I am an opinionated sort of chap when it comes to music, so here’s a bit of an anomaly, a record that I can never quite pin down or tell you exactly what I think of it. Some days Death In Vegas The Contino Sessions is a bit wan and bloodless, other days it is da bomb; after 26 years I’m still not sure where it lies.
Aisha, We've only just met
And I think you ought to know
I'm a murderer, Bathed in blood
I bought The Contino Sessions on the format-that-must-not-be-named* on the week it was released in 1999 and I can’t quite remember why, possibly because it featured guest slots from Jim Reid, Bobby Gillespie, Iggy Pop and Dot Allison. It certainly wasn’t for the cover and interior art which I still consider to be pants.
Opener ‘Dirge’ is an absolute cracker, a slowly rising monolith that builds and builds towards a very righteous racket. Every new phase of its construction is delightfully unsubtle, from Mat Flint’s excellent bassline, some bracing theremin abuse, to Dot Allison’s ethereal ‘lah-la-lah‘s, by the end DIV have somehow generated a monstrous battle march for our vicious all-conquering cybernetic armies. I have always loved this beast.
Bobby Gillespie gives us a star turn on ‘Soul Auctioneer’, based seemingly on the intriguing premise of ‘what would William Burroughs mating with Robert Zimmerman on a bed of giant poisonous centipedes sound like?‘ it is, of course simultaneously utter nonsense and quite brilliant. Bobby G almost-narrating all manner of heroin-addled Bosch fantasia over a supine beat. Don’t do drugs children.
Next up, ‘Flying’ is an assault hymn for a futuristic flying cavalry force, of a sort that DIV seem to specialize in. ‘Lever Street’ is a lovely, soulful piece of music for a soulless world, bolstered by Ali Friend’s upright bass. As is, ‘Aladdin’s Friend’ a delightfully jazzy turn, embellished by Dot Allison’s presence and based on a tune that the Rolling Stones failed to copyright, which must have wounded their lawyers.
Which leaves heading into ‘Broken Little Sister’ – surely a track name made by using my thrice-patented Jesus & Mary Chain random track name generator? Jim Reid does his best and it all sounds like broken-glass and yearning, but it isn’t top ranking.
The Contino Sessions ends with the pointless ‘Neptune City’, a big beat nothing, I am afraid to say. But I have been cheating, I missed out a killer tune …
Death In Vegas Aisha, fifth track on The Contino Sessions and only track on my single-sided etched 12″ promo from 1999.
Aisha, I'm confused
Aisha, I'm vibrating
I'm a murderer
The gods all suck
It’s excellent, Iggy Pop given free rein to be as disturbing a serial killer as he can be over a nasty electro-guitar beat. The lyrics, written by Mr Pop, are all you could want here.
We live in a cemetery
A cold and barren place
And science runs through us
Making us gods
It is thrillingly disturbing and when it was released in 1999 the best and certainly the creepiest thing Mr Pop had contributed to his canon in quite some time. The way he sings ‘I’m vibrating’ and then just makes scary grating noises is a thing of beastly beauty.
The track was accompanied by a video that I saw for the first time today and which I found genuinely disturbing for a different reason, its sexist glorying of a woman (model Annie Morton) in peril; a woman in elaborate lingerie who also gets to flash her threepenny bits and gusset at us as she flees in mortal terror. That this was filmed by a director later vilified and exposed for his sexual abuse of his models adds to my judgment. Even by the standard of times this was a lapse in taste. Surely it would have been better policy to dress up Iggy in drag for the video?
I really enjoyed most of The Contino Sessions tonight, maybe I have made up my mind now after 26 years. It isn’t perfect but where it hits home it really kicks like a mule, the merging of electronic and conventional sounds worked brilliantly, mostly.
My copy of The Contino Sessions is sadly not an original one, no vinyl copies reached Chester when I was cruising HMV back in 1999. My copy is a 2019 reissue on arterial blood red vinyl, still with pants art though.
1297 Down.
*no, I will not name it here. It shall not pass! No matter how compact of disc it may be.
I lived this album back in the day but listening to it now, it’s really hit and miss. Agree, Flying, Soul Auctioneer and Aisha are top-drawer awesome, but the rest is meh, half-developed tunes that they stopped working on when they got the guests in. Oh, except you’re wrong about Neptune City, it bookends the album perfectly with Flying. When the keys kick in it sounds like beefed-up stroppy Stereolab. Cool.
Also one of the most disappointing gigs I saw back then. I get that taking loads of guest vocalists on tour isn’t feasible, but whether due to copyright clearance issues or technical screw-up, they didn’t have the vocals on sample either, so the whole set was instrumental. Boy was it dull.
Thank you Tim. That sounds like a pretty shit gig. Scorpio Rising had two excellent tracks, Liam G’s best ever vocal and Hands Around Your Throat. The rest were pants, from memory.
I never listened to DiV after this one – sounds like I didn’t miss much! The one before this, Dead Elvis, I remember being pretty good tho’, but more dancey. Thanks for the memory jolt though, I’d pretty much forgotten this (and I did enjoy hearing Neptune City again…)