Search - Ministry :: Early Trax

Cold Life disowned?

REX | Chicago | 06/10/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Another great opportunity somewhat squandered, EARLY TRAX is more fruit from the joined forces of Rykodisc and Al Jourgensen, who are thankfully doing their parts to keep the seminal work by the ever-resilient Ministry canonized. And this is cornerstone material here - the band that launched a million imitators by making synth pop aggressive and creating a hipster scene in Chicago unlike any seen before or since. If you like dark (but not quite goth) dance music, cocaine, and the sound of '80s electronic production values, you simply can't pass this by. "Halloween" is a bonafide classic of the utmost caliber (even Jourgensen's lyrics, which could be laughable on paper, prove anthemic and memorable in the long run), and "All Day" and "The Nature of Love" will continue to keep your ass shaking.



However, this remastered compilation is not quite the replacement for the TWELVE INCH SINGLES compilation it could have been, so don't go selling your WaxTrax! originals... "Cold Life," Ministry's funky new wave debut single, is nowhere to be seen here, and even though it's always been the dark horse of the batch, one has to wonder what the point was in disowning it this late in the game. (Perhaps it was co-written with long-missing band members to whom Al no longer wishes to pay royalties?) However, its wonderful B-side "I'm Falling" is finally on CD here (in two forms, no less: the classic one that sounds like "We Got the Beat," as well as a gothier unreleased version). In addition, or perhaps to compensate for the absence of "Cold Life," we get three previously unheard tracks, two of which could have been on TWITCH and a third that pre-dates them all. There are definitely reasons why these tracks were buried in the past, but if you're a huge fan of pieces like "Just Like You," you will be happy to have them.



And finally, these tracks have been remastered... so beats are crisper, bass is deeper, and tape hiss is overwhelmingly present in a way it never was before. Remember those old warnings on early CD pressings that explain how digital mastering can show the limitations of analog sources? This is a great example of this. Perhaps the extra effort should have been given to clean up these tapes bit by bit like so many artists are doing nowadays; the end result is a little half-assed, but only the most discerning audiophile types will really care.



In conclusion, EARLY TRAX is a good mix of classic material and unreleased outtakes, with only adequate remastering, missing old tracks, and repetitive sequencing which renders the disc unplayable as a whole. However, this is material that needs to stay available and huge points should be awarded to Ryko and Jourgensen for that."

I Live With Snakes and Lizards!

Crash N' Burn | New York, NY USA | 10/13/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is basically a remastered better version of Twelve Inch Singles and if you have Twelve Inch Singles and like it, this is definitely worth a purchase. Unlike their speed metal, their early work like this compilation is basically electronic and new wave music, with a pinch of urban elements such as funk, the drum patterns, samples, and the scratching heard on Halloween. With the exception of Cold Life and Primental, you get all the singles Ministry made for Wax Trax! As well as some solid bonus materials that some how never saw the light. The best cuts for me off this album are two great mixes of I'm Falling, a song with lyrics that remind me of NWA's **** Tha Police, but I have no idea why the inlay says the alternate take of I'm Falling was unreleased when I have it on the Cold Life EP. Overkill, a punk new wave song Ministry almost always played at the end of their concerts in the early 80s. My favorite song of all time Everyday Is Halloween, a big mid 80s hit in the Chicago underground that reached out to outcasts everywhere. And last but not least, Move and He's Angry (He's Angry is a song that was going to be a PTP track but was credited to Ministry at the last moment) are solid numbers that will probably bring back memories of late 80s Front 242, especially their Front By Front album. Don't know why they were released much earlier when they didn't sound bad at all. Their good cuts to dance and freestyle to when your in a down 80s electro mood. Overall, to fans of early industrial and dark electronic music, this is definitely a worthwhile purchase. To fans of speed metal Ministry you might want to think twice before purchase, though you may want to have this so you know where Ministry came from. Overall, this is a classic album, (let's be honest, it does has it's weak spots with some of the remixes) so cop it already!"

Title of review.

Mike K. | Massachusetts, USA | 03/10/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Though not as essential to Ministry fans as it's partner disk Side Trax (which gathers together the various EP's of every non-Revolting Cocks or Lard side project of the band), this cd is a good purchase if you liked Twitch's combination of synth pop and industrial noise experimentation. "Every Day Is Halloween", "All Day" (here in a slightly different version than the Twitch one), "Cold Life" and "Nature Of Love", though all also compiled on the (apparently now out of print) 12 Inch Singles CD, are musts for anyone who wants more material in the Twitch style. As a nice bonus it also includes 3 pre-With Sympathy tracks that show how much better that album could have been if the band weren't pressured into a more commercial (and therefor now incredibly dated) synth-pop direction, the best of which is "Overkill", a driving Bauhaus-style piece of paranoid goth-rock that notably features the earliest appearance of distorted guitar on a Ministry song (a full 7 years before The Land Of Rape And Honey no less!). The remixes and alternate versions are a bit redundant; they have their moments, but I wish they had followed the format of the 12 Inch Singles compilation and put all the remixes and alternate versions at the end, so that you wouldn't have to either make liberal use of the skip button or sit through, say, 3 versions of "Nature Of Love" in a row."