Search - Primal Scream :: XTRMNTR

Very impressive

Charles S. Hague | Somerville, MA | 05/16/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I haven't heard any other primal scream albums, although from what I understand this album is pretty unlike their previous material, which is unfortunate because this album is very good. Indeed, this one of few wholly integrated rock/electronic bands I've heard that pulls the trick off well (Cornelius is the only other one that comes immediately to mind). There are electronic bands that use rock moves (Chemical Brothers); there are rock bands that pretend to be electronic by throwing in burbly synth noises. But Primal Scream have created an album that rocks, which you can dance to at the same time. This is more difficult than it sounds. It helps that they're all over the map on this one: Kevin Shields (formerly of my bloody valentine) adds production to accelerator that makes the song sound, unsurprisingly, like a my bloody valentine song (albeit faster & angrier). This is a good thing. Shields also contributes to the aptly-titled MBV Arkestra, a very impressive dance rave-up complete with horns and random swirling noises. There's also neo-hip-hop sounds here (Pills, aided by the Automator's fine production); big beat (kill all hippies), and other meldings of electronic moves into rock stylings. Primal Scream have also generously included two entertaining versions of the song Swastika Eyes: the first version melds a satisfying electro riff with impassioned vocals, while the second version is a remix by the Chemical Brothers that sounds like a Chemical Brothers song; imagine that. One other thing to note is that the track listing on Amazon is wrong: the listing above is the track listing for the uk version of the record, but the American version of this album also contains the bonus track "I'm 5 years ahead of my time." Unfortunately, I bought the import version of this album a couple of months ago, so I'm missing that track. In fact, I'm seriously considering buying the album a second time to get that song. Yes, the album is that good: hype is rarely dead on (remember the Beta Band?) but in this case, I'd say you can believe the hype."

The best rock album in a long time

Michael Kluge | San Jose, CA United States | 11/12/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yeah, it's full of processed sounds, production, and sampled beats, but this is, in both sound and mentality, a full-on rock and protest album. Every moment of this album is harsh and abrasive, and all the more enjoyable for it. It's like one strong tow-line that drags you along at its end. "Kill All Hippies'" driving beat and heavy bass will draw you in from the get-go, and pulls you through the white fire of "Accelerator," the pulsing rhythm of "Swastika Eyes," the crunchy beats of "MBV Arkestra," all the way to the final fuzzed-out blasts of "I'm 5 Years Ahead of My Time." Rarely in this decade have we heard music so alive, so angry, and so caustic. Not even Nirvana's music had such a unifying sense to back it. This kind of music will make you happy to be alive, to be able to raise your voice and make it be heard, to be able to take action. Turn on, tune in, rock out."

Battlefield Screamadelica

MaddKhameleon | Singapore: The City of Sin | 09/07/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The year was 1991, the location was Britain, and the bands were Primal Scream and MBV amongst many other marvelous bands. Primal Scream released their `Screamadelica', MBV released their `Loveless', being the best two albums in 1991 and two of the best albums in the 90s, both of them immediately became touchstones for any album that was going to come. The latter is still unparalleled and without a follow-up while the band that made the former became one of the most influential bands in the last decade, whose names, together with Massive Attack and Radiohead, are representative of the entire decade, not even names like Oasis and Manic Street Preacher came close to. It looked like a battle between MBV and Primal Scream at that time, a competition for the album of the year. We also saw strong contenders like Nirvana's `Nevermind' and Massive Attack's `Blue Lines'. At last, quite a number of albums released that year became classics, I mean real classics. Then which album is the album of 1991? To me the answer is still MBV's `Loveless', which eventually became my album of last decade. Why do I have to talk about history? Consider this: `Xtrmntr' is released at the dawn of year 2000, a new millennium, the location is Britain, where some of the best music was made in the last decade, the band is Primal Scream, together with a whole team of veterans, including MBV's brain Kevin Shields, David Holmes, who is arguably one of the best DJs in terms of creating innovative sound consistently (just listen to his latest album `Bow Down...'), Dan the Automator was one of the most important figures in the hip-hop world...and many others, you might call this a collaboration between all the talents. The impact of this album is still unknown, but I have to tell you, this is going to be another benchmark album. Well, instead of calling this a collaboration effort, I call it a battle, collaboration is just the form of this battle, a battle that decides who is creating the best NOW. Just listen to the first track, `Kill All Hippies', the lyrics goes something like this:' You Got the Money, I Got the Soul', another battle? A battle against consumerism? A hate letter to the commercialized world? Definitely! The second track comes in, the abrasive guitar is typical of Kevin Shields, Bobby's vocal is angrier than ever, now he really is waging a war against consumerism, "Come On, Come On". Yes, it must be a hate letter then! The title track `Exterminator' is semi-industrial, an ominous track which talks about the devastating effect of our modern technology and again...consumerism. `Swastika Eyes' is simply the most danceable track here, the effect is immediate, ultra-dynamic, it feels like a roller coaster the sound brings up you to the sky, then it makes you fall down, then bring you up again. If you are into stuff like Chemical Brothers, you will definitely find yourself in love with this in no time, despite the fact that the original version of the song is better than the Chemical Brothers' remix version. `Pills' is angry, abrasive and vulgar, a song will make DJs who play it lose their jobs. `Blood Money' is an instrumental track, produced by David Holmes, it is long, complex and hypnotic. My favorite track on the album, it might not be extremely catchy at first listen, but dedicate some time and patience to it, and you will love this. `Keep Your Dreams' is probably the last part of the `Star' trilogy which starts with `Shine Like Star', followed by `Star', now the trilogy ends with `Keep Your Dreams'. Dreamy, comfortable and...politically correct, this is obviously the most easy-listening track on this horrendously noisy album. `Insect Royalty' should have replaced `Soul Auctioneer' on Death In Vega's `The Contino Session' album, a track that Death In Vegas are too bloody-minded to make. `MBV Arkestra' , the MBV remix of `If They Move, Kill Them' is simply the centerpiece of this album, yes, you didn't get it wrong. I know the original version appeared on `Vanishing Point', it is a great song , but this remix typifies the sentiment of this album: A BATTLE. What Kevin Shields did was to lock the Primal Scream sound into an forbidding cage of hardened steel, the tiger struggles to go out, he tried everything, from attempting to destroy the cage to roaring, but everything he did was in vain, finally, he succumbed... What appeared on `Loveless' as the transparent curtain of gold leaf has eventually become a steel cage here, clearly, this sounds more like Jeuse&Mary Chain than MBV in 1991. Does this mean that the line between shoegazer noise pop and rock is not so clearly drawn? `Shoot Speed-Kill Light' is the finale of the war-like symphony, providing an impractical and extremely idealistic `solution' to the problem: fly away. The idea sounds a wee bit like what `OK Computer' was trying to say. The song, with Bernard Summer playing guitar like he has abstained himself from playing it for ages and Bobby crooning in great frustration like he has all the anger and angst in the world, is a fantastic way of ending the battle, though idealist. To sum it all up, this album is momentous, it signifies the death of Britpop, also this marks the beginning of a new era in rock, the form may differ, but the core remains unchanged. If rock music has to progress, it has to depend external forces, yes, other forms to music, I am sure that electronica will be a huge influence on the Rock `N Roll in the next century. The future is not bleak if we are not dumb enough to believe the words of some `rock purists', the future is not bleak if we don't always stick to our lame old ways, the future is not bleak if we try hard enough."