Flux Information Sciences - Private/Public (2001) [SAA Album Club discussion thread]
 

Flux Information Sciences - Private/Public (2001)

This album was suggested by bob. And here's what he said:
Hmmm..."Life-threatening and entertaining", Gira said. What do you think?

OK

Am I gonna be first?

First off, thanks Bob, for the suggestion and the link.


Alright, I'm not quite up to believing the hype on this one. It's intense and fun, but ultimately it's been done many times many times better. And mainly by Thirlwell. This would impress me much more if it came out in '87 instead of 2001. Heck, the Foetus album, Hole, offered us all this back in '84. I find that it's very rare for second or third generations to out do the originators and that's how I feel about this. Still, it's a good aggressive record and a fun listen. However, due to it's lateness on the scene i would say it's actually a bit conservative, ironically. Three stars out of five.

I'm a huge Jim Thirlwell fan and I have to say I don't see the comparison at all here. This album sounds nothing like Hole at all to me.

The long songs are seriously taxing. Reminds me a lot of Liquid Liquid; when their songs were short, you could dig them because the repetition didn't wear on too long. However, this encapsulates a lot of irritating redundancy. Fans of early Swans will likely find a lot to dig here, as while it's not as cathartic, it definitely shares the same style of rhythmic backdrops. But I've always seen listening to albums like Filth as being cheated out of 50 cents at a haunted house. Thus, I'm not particularly digging it.

There are no long songs on this album. :confused:

I meant long as a relative term. Compared to the thirty-second segues, the 3-5 minute tunes seem lengthy. By 'long', I meant longest. Heck, there are even some of the two-minute songs that grate on me here.

I'm really surprised to hear that. I'll be writing my full review later but I loved this album.

I don't want to get into an off topic Swans debate but let me go on record as saying everything they did up to and including Children of God is genius. And that's not to discount the stuff that came afterward.

Even with those brutally accented odd metered beats?

Have you not listen to that album in a while or something? The beats on Hole are by and large 80s rock beats with some ornamentation while the Flux beats much more tribal.

I think it was my high expectations that I had for this album that ruined it. I saw a few reviews for it and saw that it got relatively positive comments. I listened to maybe a song or two before voting and thought they were decent. Unfortunately, when I listened to the entire album I was disappointed. I gave it a second spin to see if anything changed but nothing did. It's a bit like what OccultHawk was saying, except I can't pinpoint the exact artist. It just sounds like it was done before. I thought the track "Liposuction" was hilarious because it used a beat that came from one of my keyboards as a child, though. I knew Janzsoon would like this album because he's into loud kind of music (he's apparently on some "spastic and loud" musical tangent according to him). I tend to have a bias against loud and insane sounding music though, so you guys can discredit my opinion if you want.

By the way, Bob this is in no way an insult to your musical taste. You normally have really interesting suggestions, but this was just a disappointment. I have to say that I wanted to like this album, but it just can't happen.

I don't know, I liked this album. Not as much as I liked the last, but I liked it. Felt it wasn't particularly avant-garde, Feels like noisey grindcore with half spoken vocals, and weird lyrics. As for song length, I listen to the whole thing twice, and I couldn't distinguish which song was which, felt like one big wave to me. Which isn't a bad thing.

It's a good album, not groundbreaking, but I very much enjoyed listening to it.

I listened to it when I thought of the comparison. Now, I feel kind of embarrassed because I think you're more on it here.

Yep! :thumb:

Exactly! I really like it, although the first time I listened to it I was playing who does this part remind me of game. I've heard early Swans here, those songs that are more on the industrial side, like 'Time is Money' and 'A Screw' and Big Black, yeah. Also, the 'singing' has a funky edge like a wackier James Brown drowned in noise...well, like James Chance and the Contortions. So there's no wave here, 80s industrial and noise-rock...ha, of course I'm gonna enjoy it :). Yeah it's all been done, but this sounds so fresh and fun, like somebody said. It doesn't have that seriousness of Swans, but has a dangerous recklessness of Big Black.

Maybe I'm crazy, but I thought I've heard a bit of Skinny Puppy here also. Can't really point out in what song and I haven't listened to Skinny Puppy in a while so maybe I'm off the mark. So, it reminds me of so many music I love, but doesn't really rip it off. I read this band is considered to be a part of no wave/noise/80s underground revival...Hmmm, there are many interesting bands in this vein, although not really musically similar, like Magik Markers, Arab on Radar, Lightning Bolt etc. Well, I dig it way more than post-punk revival.

I've just realized I like every album so far. I'm sure something will come along that I'll hate :). But, really, pretty good suggestions so far.

If you can say Skinny Puppy then I can say Foetus. Actually some of it reminds me a little of Devo!

I personally got a ton of Fantomas from this, not sure why.

Actually, I take back some of what I said. I ended up enjoying this album a lot. It managed to stick with me for a while, and I ended up going back to it. I still stand by what I said about its originality, though. It's really too bad that they don't make another album (they have so much potential). Does anyone know if they're still together?

EDIT: Never mind, they have three other albums, but I can't find any information on them (let along mediafire downloads). These guys make underground artists look like mainstream...

Is it possible to find a mediafire file for any of their other albums? Hell, it's impossible to even see the cover art for them.

I thought this is their only album, well according to Discogs. Can't find anything on other albums.

Anyway, how come you did a complete turn around when it comes to appreciating their music? I remember you did the same with Throbbing Gristle. Is there something in industrial music that turns you off on the first hearing? And what is it that still draws you to it, despite initial disliking?

It's not with just Industrial music. It also happened with The Velvet Underground and Jimi Hendrix (although, with Hendrix it was more of a dismissal). I hated V.U. so much because I thought it was poorly recorded and pretentious.

I don't know why I do it, but all I know is that I'm working on fixing it. The music just begins to stick with me after a while, and I end up going back to explore it.

Strangely enough, Hendrix, VU, and Throbbing Gristle are among my favorite musicians.

^Heh, I think it's called 'expanding your taste' :)

Yea, I just wish when I expand it that I wouldn't end up hating it in the beginning (of course, this doesn't always happen). Does it happen to you?

Well, I can't remember it ever happened to me that I hated something initially and then loved it. It usually happens that I'm indifferent or that I simply don't get it. And then all of a sudden it would click with me, or it would reveal itself gradually. In these cases, I couldn't find certain qualities immediately and connect to it and I couldn't say why exactly. Usually when I hate something I know exactly why I hate it.

Well, maybe that's how I feel. "Indifferent" and not understanding. Sometimes people, like myself, tend to over-exaggerate feelings, and end up labeling it as hatred instead of dislike or not understanding. I just remember hearing TG and wondering why people like them (until I learned about why it sounded like it did).

By the way, I never said I hated Public/Private (or at least that's not what I intended to imply). I just had high hopes for it being an innovative, underground band.