Page 4 DTH Omnibus
Thursday November 30, 1989
M 0 S II c
Album Charts
College Music Journal
1 . Camper Van Beethoven
Key Lime Pie
2. Red Hot Chili Peppers
Mother's Milk
3. Sugarcubes
Here Today, Tomorrow...
4. Kate Bush
The Sensual World
5. Primitives
Pure
6. Mekons
... Rock-n-Roll
7. Meat Puppets
Monsters
8. Mighty Lemon Drops
Laughter
9. Jesus and Mary Chain
Automatic
10. Bad Brains
Quickness
WXYC
1. Mekons
... Rock-n-Roll
2. Mudhoney
Mudhoney
3. Various Artists
Passion Sources
4. Pale Saints
Barging into the Presence of God
5. Lush
Scar .
6. Mommyheads
Acorn
7. Muzsikas
The Prisoner's Song
8. Les Negresses Vertes
Mlah
9. Galaxie 500
On Fire
10. DasDamen
Mousetrap
A winner
Black, Rock & Ron
Stop The World
Popular Records
OO 12
ew people have heard of Black,
n T 1 jp T 1
I xxuck. iun, a inree-man rap
group rrom Mew York, but af
ter the release of their first
album, Stop the World, the
group may get the recognition they
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If it ain't
Ministry
A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste
Sire
009
O t's hard to figure out what Tip-
Iper Gore is so worried about
the language "which may be
objectionable to some listeners"
is barely understandable anyway. And
anyone who manages to listen long
enough to get to the words is gonna
be someone who, in all likelihood,
doesn't particularly care about objec
tionable language.
Ministry's latest album, A Mind Is
A Terrible Thing To Taste, is the sort
of music that used to send my room
mate into fits last year. Warning: this
album is not for beginners. Unless
you've had experience in listening
to either punk or speedthrash metal,
don't even think about it. This music
will put your head through the wall.
From the opening machine-gun
guitar riffs of "Thieves" through to
the bells and caterwauls of "Dream
Song," A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To
Taste takes its listener on a musical
ride through the twilight zone. This
is an odd album. It defies classifica
tion and it defies explanation; it is
instead an exercise in the extreme.
It is a curiously uncomfortable, un
settling album at times disjointed
or monotonous, it has a pounding
rhythm that insinuates itself into the
body and brain. Kind of like one of
those headaches where you can feel
the dull, throbbing thud of the blood
pounding in your temples.
never quits and a quitter never wins'
Bryan Tucker
need. Although the album is medi
ocre in some aspects, Black, Rock &
Ron have immense potential.
Black, Rock &. Ron are two broth
ers and a third rapper. The group
successfully produces a sound that
spans all the way from a slow love
ballad, "True Feelings," to hard-and-lean
rhythyms such as "That's How
your thins, leave
Alisa DeMao
l!lifljliifS
The brainchild of Chicago-based
Alien Jourgensen and Paul Barker,
Ministry is the latest spokesband for
an "assemblage of agro-rock practi
tioners around the world" known as
the Tribe, a kind of Psychos From
Hell Men's Association, which mixes
music and band members in a free
floating sort of way. This means that
any number of wonderfully psychotic
alternative music commandos can be
found on Mind, most notably guest
vocalist Chris Connelly, from The
Revolting and drummer Wil
liam Rieflin.
Rieflin and bassist Barker infuse
the rhythm section with a life of its
own. Unlike so many other practi
tioners' of today's seek-and-destroy,
take-no-prisoners musical forms, these
guys are more than merely back-up
noise for guitar or vocal antics. On
tracks such as "Burning Inside" and
"So What" they are a tangible force,
occasionally going so far as to over
shadow Jourgensen's guitar.
This greatest strength is also the
album's greatest weakness, unfortu
nately. "Cannibal Song" reaches the
point of "Great beat, but where's the
music?" "Breathe" is the best example
of the tracks on which the group
manages to achieve both this driv
ing force and some kind of musical
ity, and is one of the best tracks on
the album.
The most arresting song on Mind
is "Dream Song." The grounded eth
ereality of this song is summed up in
I'm Livin'." Black does most of the
rhyming, but Rock and Ron contrib
ute on so many songs that the group
sounds like Run-D.M.C.
Instead of talking to the listener,
the rappers yell their way through
such songs as "Black Is the Word"
and "Getting Large". This makes some
cuts more annoying than powerful.
However, most of the cuts will ap
peal to rap fans.
In the song "You Can't Do Me
None" the listener is told, "We're
not old school or new school but
somewhere in the middle." What they
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Ministry: 'Now where
a young girl's dream monologue,
which ends with the question "Do
you believe in angels?"
Ministry is gourmet music for the
connoisseur. Well, maybe it's more
like kinky sex. Either way, it's defi
nitely an acquired taste. Like a trip
through the looking-glass, in spite of
all its oddities and distortions it is
mean is that their style is moderate,
both danceable and hard. Perhaps
Black, Rock &. Ron should have stuck
with one extreme or the other to
give the album consistancy.
Stop the World is suprisingly whole
some for rap music. Black, Rock &
Ron thank God as well as their par
ents for success in making an album.
The rappers do not curse or brag about
how bad or how sexy they are. In "3
Brothers and Yvonne" they invite a
girl named Yvonne to their hotel
room, but she leaves because she is
the only girl there. In the end, the
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curiously compelling. This is the type
of music that gains a small core of
nearly fanatical fans because people
who like it absolutely love it. Every
one else absolutely hates it. If you
are thinking about buying this al
bum, get the music store to play it
for you first. Or you might find your
self with more than you can handle.
three rappers call it a night and go to
sleep. The song is unusual because of
its rejection of many rappers' need to
show off. It makes the group unique.
One has to admire Black, Rock &.
Ron for their taste and dedication.
"This album is the perfect example
of fulfilling your destiny," says Ron
in "Rap Life." The group's "a winner
never quits and a quitter never wins"
attitude is displayed throughout the
album.
Sadly, Stop the World is crippled
by poor sound and by inexperience.
The message Black, Rock &. Ron try
to put in many of their songs re
mains unclear. Despite its good beat
and serious potential, Stop the World
will only make the world stagger a
little.
What The
Ratings Mean
O miserable
OO mediocre
OOO enjoyable
OOOO quite good
OOOOO unmissable