Big Black – Atomizer (1986/2015) [PonoMusic FLAC 24bit/44,1kHz]

Big Black – Atomizer (1986/2015) [Remastered]
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 37:40 minutes | 474 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: PonoMusic | @ Touch & Go Records

Founded by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, Big Black was an American Alternative/punk rock band from Evanston, Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Big Black’s aggressive and abrasive music was characterized by distinctively clanky guitars and the use of a drum machine rather than a drum kit, elements that foreshadowed industrial rock. The band’s lyrics flouted commonly held taboos and dealt frankly— and often explicitly— with politically and culturally loaded topics including murder, rape, child sexual abuse, arson, racism, and misogyny. They were staunchly critical of the commercial nature of rock, shunning the mainstream music industry and insisting on complete control over all aspects of their career. At the height of their success, they booked their own tours, paid for their own recordings, refused to sign contracts, and eschewed many of the traditional corporate trappings of rock bands. In doing so they had a significant impact on the aesthetic and political development of independent and underground rock music.

After countless rock and neo-industrial outfits attempted to one-up each other’s levels of extremity over the years, Atomizer holds up extremely well. It’s not every day that one hears a song considering self-immolation as “just something to do” or another that tackles the case of an alleged parent-child molestation ring from the viewpoint of the offender. Instrumentally, Atomizer is a wailing behemoth of assaultive Roland beats, Steve Albini and Santiago Durango’s clanging and whirring guitars, and new member Dave Riley’s lumberjack bass. Their musical invention went a couple steps further, most obviously on the warped-beyond-recognition guitars of “Passing Complexion” and “Kerosene.” The latter is undeniably Big Black’s brightest/bleakest moment, an epically roaming track that features an instantly memorable guitar intro, completely incapable of being accurately described by vocal imitation or physical gesture. It’s also Albini at his most plainspoken and bleak: “Stare at the wall/Stare at each other and wait ’til we die.” It’s Big Black’s “Light My Fire,” literally. “Bad Houses” tops Killing Joke in affecting moodiness, serving as a perhaps unintentional reply to John Mellencamp’s “Pink Houses.” Both Albini and Mellencamp were commenting on the Midwest, so why not? Other points of interest include the demented, storming menace of “Fists of Love” and a live version of “Cables” that features an extended guitar wobbly from Albini. The record remains as horrifying as the day it was recorded.

Tracklist:
01 – Jordan, Minnesota
02 – Passing Complexion
03 – Big Money
04 – Kerosene
05 – Bad Houses
06 – Fists of Love
07 – Stinking Drunk
08 – Bazooka Joe
09 – Strange Things
10 – Cables (Live)

Download:

mqs.link_BigBlackAtmizer19862015Pn24441.rar