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album // Big Hit
I got into Nitzer Ebb
just after the release of their seminal 1991 album Ebbhead.
I regard that album as being almost entirely responsible for my
immersion into the wider Mute roster, and also
to the more underground depths that my music preferences descended
to in the 1990s. It was with a palpable sense of anticipation with
which I bought the late 1993 edition of the sadly-defunct Volume
magazine and book which premiered the first track from what would
become the newly-expanded Nitzer Ebb’s (then) last album Big
Hit. That track was 'In Decline'. Elsewhere on that edition
of Volume was a new Moby track, from his
forthcoming Mute debut album, Everything Is Wrong. Moby’s
track was 'What Love', and like 'In Decline' was initially disappointing.
By that purchase of Volume
I'd also bought Nitzer Ebb’s first two albums, That Total Age
and Belief, and so I was quite used to the punishing electronic
sound that they had, in the wake of Depeche Mode,
perfected as their own. Thus 'In Decline' was something of a shock
to someone weaned on that almost entirely purist electronic sound.
Even the harsher sounds on the Alan Wilder-produced
Ebbhead were no preparation for what for all intents and
purposes was a more 'traditional' sounding rock track. For a start
it incorporated the live drums of new member Jason Payne
alongside the vocals and electronics of core members Douglas
McCarthy and Bon Harris. What’s more,
instead of the aggressively-hammered basslines and sounds of their
earlier albums, 'In Decline' incorporated a spareness and bleakness
that they had not previously exploited. Where Depeche Mode went,
the Ebb was sure to follow, I thought, and the use of Songs
Of Faith And Devotion producer Flood again was a sure sign
that they wanted to pursue a wholly different production sheen to
this album. In time I learned to love 'In Decline, but it was a
slow journey. 'What Love' by Moby took a considerably longer period
of time.
I then received a flexi single in the
post from Mute showcasing edits from Big Hit, including
the opening track on the album, 'Cherry Blossom'. This is more like
it, I thought, picking out the heavy synths and machine-like rhythms
in spite of the graininess of the plastic underneath my turntable’s
needle. And indeed, 'Cherry Blossom' is an amazing opening track
and is one of the highlights of Big Hit. It’s nothing short
of harrowing, cloying and thrilling, with a depth to the production
that is evident across the entire album. The breakdown into pounded
drums and out-of-control synths and shouted 'yeahs’ has
to be heard to be believed, but nothing will compare to the first
time you hear it for its sheer unexpectedness. 'Cherry Blossom'
gives way to the grainy synth pull of 'Hear Me Say' which again
ploughs a similar furrow to earlier Nitzer Ebb tracks but which
borrows its style and delivery from the more adventurous reaches
of 1990s electronica.
Big Hit’s two singles then
follow (neither of which, like the album, delivered the band the
hit that they’d always craved). 'Kick It' is among the best of the
Nitzer Ebb singles and is a ferocious punk-funk / electronica blend
deploying the guitar talents of Bad Brains’ Dr. Know. 'I Thought',
on the other hand, is (mostly) a plaintively tender song delivered
over a bed of subtly shifting sounds – completely different from
the version which would be released as the album’s second single.
The track is maudlin and fragile, until near the very end where
it achieves a crescendo of sorts over buzzing guitars – it’s the
closest Nitzer Ebb have ever come to the bleak depths of Nine
Inch Nails circa The Downward Spiral.
'Floodwater' is probably my favourite
track on the album; deeply unsettling as much as it is rousing,
it hints at the mature direction the band could have taken had they
not imploded very shortly after Big Hit’s accompanying
tour. 'There’s no such thing as a free ride’ sings McCarthy
over a shifting bed of drums and burbling electronics. 'Border Talk'
details the treatment the band received by over-zealous and corrupt
border guards which is mostly spoken by McCarthy over double-tracked
drums and synths which sound like horns; it’s a little like a more
cynical take on the spoken word mix of their 'Out Of Mind’ (available
on International Compilation Mute and the new digital compilation
In Order).
Similar in many ways to 'I Thought',
'Living Out Of A Bag' is a world-weary track detailing brutal, crushing
disappointment which certainly struck a chord with me when I bought
this. It takes a while to get going, but its distorted guitars and
synth sprays all lead to a chorus that even today has the capacity
to lift the hairs on the back of my neck. Continuing the theme,
'Boy' – the closest McCarthy has come to capturing the spirit of
Martin L Gore’s balladry – seems to be directed
at a son and would appear to be a heartfelt message trying to convince
the child that his father is not the figure he’s been made out to
be.
Closing track 'Our Own World' is one
of the tracks closest in feel to, say, the tracks on Showtime
but continues the band’s development into rockist territory which
opens with gently strummed, countrified guitars. It all becomes
quite chaotic on the choruses and represents quite a gleeful conclusion
to an underrated album. It’s such a disappointment that this part
of the Nitzer Ebb story abruptly ended after its release. They were
the first non-mainstream band that I fell in love with and their
back catalogue is depressingly all too brief; Big Hit pointed
to a future in which they’d left their playground chants far behind
and were heading off in a new, no less individual direction.
CD:
1. Cherry Blossom
2. Hear Me Say
3. Kick It
4. I Thought
5. Floodwater
6. Border Talk
7. In Decline
8. Living Out Of A Bag
9. Boy
10. Our Own World
single // Kick It
Review forthcoming.
12":
1. Kick It (The Secret Knowledge Velvet DMs Mix)
2. Kick It (Logical Edit)
3. Kick It (Banjo Sin)
4. Kick It (Dub 2)
5. Kick It (Popular Music Mix)
CD:
1. Kick It
2. Kick It (Logical Edit)
3. Kick It (Short Dub)
4. Kick It (Popular Music Mix)
LCD:
1. Kick It (The Secret Knowledge Velvet DMs Mix)
2. Skintight
3. Kick It (Banjo Sin)
XLCD:
1. Kick It (Addiction Edit)
2. Dead And Gone
3. Kick It (Hippy Grip)
single // I Thought
Review forthcoming.
12":
1. I Thought (Single Mix)
2. I Thought (Sucked In And Sucked Out)
3. Cherry Blossom (Original Version)
4. I Thought
CD:
1. I Thought (Single Mix)
2. Friend (Brittle Mix)
3. Beats Me
LCD:
1. I Thought
2. Cherry Blossom (Original Version)
3. I Thought (Final Sin)
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