My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult
“I See Good Spirits, I see Bad Spirits”
“Confessions of a Knife”
“Self-Titled (aka Kooler Than Jesus)”
(Rykodisc)
Bred from the late eighties/early nineties Chicago scene, this two-piece put a serious mark on the whole industro-glam-dance-disco-sex movement. Where fellow Chicago techno-with-an-edge lovers Ministry went with a more abrasive rock attack, MLWTTKK took a left turn at some B-horror movie, sexed it up, feed it some hard drugs and gave the whole thing a dark yet danceable element that put a shine on the black humor. Satan, drugs, Christianity, sex, zombies and vampires are the general themes.
Sometimes you get all of that wrapped up in one song (chants of “Christian Zombie Vampires” rings through the classic TKK track “The Days Of Swine and Roses”). Lot’s of great voice samples are looped in the beats to give many tracks a twisted, cinematic feel (“I live for drugs… It’s great…. I freaked out very very badly…. I freaked out… on Acid… I live for drugs… It’s great… It’s great… I’m the white rabbit”). Combined with psychedelic live shows with performance artists and stage vixens, the whole thing is just electronic-sassy-coolness.
Rykodisc just re-released three definitive Thrill Kill Kult releases. Scattered across the three new discs are a total of 12 new tracks! (3 extra on each of the first two, and 6 extra on their self-titled release). The influence of this band can be heavily felt in many of today’s laptop DJs, but respect the timeframe in which these were originally conceived. It was during the death of glam, but pre-grunge, (and post-grunge if anyone is keeping track) that this band released the bulk of their material. So appreciate this for the landmark in the genre that it is.
All conveniently, repackaged, remixed and re-released for your easy listening pleasure. Although not really a “box-set”, you could buy them all together and just kind of pretend. Turn on the black light, get the strobe clicking, crank some of this and the Sexeteria is open!
