My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult – Sinister Whisperz IV: The Bedroom Tapes (1987-1988)
Sleaze Box Records
Release Date: 09/05/23
Running Time: 50:15
Review by Dark Juan
10/10
Dark Juan greets you on this most auspicious day. Yes, it is World Goth Day as I type this missive to you and in celebration of the finest music ever known to man, I am proudly sporting my Sisters Of Mercy “Gegen Nazis” t shirt. Before literally none of you warm up your anti-Nazi keyboard hands and start to complain – it is literally translated as “Against Nazis”. Save your righteous ire for the actual Fascist cunts the next time you see them. Dark Juan has no time for white supremacists. We all bleed red and to suggest that someone whose skin is of a different hue to yours makes them somehow inferior just indicates to this Hellpriest that you are a colossal, dribbling, ugly motherfucker who sleeps with your own cousins, abuses your parents, and probably thinks about fucking your sister while you masturbate your genetically superior two-inch love rocket with a Kriegsmarine flag. And you can only shoot a load the same size as a sparrow’s tear, you right-wing shitbiscuit. What Nazis and white supremacists are are inferior examples of credulity when applied to a limited gene pool where there already is a serious intellectual lack. None of them look like Aryan supermen either. They are either pasty-faced wanknuggets with arms and legs like pipecleaners who managed to somehow crawl out of the abortion bucket or they are a collection of of red-complexioned aneurysms and heart attacks waiting to happen, normally with a bulldog and the word “England” tattooed somewhere on their beer-bellied, fat-as-fuck persons. They are also universally educationally subnormal and deeply unpleasant people.
In short, Nazis can get in the fucking bin and I can then pour petrol on them and set them on fire. It’s how Adolf went after he topped himself. They should fucking love it.
I just realised that when my American friends visited West Yorkshire last year, my friend No Hands Dan and I turned up at the train station wearing Anti-Nazi t-shirts quite by accident, Dan in his “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” shirt and your good correspondent in the aforementioned “Gegen Nazis” shirt which precipitated this rant. This preamble was supposed to celebrate World Goth Day. Turns out my subconscious had other ideas.
The virulently Anti-Nazi Platter Of Splatter™ is spinning vigorously and it has the latest release from Industrial/ Electronic Rock pioneers My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult (who I am abbreviating to TKK for the rest of this review because I simply cannot be arsed to keep typing the whole band name) playing upon it. For you young people who have not been exposed to TKK before – They are legendary stalwarts of the Industrial scene, originally on Chicago’s WAX TRAX! Records, along with the likes of Ministry and Front 242 (both of whom Dark Juan absolutely reveres) and this recording that is currently being played represents 13 tracks of very early TKK – essentially this retrospective is a collection of raw, unproduced recording made in a tiny Chicago bedroom by Groovie Mann and Buzz McCoy when they were mere neophytes before they released their first studio record.
So, what do they sound like?
They sound like sex, blasphemy, jackhammers and go-go girls. They are a neon-drenched nightmare of leather-clad biker gangs, kinky sex with PVC clad hookers in seedy fetish clubs and a heady cocktail of alcohol, drugs, blood, semen and shining, diamond sharp stainless steel blades opening skin and forked and pierced tongues lapping up the blood at the moment of shuddering climax for both parties. They are the soundtrack to BDSM debauchery where whipped, grown men kneel before you and call you Daddy. Where voluptuous angels hang from flesh hooks above you, ready to be torn down and used for your pleasure. With a bit of cartoon Satanism chucked in for good measure.
In other words, a normal Saturday night out for Dark Juan in Sowerby Bridge.
The first thing you must get used to on this record is the uncompromising rawness of it. There is little to no polish to the songs as these are the embryonic sounds of TKK, and the band have bravely decided to release them as they were recorded in that tiny bedroom in the windy city many years ago. TKK normally operate a highly polished, slick Industrial aesthetic and this grimy, oily, misfiring Industrial engine of chopped B-movie audio samples, hammering percussion, fractured musicianship and distorted, stream of consciousness vocals is a bit different.
It is still utterly captivating, though. ‘Wrath Of Satan’ is a swaggering, sexy song that is just like looking at a prostitute, fancying the arse off her and buying an hour of her time even though you know you’re just a john and your orgasm means nothing to her. It’s just forbidden and sleazy and DIRTY and that’s why I fucking love My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and have done since I first discovered Industrial music when I was a mere young Seminarian. Their satirical Satanism and sideways looks at Christianity and religion have always charmed me mightily.
TKK are closely analogous with the purveyors of the ultra-heavy beat deluxe, KMFDM, and it is unsurprising that they share similarities of sound with the multinational (and BLESSED with Lucia Cifarelli – unrequited teenage lust Dark Juan) Industrial Rockers, and especially with Front 242. Skinny Puppy are also a noticeable and all-pervading influence on these early songs – ‘Out Of Order 87’ clearly having been inspired by Nivek Ogre and cEvin Key with its piledriving rhythm and sparse, driving vocal line. ‘Nevermore Returns’ with its haunting keyboard refrain, electronic harshness and wailing singing could have been on an early Ministry album before Al found the Metal.
In short then: If you are a completist or just interested in the sound of one of the bands that were the forerunners and inventors of American Industrial music, you need this album from TKK. If you are just a fan of Industrial music with a larger than normal electronic component, you need this album from TKK. If you want to hear from where The Electric Hellfire Club was spawned, you need this album from TKK.
Put simply: YOU NEED THIS ALBUM FROM TKK!
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System has been mightily enjoying itself with My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult’s early days and thinking back to the days when it was clad head to foot in beat up black leather and calling itself a psychotropic love commando and visiting “specialist” establishments for entertainment purposes. TKK are awarded 10/10 for a record that sounds slightly dated but is still superb enough to stand on its own even though it is essentially a collection of live bedroom recordings with magnificent Industrial prowess.
TRACKLISTING:
01. I See Spirits
02. Sermon 4 None
03. Absolution
04. Satan’s Power
05. Babble Box
06. Monster Man
07. Invocation
08. Baby Casanova
09. Wrath Of Satan
10. Eye Of X
11. Out Of Order ’87
12. Nevermore Returns
13. Statik Xians
LINE-UP:
Groovie Mann – Synths, samples, instruments, vocals
Buzz McCoy – Synths, samples, instruments, vocals
Mimi Star – Bass
Justin Thyme – Drums
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.