ANDI SEX GANG - 'Achilles In The Eurozone'
http://www.peek-a-boo_-magazine_.be/en/reviews/andi-sex_gang-achilles-in-the-eurozone/
You sometimes read that the term "goth" was used for the first time to describe the music of Andi Sex Gang after a gig in the famous Batcave club in the early 80s. I don’t know if it is true or not. What I do know, is that Andi Sex Gang had a major impact on the goth scene. Both solo, and with his band Sex Gang Children. He has been an inspiration for many bands that now lead the goth and/or batcave genre.
He never chose the easiest way and he always did it in his own style. Many musical (r) evolutions later, he's back with a new album: Achilles In The Eurozone. As the title suggests, this is not a happy album. It is his critical vision on today's Europe, which could be much better.
The opening track Achilles In The Eurozone is a little below the creative level of Andi Sex Gang, as the song is certainly not a reference for the rest of the album. The music fan who doesn’t give up and continues to listen, gets a very nice album. At first sight it seems all simple, but the creative compositions describe the emotions in a strong way. Those emotions are rather told than sung by Andi Sex Gang, but he does it in such a good way, that all the pieces fit together.
The album contains 14 tracks and apart from the opening track, they all earn their place on this album. Given the socially critical tone of the album, you might expect aggression. Nothing is less true, one song is playful, another sarcastic, but it’s nonetheless pure Andi Sex Gang. Thirty years after his first album Blind, he still succeeds in making a socially relevant and strong album in his own eccentric way.
Ruben Saey
You sometimes read that the term "goth" was used for the first time to describe the music of Andi Sex Gang after a gig in the famous Batcave club in the early 80s. I don’t know if it is true or not. What I do know, is that Andi Sex Gang had a major impact on the goth scene. Both solo, and with his band Sex Gang Children. He has been an inspiration for many bands that now lead the goth and/or batcave genre.
He never chose the easiest way and he always did it in his own style. Many musical (r) evolutions later, he's back with a new album: Achilles In The Eurozone. As the title suggests, this is not a happy album. It is his critical vision on today's Europe, which could be much better.
The opening track Achilles In The Eurozone is a little below the creative level of Andi Sex Gang, as the song is certainly not a reference for the rest of the album. The music fan who doesn’t give up and continues to listen, gets a very nice album. At first sight it seems all simple, but the creative compositions describe the emotions in a strong way. Those emotions are rather told than sung by Andi Sex Gang, but he does it in such a good way, that all the pieces fit together.
The album contains 14 tracks and apart from the opening track, they all earn their place on this album. Given the socially critical tone of the album, you might expect aggression. Nothing is less true, one song is playful, another sarcastic, but it’s nonetheless pure Andi Sex Gang. Thirty years after his first album Blind, he still succeeds in making a socially relevant and strong album in his own eccentric way.
Ruben Saey
Andi Sex Gang - 'Bram Stoker's Dracula'
THIS IS FANTASTIC. A double CD audiobook that I felt had the potential to be tongue-in-cheek frivolity turns out to be a masterful, passionate reading that will hold you transfixed.
Andi has such a distinctive voice, and at times a dramatically playful manner, so I wondered what this might reveal, and would have been happy with dishevelled delirium, or the stern and serious, but it’s seriously delirious. There is one touch very early on where you can hear him trying not to laugh but otherwise it’s steady, delicately adventurous, but true to the story.
I don’t like the book but bought this out of interest to see how he handled it all. Having in recent years enjoyed watching the early films re-released with music on Trakwerx, including Nosferatu, and having seen a theatrical production of an amended Dracula only last week now is a good time to enjoy this. Turning sometimes wilting words into piquant prose, Andi pours himself into the task and anoints all with discreet ambient music to make the atmosphere swell.
Obviously you can only do works out of copyright but there’s others Andi could contemplate, surely? He has the ability and the technology. I’ll be reviewing the new Sex Gang album this week. Stay tuned.
Andi has such a distinctive voice, and at times a dramatically playful manner, so I wondered what this might reveal, and would have been happy with dishevelled delirium, or the stern and serious, but it’s seriously delirious. There is one touch very early on where you can hear him trying not to laugh but otherwise it’s steady, delicately adventurous, but true to the story.
I don’t like the book but bought this out of interest to see how he handled it all. Having in recent years enjoyed watching the early films re-released with music on Trakwerx, including Nosferatu, and having seen a theatrical production of an amended Dracula only last week now is a good time to enjoy this. Turning sometimes wilting words into piquant prose, Andi pours himself into the task and anoints all with discreet ambient music to make the atmosphere swell.
Obviously you can only do works out of copyright but there’s others Andi could contemplate, surely? He has the ability and the technology. I’ll be reviewing the new Sex Gang album this week. Stay tuned.
Review by Mick Mercer
Andi Sex Gang "Inventing New Destruction"
If Andi Sex Gang lives to be a hundred, he'll be known - and, in some quarters, revered - as a pioneer of goth. As the fulcrum around which proto-goth freakers and shriekers Sex Gang Children revolved (and, indeed, still revolve), he was one of the handful of artists in the early 80s post-punk era to wrench things in a darker, weirder direction. To this day, he can command an audience of eager and respectful goths and deathrockers, keen to hear the old classics. Which is all well and good, but sometimes I wish people would pay a bit more attention to Andi Sex Gang's new classics. Starting with this very album: a collection of idiosyncratic art rock, surreal beat poetry and sonic theatre that defies genre even as it prods the listener with mischievious fingers and cackles knowingly as it runs off in all directions at once.
The rampaging psychedelic pop extravaganza that is 'Celebrate!' ('Beauty queens and killers galore, contageous and outrageous!' - hey, sounds like quite a party) gives way to the crump and rumble of 'King Richard In The Heartland', a song that lumbers towards the listener like a cartload of tree trunks, heavy and implacable, the lyrics warning of...something. As ever, Andi's lyrics are ambiguous but oddly compelling: 'Bananas in Bengal, Magnolia in Montreal, the holiday is over for you all.' Well, that's us told. The hum and fizzle of 'Into The West', all Throbbing Gristle-ish ambience and strange declaimations on a theme of Berlin, sounds like gathering clouds before an electrical storm. 'Rhineland Barbie' is a funeral march disguised as a sea shanty. The song goes lurching and lolloping along like a drunk in the gutter, gesticulating at lamp posts while a choir of doom angels keen and grumble in the background, finally consenting to join in on the final chorus: 'Death on the salty waves...' Suddenly, an accordion wheezes out 'Summertime' as random clonks and bangs occur in the background: this is 'Optidog', not so much a song as an exercise in assembling sound. It's as if someone's held a microphone out of the window and recorded the neighbours, griping and fumbling in their garden shed. In short, we're a long, long way from dear old gothic rock, and the scenery is decidedly strange. But it's a trip worth taking.
The rampaging psychedelic pop extravaganza that is 'Celebrate!' ('Beauty queens and killers galore, contageous and outrageous!' - hey, sounds like quite a party) gives way to the crump and rumble of 'King Richard In The Heartland', a song that lumbers towards the listener like a cartload of tree trunks, heavy and implacable, the lyrics warning of...something. As ever, Andi's lyrics are ambiguous but oddly compelling: 'Bananas in Bengal, Magnolia in Montreal, the holiday is over for you all.' Well, that's us told. The hum and fizzle of 'Into The West', all Throbbing Gristle-ish ambience and strange declaimations on a theme of Berlin, sounds like gathering clouds before an electrical storm. 'Rhineland Barbie' is a funeral march disguised as a sea shanty. The song goes lurching and lolloping along like a drunk in the gutter, gesticulating at lamp posts while a choir of doom angels keen and grumble in the background, finally consenting to join in on the final chorus: 'Death on the salty waves...' Suddenly, an accordion wheezes out 'Summertime' as random clonks and bangs occur in the background: this is 'Optidog', not so much a song as an exercise in assembling sound. It's as if someone's held a microphone out of the window and recorded the neighbours, griping and fumbling in their garden shed. In short, we're a long, long way from dear old gothic rock, and the scenery is decidedly strange. But it's a trip worth taking.
Review by Mike Johnson
I know that a lot of people consider this group to be Goth – and to good degree I can see that. For my money, though, the type of weirdness they create isn’t all the different from Mother Gong – and that music fits into progressive rock – so, that’s where I’m putting this. Fans of strange music will love this – it is odd, but very cool. I really like this CD a lot, perhaps because of its eccentricities rather than in spite of them.
Track by Track Review
International Third Position
A voice says, “forever happy in the face of deformity,” and then ambient elements begin to bring this in – including the sounds of siren. There is noisy guitar off in the distance, but in general this is composed of sound effects type stuff. We get more free form readings over the top of this as they carry onward. There are some sung vocals later in the course of this. It ends with a spoken voice giving us the title.
Celebrate!
They turn things much more energized here. This is a cool, punky piece that has a lot in common with Porcupine Tree at the same time.
King Richard in the Heartland
Another spoken reading with weird sound effects type music, this really feels a lot like Mother Gong. They power it up more at times and give a different musical aspect when they do. I love the section late where the spoken words say, “Life is a b***h and then you die” and then a high pitched voice in the background starts repeating, “you die” and the other voice begins repeating, ever more urgently, “or is it?” For some reason I find that to be quite a cool touch.
Dust and Death
This is a bit more “song” oriented. It’s got that punk meets moody prog texture. It isn’t pretty, but it’s cool. There are some dark keyboard textures that come over later for great effect. The vocals remind me of Marianne Faithful.
Into the West
Keyboard textures bring this up and in. Percussion joins and it builds in unusual ways. The vocals here are in a similar vein to those on the last cut. This is one of my favorites on the disc, perhaps because the keyboard textures really bring in a space rock element.
Kamikaze Beauty
There is a dark beauty to this, but also plenty of RIO-like weirdness.
Rhineland Barbie
This is gentle and rather pretty, although still a bit weird.
Sick Kicks
Although this one is probably not extremely prog like, it is one of the most “song” oriented pieces here.
Hasenschwanz
With lyrics in German this has an almost classical music feeling to a lot it. The keyboards bring in some nice textures.
Black Widow Trial
This one is definitely more ambient and strange in a RIO sort of way. It gets pretty noisy before it ends. And, actually, that noisy section doesn’t close this, but rather gives way to silence and ambient sounds that take it out.
Optidog (A Certain Kind of Silence)
Here odd sounds and effects are placed alongside room noises (someone coughs early and gets louder later). A spoken vocals is placed in the midst of this.
Dust and Death (Edit Bonus)
The disc closes with another version of this song that appeared earlier.
Track by Track Review
International Third Position
A voice says, “forever happy in the face of deformity,” and then ambient elements begin to bring this in – including the sounds of siren. There is noisy guitar off in the distance, but in general this is composed of sound effects type stuff. We get more free form readings over the top of this as they carry onward. There are some sung vocals later in the course of this. It ends with a spoken voice giving us the title.
Celebrate!
They turn things much more energized here. This is a cool, punky piece that has a lot in common with Porcupine Tree at the same time.
King Richard in the Heartland
Another spoken reading with weird sound effects type music, this really feels a lot like Mother Gong. They power it up more at times and give a different musical aspect when they do. I love the section late where the spoken words say, “Life is a b***h and then you die” and then a high pitched voice in the background starts repeating, “you die” and the other voice begins repeating, ever more urgently, “or is it?” For some reason I find that to be quite a cool touch.
Dust and Death
This is a bit more “song” oriented. It’s got that punk meets moody prog texture. It isn’t pretty, but it’s cool. There are some dark keyboard textures that come over later for great effect. The vocals remind me of Marianne Faithful.
Into the West
Keyboard textures bring this up and in. Percussion joins and it builds in unusual ways. The vocals here are in a similar vein to those on the last cut. This is one of my favorites on the disc, perhaps because the keyboard textures really bring in a space rock element.
Kamikaze Beauty
There is a dark beauty to this, but also plenty of RIO-like weirdness.
Rhineland Barbie
This is gentle and rather pretty, although still a bit weird.
Sick Kicks
Although this one is probably not extremely prog like, it is one of the most “song” oriented pieces here.
Hasenschwanz
With lyrics in German this has an almost classical music feeling to a lot it. The keyboards bring in some nice textures.
Black Widow Trial
This one is definitely more ambient and strange in a RIO sort of way. It gets pretty noisy before it ends. And, actually, that noisy section doesn’t close this, but rather gives way to silence and ambient sounds that take it out.
Optidog (A Certain Kind of Silence)
Here odd sounds and effects are placed alongside room noises (someone coughs early and gets louder later). A spoken vocals is placed in the midst of this.
Dust and Death (Edit Bonus)
The disc closes with another version of this song that appeared earlier.
Review by Gary Hill
Andi Sex Gang "The Madman In The Basket"
This release from 2006 features 58 minutes of industrial pop.
Joining Andi Sex Gang on a few tracks are: Kevin Matthews, Lucas Lanthier, Leo Abrahams and Mark Sutherland.
Although the first track evokes strong memories of old Suicide tunes, the rest of this music pursues darker terrain with industrial guitar growling away under a full moon and monstrous percussion fracturing the audience's skull with each emphatic beat. A host of nasty electronics seethe with deadly intent, generating a snake pit of toothy effects and desperately resounding textures.
The shrill vocals are central to the tuneage, communicating messages of gothic significance and recounting tales of spooky lore designed to chill the heart of the surliest cynic. In actual timbre, the vocals sound like a child's voice that has been tortured to the point of staggering halfway to masculinity, then mutated with demonic vitality until the utterances tremble with diabolical mien.
The compositions channel sardonic ambitions with brutal abandon. This wanton nature does not necessarily mean that the tunes are hyperactive or bloodthirsty. In fact, the pace is often sedate, delivering diseased notions with lithe structure and sultry charm. Whether the missives concern hell on earth or a very personal angst, the overall mood is dire and cataclysmic
Joining Andi Sex Gang on a few tracks are: Kevin Matthews, Lucas Lanthier, Leo Abrahams and Mark Sutherland.
Although the first track evokes strong memories of old Suicide tunes, the rest of this music pursues darker terrain with industrial guitar growling away under a full moon and monstrous percussion fracturing the audience's skull with each emphatic beat. A host of nasty electronics seethe with deadly intent, generating a snake pit of toothy effects and desperately resounding textures.
The shrill vocals are central to the tuneage, communicating messages of gothic significance and recounting tales of spooky lore designed to chill the heart of the surliest cynic. In actual timbre, the vocals sound like a child's voice that has been tortured to the point of staggering halfway to masculinity, then mutated with demonic vitality until the utterances tremble with diabolical mien.
The compositions channel sardonic ambitions with brutal abandon. This wanton nature does not necessarily mean that the tunes are hyperactive or bloodthirsty. In fact, the pace is often sedate, delivering diseased notions with lithe structure and sultry charm. Whether the missives concern hell on earth or a very personal angst, the overall mood is dire and cataclysmic
Review from soniccuriosity.com
Andi Sex Gang, frontman for the Batcave-era band Sex Gang Children and alleged inspiration for the term 'goth,' returns with a solo album chock full of oddity. And The Madman in the Basket is a solo album in a truer sense than most; aside from four tracks, Andi Sex Gang penned all the lyrics, played all the instruments, and is responsible for all the vocals on the record.
The most interesting element of The Madman in the Basket is Sex Gang's dizzying Situationist wordplay. Slogans and pop culture ephemera are cut-up and spliced back together with new, subversive meaning. Like most auteurs, Sex Gang's voice is distinctive. His vocals remind me a bit of Rozz Williams, but he has his own oft-kilter charm and a delivery that is sometimes warmly eccentric.
The music on The Madman in the Basket mixes dark cabaret with big splotches of distorted guitar - imagine a more menacing Legendary Pink Dots and you're halfway there.
In another odd twist of fate, Sex Gang's collaboration with Lucas Lanthier (of Cinema Strange and The Deadfly Ensemble), 'Kriminal Tango,' makes a reappearance here after having already appeared on The Deadfly Ensemble's 'An Entire Wardrobe of Doubt and Uncertainty'. Ah well, the song is worthy of a wider reception. Much like The Madman in the Basket, really. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to make of this album after the first few listens, but my appreciation of it continues to grow. Oh, how it grows.
The most interesting element of The Madman in the Basket is Sex Gang's dizzying Situationist wordplay. Slogans and pop culture ephemera are cut-up and spliced back together with new, subversive meaning. Like most auteurs, Sex Gang's voice is distinctive. His vocals remind me a bit of Rozz Williams, but he has his own oft-kilter charm and a delivery that is sometimes warmly eccentric.
The music on The Madman in the Basket mixes dark cabaret with big splotches of distorted guitar - imagine a more menacing Legendary Pink Dots and you're halfway there.
In another odd twist of fate, Sex Gang's collaboration with Lucas Lanthier (of Cinema Strange and The Deadfly Ensemble), 'Kriminal Tango,' makes a reappearance here after having already appeared on The Deadfly Ensemble's 'An Entire Wardrobe of Doubt and Uncertainty'. Ah well, the song is worthy of a wider reception. Much like The Madman in the Basket, really. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to make of this album after the first few listens, but my appreciation of it continues to grow. Oh, how it grows.
Review by Jack Shear, Liarsociety Music
Something magnificent is the least you would expect from Andi's first all new record in eons, which is supposed to be followed shortly by two more projects, so the man is on fire right now. CSI darkness! Deliriously putting the topsy in autopsy, Andi Sex Gang can always be relied on to make a drama out of the most commonplace exchange as one man hurrying to the station for the 7.59 recently discovered and you can thank your lucky stars I was crouched nearby recording every word.
"Would you truly know the time?" Andi demanded. "When all acknowledge time as a tunnel through which we crawl, in filth, while a freer kite may wheel away to waltz on sunshine, bereft of death, glamour and courtly heartache? Would you say clock when you mean cock, would you wait a second if you were fecund? Would you? The name's Bond. James The Second, reeking of piss!"
Stationery stockbroker (nervously): 'Um, quite. It's about ten to...'
"I haven't finished. Squealing like angels on their arse or drooling gryphon put out to grass, I can see the paramours of diligence and dignity. I can see the winking whores of avarice and sloth. I am them! I call through them, minister, judge, sailor or witch: which are you? Come see, commissar!"
'Please,' said the suddenly weary traveller, 'don't hurt me.' But Andi was gone: off to record this no doubt. Where Byron meets Monty Python (in a custody battle over Mr. Punch), there will you find him.
Andi Sex Gang remains the peak of UK Goth creativity, because his music revolves around passion, fused with wit, and wordplay of daring and cunning, sensitively handled. This album is just him and the splendid oik Kevin Matthews, and together they sound more dangerous when quiet than a raging guitar band. It's all about inherent style. Andi will glide towards a subject, welcoming and discreet, then behead it with startling efficiency. It's almost casually disturbing, as though he had found gainful employment as an after-dinner
shrieker.
I don't really know what's happening, but his life seems unpredictable, roughly untutored. The websites, for both him and Sex Gang Children, always lack detail. He's gigged recently in Mexico, but there's sod all news about this record, which can drive a visitor mad. I do know it's got twelve songs which come under the heading of The Madman In The Basket and four as The Obituary Show, but the CD player reads twenty! Andi sounds like he's had his teeth realigned during a few of them, including opener 'Cruel And Beautiful', with demented vocal placement over a dour percussive trail and what has been claimed as spoken word is like presidential ambient. Then it swells and infects wonderfully, before contracting again. The delicate fear of 'Those Beasts Bleed' wails and pleads over softly poisoned sounds, and needless to say the tracklisting on the record sleeve is out of sorts. The record itself seems wilfully perverse, or literally fucked up, when one song returns twice later.
"In defense of words, I'm your fucking wake up call," Andi informs before 'Body Parts' does it droopy, drippy pop take on loquacious linear shape superbly; Andi listing a string of -isms including asshole-ism, which is a new one, and then it becomes a clinging swoon and if you don't laugh at his intonation of 'booze cruise bingo' you haven't the capacity to imagine a Hinge & Brackett death squad. 'Odin Bites Me' continues to wield gentrified vocals detailing hideous scenes ('reality tv is good for me' being the scariest), then some grimy seething sets 'Nation Of Flies' off nicely.
The brief 'Mormo' pitches us back into the Brechtian waltz, with vampires in the White House, then glowing splinters make the suspiciously pretty 'Babes In The Wood' deeply creepy. 'Orthian Strain' is a plinking dilemma where funny words loll. 'Thief!' does a cutely sordid, corrupted blues grind and slow bumpiness. 'Murder Inc.' is another verbal joust, with sombre tones, but 'No More Words' is a gently swaying charmer.
'The Hitler In Your Career' is a slow burning crowning glory here, so expansively cool, 'Death Before Disco' is a devious one with it's talk of militant strippers and screaming choirboys. Very catchy, scuffed up and the celebratory form of seedy. It then does a lengthy reprise as another track. And then again! And again: can this be intentional? Finally breaking free of this extended prison 'Kriminal Tango' minces around nobly, featuring Lucas Lanthier of Cinema Strange in it's sticky caress. A desolate 'Sanctuary Of Wings' is a sadness sandwhich that tastes bad, but is beautifully prepared, haunting and horrible. 'Dress America rants politely, doomily but softens and warms. Then it starts over again and makes for a strangely attractive end.
So there we have it. Not an attacking Sex Gang soiree, but a svelte and stoical, outraged Andi doing what he does best, mixing the bitter and the poetic into a sour cocktail with some fantastic tunes. Other bands please take note and try and reach these heights, relieved that there is still reason for them to continue, to contest, because while Andi is the supreme artist he's not the Goth Messiah.
He's a very naughty boy.
"Would you truly know the time?" Andi demanded. "When all acknowledge time as a tunnel through which we crawl, in filth, while a freer kite may wheel away to waltz on sunshine, bereft of death, glamour and courtly heartache? Would you say clock when you mean cock, would you wait a second if you were fecund? Would you? The name's Bond. James The Second, reeking of piss!"
Stationery stockbroker (nervously): 'Um, quite. It's about ten to...'
"I haven't finished. Squealing like angels on their arse or drooling gryphon put out to grass, I can see the paramours of diligence and dignity. I can see the winking whores of avarice and sloth. I am them! I call through them, minister, judge, sailor or witch: which are you? Come see, commissar!"
'Please,' said the suddenly weary traveller, 'don't hurt me.' But Andi was gone: off to record this no doubt. Where Byron meets Monty Python (in a custody battle over Mr. Punch), there will you find him.
Andi Sex Gang remains the peak of UK Goth creativity, because his music revolves around passion, fused with wit, and wordplay of daring and cunning, sensitively handled. This album is just him and the splendid oik Kevin Matthews, and together they sound more dangerous when quiet than a raging guitar band. It's all about inherent style. Andi will glide towards a subject, welcoming and discreet, then behead it with startling efficiency. It's almost casually disturbing, as though he had found gainful employment as an after-dinner
shrieker.
I don't really know what's happening, but his life seems unpredictable, roughly untutored. The websites, for both him and Sex Gang Children, always lack detail. He's gigged recently in Mexico, but there's sod all news about this record, which can drive a visitor mad. I do know it's got twelve songs which come under the heading of The Madman In The Basket and four as The Obituary Show, but the CD player reads twenty! Andi sounds like he's had his teeth realigned during a few of them, including opener 'Cruel And Beautiful', with demented vocal placement over a dour percussive trail and what has been claimed as spoken word is like presidential ambient. Then it swells and infects wonderfully, before contracting again. The delicate fear of 'Those Beasts Bleed' wails and pleads over softly poisoned sounds, and needless to say the tracklisting on the record sleeve is out of sorts. The record itself seems wilfully perverse, or literally fucked up, when one song returns twice later.
"In defense of words, I'm your fucking wake up call," Andi informs before 'Body Parts' does it droopy, drippy pop take on loquacious linear shape superbly; Andi listing a string of -isms including asshole-ism, which is a new one, and then it becomes a clinging swoon and if you don't laugh at his intonation of 'booze cruise bingo' you haven't the capacity to imagine a Hinge & Brackett death squad. 'Odin Bites Me' continues to wield gentrified vocals detailing hideous scenes ('reality tv is good for me' being the scariest), then some grimy seething sets 'Nation Of Flies' off nicely.
The brief 'Mormo' pitches us back into the Brechtian waltz, with vampires in the White House, then glowing splinters make the suspiciously pretty 'Babes In The Wood' deeply creepy. 'Orthian Strain' is a plinking dilemma where funny words loll. 'Thief!' does a cutely sordid, corrupted blues grind and slow bumpiness. 'Murder Inc.' is another verbal joust, with sombre tones, but 'No More Words' is a gently swaying charmer.
'The Hitler In Your Career' is a slow burning crowning glory here, so expansively cool, 'Death Before Disco' is a devious one with it's talk of militant strippers and screaming choirboys. Very catchy, scuffed up and the celebratory form of seedy. It then does a lengthy reprise as another track. And then again! And again: can this be intentional? Finally breaking free of this extended prison 'Kriminal Tango' minces around nobly, featuring Lucas Lanthier of Cinema Strange in it's sticky caress. A desolate 'Sanctuary Of Wings' is a sadness sandwhich that tastes bad, but is beautifully prepared, haunting and horrible. 'Dress America rants politely, doomily but softens and warms. Then it starts over again and makes for a strangely attractive end.
So there we have it. Not an attacking Sex Gang soiree, but a svelte and stoical, outraged Andi doing what he does best, mixing the bitter and the poetic into a sour cocktail with some fantastic tunes. Other bands please take note and try and reach these heights, relieved that there is still reason for them to continue, to contest, because while Andi is the supreme artist he's not the Goth Messiah.
He's a very naughty boy.
Review by Mick Mercer
Most musicians are referred to as 'artists', but only a handful truly deserve the title. Andi Sex Gang is one of them. With his latest work, he expands upon his love for dark, cabaret - influenced music with spoken word and a touch of the old Sex Gang Children style.
'Nation of Flies' is a sinister sermon, shrill and vicious. In contrast, the spry and spindly 'Odin Bites Me' has Andi sounding almost like a nightclub seductress; a thin veneer of sleaze smeared over ugly words made pretty.
'The Hitler In Your Career' betrays Andi's art-glam side with it's Marc Bolan-meets-Lou Reed influence, as does the jazzy 'Thief', reminiscent of the classic '7 Ways To Kill A Man'.
'No More Words' feels like a lullaby for a dying child, and it slides perfectly into the melancholic rock of 'Death Before Disco'.
'Kriminal Tango' is likely to be the favorite of most, and not just because of Andi's duet with Lucas Lanthier. With it's time changes, catchy riffs and refrain, and uneasy creepiness, it's one of the most memorable tunes Andi has done.
"I have become educated in the ways of man, and it has been the death of me." begins 'Cruel & Beautiful', and, being a lady of artsy sensibilities, I found myself hooked immediately by this minimal, beautiful piece. When the final notes of 'Those Beasts Bleed' ended, I found myself rushing over to push 'play' again.
The Madman In The Basket is an album to fall in love with.
'Nation of Flies' is a sinister sermon, shrill and vicious. In contrast, the spry and spindly 'Odin Bites Me' has Andi sounding almost like a nightclub seductress; a thin veneer of sleaze smeared over ugly words made pretty.
'The Hitler In Your Career' betrays Andi's art-glam side with it's Marc Bolan-meets-Lou Reed influence, as does the jazzy 'Thief', reminiscent of the classic '7 Ways To Kill A Man'.
'No More Words' feels like a lullaby for a dying child, and it slides perfectly into the melancholic rock of 'Death Before Disco'.
'Kriminal Tango' is likely to be the favorite of most, and not just because of Andi's duet with Lucas Lanthier. With it's time changes, catchy riffs and refrain, and uneasy creepiness, it's one of the most memorable tunes Andi has done.
"I have become educated in the ways of man, and it has been the death of me." begins 'Cruel & Beautiful', and, being a lady of artsy sensibilities, I found myself hooked immediately by this minimal, beautiful piece. When the final notes of 'Those Beasts Bleed' ended, I found myself rushing over to push 'play' again.
The Madman In The Basket is an album to fall in love with.
Review by Regina, Drop Dead Magazine
