Primal Scream . Webadelica

Primal Scream, 2002

And so Primal Scream crawl, shades on, from the subterranean grime and night of 'Xtrmntr', out into the city by day. Furious and disgusted with the world outside; bold and exploratory within their own sonic domain.

Their seventh album, still untitled and nearing completion, is shaping up to be another leap on from the last. It's the third breath-taking instalment of a path which began with 1997's crepuscular 'Vanishing Point', took a turn into electronic/punk darkness on 2000's 'Xtrmntr', and here emerges blinking in the sunlight, less nocturnal, more upbeat and sexual, but still possessed of the same savagely unflinching aesthetic.

"We've got a Primal Scream voice now," says singer Bobby Gillspie from the studio where mixing on final tracks continues, "and we're still exploring it. Half the album seems to be this weird electronic/psychedelic music, then the other half seems to be insane, explosive white-light rock & roll, really free-form, crazed, high-energy music. Real sarcastic, really messy, the way rock & roll should be. Bootleg shit, you know? It's a good mix, and I think it's full of hits."

As has been their method since 1991 and the life-changing narcotic experiment that was 'Screamadelica', the core members of Primal Scream ' Gillespie, Andrew Innes, Robert Young, Martin Duffy, and Gary 'Man' Mounfield, augmented by My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields recorded the tracks themselves and then invited various associates to mix them. This time, they perhaps didn't need to cast their net so wide. From within their own ranks, Innes has had an ever-increasing role in production and mixing. Shields has also mixed a handful of tracks. Jagz Kooner, who marshalled one of the versions of 'Swastika Eyes' on 'Xtrmntr', makes another appearance here. And Andrew Weatherall, orchestrator of much of 'Screamadelica', has returned to the desk on three of the more electronic cuts. The Scream team is, it seems, though not carved in stone, a self-defining circle who contribute when the time is right

"It's like a production thing here," Gillespie explains. "We're not bogged down by the standard band/musician rules, where everybody's ego has to be fulfilled. It'd be boring to have the same guys playing the same instruments on every song. It doesn't seem to work that well for us. We like to use different instruments for different sounds. We try and get atmospheres and sounds, most important, and some of the sounds, you know, I don't know where they come from. Then we get the performances from people when we need them. There's no rules." As you may have read in the papers by now, those who were 'needed' included at least one headline-grabbing star, namely Robert Plant, with rumours persisting of at least one other. Some tracks are currently still being completed. What you can hear, though, are seven finished tracks that fully live up to Gillespie's epithet of "electronic garage band future rock & roll", that already hang together as one of the boldest and best albums of 2002.

In more details

Deep Hit Of Morning Sun
The album opener, mixed by Kevin Shields, and perhaps this album's answer to OEShoot Speed, Kill Light' ' the one which will instantly loosen your jaw into an expression of awe. West Coast psychedelic pop tripping into these troubled times. Gillespie: "Aye, the psychedelic one. We just try and make a really beautiful record that means something to us, and I think we've done it here."

Miss Lucifer
Jagz Kooner on the mix, and the first single from the album. With its hammering electro rhythm, perhaps reminiscent of OESwastika Eyes' and the title track from 'Xtrmntr'. Gillespie: "I guess it's a sexual song.

Electronic rock & roll. Yeah, it's quite short, but rock & roll should be short, like Little Richard and Jerry Lee, you know?"

Sick City
Mixed by Shields, a new, more ferocious version of the track that he, Gillespie and Innes recorded with David Holmes in 2000 for the latter's 'Bow Down To The Exit Sign'. Filthy urban punk rock.

Autobahn 66
The first of the Weatherall tunes. Minimal Two Lone Swordsmen-style techno, put in service of motorik spendour. Gillespie: "Aaaah, it's absolutely amazing. I think it's the best thing we've done since 'Higher Than The Sun'. I can honestly say, it's an absolute classic. So we're back with Weatherall' It's working, you know? While it's working, don't question it. When you hear the track, you'll be blown away. It's as good as Kraftwerk. It doesn't sound like Kraftwerk, but it's got that melancholic, beautiful driving feel. It's up there, very beautiful."

Rise
Shields again. Bilious, psychotic, a protest song in the broadest sense. Birth, school, work, death ' nein, danke. Gillespie:"It's righteous, you know? It sounds like the Plastic Ono Band. It's real glam rock meets PiL."

Skull X
Yet another Shields mix. A groove reminiscent of Joy Division's 'Colony', which builds through Velvet Underground-style repetition to a brain-threshing finale. Think: rotor blades, fresh napalm in the morning, etc. Gillespie: "That's short for, skull exploding. It's like a fucking guitar holocaust, incredible. Future rock & roll. I love it."

A Scanner Darkly
Weatherall. Like a robot stumbling over the horizon, escaping into black oblivion, this is how the album will send you out into the world. Gillespie: "Really beautiful electronic music. I don't sing on it. Big deal. Doesn't matter. The guys have made a beautiful piece of music. My ego, I don't feel I've got to sing on it. That's how bands don't last. I know I don't need to on this one. It's beautiful the way it is."

And finally
As if that were not enough, three or four further tracks are still in production for the album. Including...

The Lord Is My Shotgun
Described as an electronic blues, and to be mixed by Weatherall. Features harmonica from the great Mr Robert Plant, who they accosted in the street. This is all the info we have at the moment.

Some Velvet Morning
A cover of the Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra. Note the dazed ante-meridiem theme recurring. Gillespie gets to be Lee for a day, while his Nancy is apparently supermodel Kate Moss. They have duetted before, seen by some on video on a fashion website. The band are currently trying to contact disco king Giorgio Moroder to mix it'

Space Blues 2
Track not complete.Vocals by Martin Duffy. The title is a nod to Felt and their mainman Laurence. Duffy was also in Felt. No more info, except that it may be another Shields mix.

Originally appeared in Didimusic, 2002.
Copyright © Digimusic.

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