Barbaric Pulsations and Mad Excitement:
Smegma Lives!
Record review by Clark Humphrey for The Stranger, 3/25/96
Smegma has been around, in one form or another, since 1973, issuing an average of a record a year out of odd tape-loops and jarring-yet-ambient original instrumentation long before electronic sampling was even a glimmer in Mr. and Mrs. Casio’s eyes. They achieved a small degree of noteriety in the ’80s as one of that proud elite of North American new-music acts hiply obscure enough to have European-only record deals. They’re also known among the anti-pop sound exchangers of the international cassette underground. They’re near-impossible to describe in rock-critic jargon, since their repertoire doesn’t really incorporate melodies, lyrics, or star personalities. I can report my first-ever makeout session was performed to the background of a Smegma tape; somehow, their animalistic PoMo primitivism brought the lady and I into “the mood” more effectively than any bass-thumping punk rock ever could.Nowadays, Smegma is still obscure, still amost exclusively a studio-bound outfit. But its recordings are now available in almost-mainstream outlets, thanks to Tim/Kerr Records. Their latest is The Mad Excitement, The Barbaric Pulsations, The Incomparable Rhythms of Smegma. It’s easy listening for the hard of hearing; a finely-sequenced suite of nine improvisational mood pieces that don’t reject traditional tunes and scales so much as ignore them, in favor of setting their own tonal environment of loud disgust and low-key sly bemusement. I don’t want to call it “dissonant” ’cause it makes more sense on its own sonic terms than a casual listen might belie. I don’t want to call it “industrial” ’cause that term’s become associated with NIN’s hard rock, instead of the post-rock or post-music noises of Smegma and its past and present contemporaries (Throbbing Gristle, Utterance Tongue, Eric Muhs). I also don’t want to discuss this disc’s resemblance to the works of 20th century avant-garde highbrow composers, ’cause you sure don’t need a musicology degree to appreciate it (in fact, it might hurt if you had one, or it might make you hurt).
Yes there are samples in the mix, including an old stand-up comedy record and some of the stock music previously sampled on the Clash’s notorious Sandinista! album. But this is primarily a work of original musicianship. This year’s version of the Smegma combo (including such colorful studio names as Lee Rockey, Josh Mong, Amazon Bambi, Rob Roy, Burned Mind, Dr. Id, Oblivia, Samek Cosmano, and Ju Suck) incorporate the damnedest mix of improbable ingredients, instruments both expected (guitars, synth, drums, assorted percussion, LP scratch-playin’, analog echo machine) and unexpected (musette, zither, clarinet, trumpet, theremin). It all adds up to something that builds an emotional setting and invites you to take a relaxing-yet-offputting visit in it.
