Astonishing!
Lovblad | Geneva, Switzerland | 09/19/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Now this is a quite unique document. Suicide were a very unique group, situating themselves at the borders of punk and electronica. when it comes to electronic music, they may be only second to Kraftwerk in global influence. This is an astonishing box of live recordings from around the time of thier first album. While their first album is the most intense and most influential it is not in my opinion thier masterpiece: this is their second, Ric Ocasek produced second opus. However the importance of the recordings from the first album can not be disputed. What one gets here is of course a series of live recordings fo Ghost rider, frankie teardop and rocket usa (take or give one or two more). Real fans already have in one form or another the live Brussels recording which is one of the greatest live electronic (or simply live) recordings if all time This may be somewhat tiring since the recordings are of very varied quality, some OK and some not so OK. However the intensty of the songs really comes over in an incredible way and really demonstrates whs Suicide was such a different band. It was able to mix the repetitious nature of electronica with a real violent attitude brought on by Alan Vega. Some of this would be translated into his later solo work. The only other down-side is the rather hefty price for such a lo-fi collection that tends to repeat itself. It does contain a very nice booklet about the group with some historical writings. If you like them, you have to have this, also ebcause it seems to be somewhat of a limited edition item."