to ‘Addicted To Love’ I don’t know if you’ll recognize it as a cover. It’s as close to a cover as we were going to get. There will be bits and pieces of ‘Dickin’ My Love’ on the upcoming Karcass tapes we’ll be getting to. We drank too much that night (laughs). That ‘No Control’ was a crazy ass tune too. Where Richard came up with the lyrics for that is beyond me.
JK: That’s another song with lots of great contrasts. I described it as space-punk funky, with slappy styled bass, hip-hoppy scratch effects, and these weird growling vocals. And more killer rocking guitar.