Sister Machine Gun - [R]evolution
![sister machine gun - [r]evolution](/music/albumcovers/smg-revolution.jpg)
Chris Randall is a crooner. I’ve always suspected as such and, with [R]evolution, he’s finally come clean.
"Recorded at Warzone" the liner notes read and you know immediately that some of that dense industrial-edged funk which was so perfected with Die Warzau’s Engine will be found here, though Randall has taken some of the clatter out of the Warzone Funk and infused it with his own directives—smart, edgy hooks and that crooner’s voice of his. Free of big label oppression, Randall formed Positron Records to continue his musical revolution on his terms and gave us first an album of electronic noodling—the self-titled Micronaut record.
It was a different direction, one more of synth washes and 'bleep & bloop' type melodies. Dance music for a near robotic generation with still enough human flesh to remember how to shake their booties. And for those who worried that the Micronaut project would be the death of SMG, their relief and exultation could be heard for miles when they received their copy of the new SMG album, [R]evolution. Randall has taken everything uncovered and discovered through the course of the Micronaut album and wedded it to the trademark guitar-laden funk which had been the recognizable sound of Sister Machine Gun.
[R]evolution plays like a concept album, each song running into the next with funky breakdown bridges between the tracks and a self-contained cycle of the repetitive snap of the empty record groove. After the pirate radio sound of the opening "Libertad," we’re thrown into a trio of songs which reward us with the recognizable SMG sound (the radio friendly hits, if I can be so crass). The verses are built around a spotlit emphasis on the vocalist bent over his microphone and then the choruses explode, heat and light thrown off by the burst of sonic sound which rises out of the disc.
And then, something amazing happens. We’re transported from a starkly lit industrial warehouse to the back lounge of Viva La Velvet on the Los Vegas strip. "Transient One" opens with a quirky synthetic melody, an electronic pop song which wouldn’t be entirely out of place at your sister’s wedding. Then the voice snakes its way into your ear, that breathy curl of a man wrapped around his microphone, seducing you from the half-lit stage. And he even coaxes that mournful David Gilmorian lament from the guitar for the break. You check the CD sleeve as “Transient Two” begins, flush with that electric pulse which speaks of the Micronaut project, wondering if there’s been a mastering problem and you’ve got something else thrown into the middle here. But Randall’s masterful ability to weave a hook through your shoulder blades has already ensnared you and the lazy locomotive pace of this track rushes you away.
We’re working our way back to the dark waters of Lake Michigan, as the 40’s jazz feel of “Closer to Me” breaks down into a funky guitar/percussion wrestling match until “Wrong,” “Vibrator,” and “Autoloader” show us the commingling of the separate styles heard earlier. Randall the lounge lizard comes attached to the snarling guitar funk, both riding a bouncy bed of electronic beats. Chris Randall is recrafting the shape of the musical landscape with the independent direction of Sister Machine Gun. More power to him. The world needs more crooners.
Sister Machine Gun
Positron Records [1999]
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