Steel Pole Bath Tub
Lurch

THE REVIEW

A worthy demonstration of that alternative rock that sees Steve Albini as its definitive guru, Steel Pole Bath Tub situate themselves in the post-Big Black era, offering music that I consider an exemplary intersection of noise, grunge, punk, and industrial. Their artistic journey begins in 1986 and ends in 2002, highlighting a strong duality between the experimental/cacophonic component and a more accessible song form.
Predictably (and as almost always happens in these cases), the initial works weigh more on the first of the components mentioned, thus Lurch, the 1990 EP, frames this aspect perfectly, representing (according to the writer) their masterpiece. Standing as a summation of a music that is strongly psychological displaying its uniqueness in the incredible expressionistic motion that the songs take, I dare to define this record as a musical psychodrama.

Just went back and got the razor blade. Closed my eyes and sliced.

Nothing good or positive is revealed in the album's opening. The cited words, a sample of a female voice, precede an explosion of noisy feedback, acidic and rough guitars, riffs sometimes disconnected and unstable. Around it all, a youthful-toned voice sings (and screams) desperate lyrics. The songs seem to fall apart, to break into pieces. The opener Christina is an impressive nearly ten-minute composition, which after what has already been mentioned plunges into a vortex of noises and nauseating sounds, until taking on avant-garde traits in the finale. Lime-Away can only be the technical description of a murder or its soundtrack, powered by a singer who could indistinctly represent both victim and assassin. In every traceable melody, acoustic pollution is always and inevitably touched upon.

An apparently marginal role, but in my opinion fundamental, is occupied by sinister samples (almost always extracts from television broadcasts and the like). The whole presents itself as a sonic boulder, composed of long songs that collapse on themselves amid distortions and dissonances.

Personally, I consider it an instrumentally incredible record in its making of sociopathic music, a great synthesis of discomfort, while the only downside I find in the vocals, perhaps at times out of place in describing atmospheres so imbued with negativity (listen to understand). Finally, imagining a band obtained by mixing various characteristics of Squirrel Bait, Scratch Acid and Cop Shoot Cop, you would most likely get something similar to Lurch. For those seeking something more balanced in this musical bipolarity, I recommend The Miracle of Sound in Motion (1993), more post-hardcore, more "grunge", but not for nothing noiseless.