Sister Machine Gun

Category: Industrial
Album: Influence

Most people are familiar with Sister Machine Gun. SMG’s legacy goes back to the halcyon days of Wax Trax!, when industrial-rock was still at its peak, KMFDM and Thrill Kill Kult were young, and the world seemed fresh and new.

Over the years and through many changes, Sister Machine Gun has gained and lost many fans. The albums and styles were ever-changing and what one person liked about the band wouldn’t necessarily translate to SMG’s next album. But every album was consistent in many ways.

And the latest SMG album is no different, par for the course, but subtly different. Still here are Chris Randall’s crooning, touches of his love for jazz, and various electronic experimentations, but this album takes a backward step toward the days of The Torture Technique and Burn, rife with hard, driving rock tracks, as well as industrial-jazz flavors.

The earmarks are never too far out of line. Randall lays on vocals that could just have easily been taken from any other of his songs, so similar in sound, style, and rhyme scheme as to be generic, yet never offensive in their simplicity. The jazzy tracks like “Clean” are full of Burn-era sex and smolder in a way not usually associated with industrial music. The songs are very similar to what you’ve already heard, but are refined to a point that hasn’t been seen from SMG in some time. And a few like “The Death Of Me” take a step away from the typical SMG tracks to sound more like an inventive remix than the band itself. The vision seems to be as clarified as it ever could be. And it’s made for a much more enjoyable listening experience than I ever would have imagined.

Sister Machine Gun may have played out for me (and surely many others like me) when they escaped the clutches of Wax Trax! in the late nineties, but they seem to have made a decisive step to come back stronger than they ever were in 1995.

For those who stopped listening almost a decade ago, maybe it’s time to return to the fold. There might be something new or at least interesting for you here after all.

 

from ReGen Magazine (~8/2004)