Posts Tagged ‘Shriekback’

Total insane mental ecstasy… My Life as a Revolting Cock, and more: John Wisniewski interviews Luc Van Acker

Posted: 10 January 2026 in Interviews
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Luc van Acker has a substantial and noteworthy resumé. He may not be particularly widely known as an individual, but the bands he’s played with or been a core member of most certainly are – perhaps most notably as a founder member of Ministry offshoot Revolting Cocks, appearing on their first three (and almost undisputedly best) studio albums, Big Sexy Land, Beers, Steers, and Queers, and Linger Ficken’ Good, as well as contributing guitar to Jam Science, the album by Shriekback, the supergroup formed by members of XTC and Gang of Four – and not forgetting his being a member of Mussolini Headkick, who featured on the Wax Trax! roster in the late 80s and early 90s. As such, he’s been a face on the industrial scene for a while, but his background – starting out as a pop singer in his native Belgium way back in 1982 – and subsequent work – shows a true musical versatility.

John Wisniewski managed to get some time in to ask about all of this, and to ask what he’s got brewing.

JW for AA: What inspires you to create your music?

LvA: The challenge to create something valuable that people will listen to in 30 years. At this very moment I am inspired to make music with AI as it is a CO composer who has the complete music history at his fingertips… Very challenging!

Any favorite bands, Luc?

MKgee, Dijon, Isella, Spirit box rock my world today.

How did you come to be a member of Revolting Cocks, and collaborate with them?

Front 242 played a US tour with Ministry. Richard 23 and Al became friends and wanted to do a dance 12” for the clubs. It was going to be a one off (just a couple of days work in the studio). R23 and me hung out the same bar in Brussels. He asked me if I would go with him for company. So we called Al on the phone who knew about Shriekback and other band I hung around with and a week later I sat on  a plane to Chicago. Richard stayed 2 weeks and I stayed 3 months… We hooked up again in London and Brussels to finish BIG SEXY LAND.

AA

PHOTO-2025-10-06-08-55-06

AA

How did you meet Al Jourgensen of Ministry?

We met at the airport in Chicago with Jim and Danny of Wax Trax! We had the same Indy music taste so too crazy soulmates.

Tell us about working with Anno Domino.

I was asked to produce her debut album but was not able to do it as agendas did not match. But later we spent some days in the studio recording 4 tracks and found out we were a perfect match for songwriting. Very talented, if I may say so.

AA

AA

What were your early days like? When did you become interested in music?

I was 6 years old and heard POPCORN… first electro music. Than Donna Summer I feel love… I always stayed on the programmed side of music and Bill Rieflin was not human his timing on drums was out of this world… Miss him big time.

You were originally a pop singer and songwriter. What attracted you to industrial music?

Originally I was totally underground and grew up on the subcultural side of the spectrum. Then I signed to EMI and wanted to be some mixture of Talking Heads meets Bowie.  But I missed the ambition to be a frontman… So I became a band member.

What were Revolting Cocks and Ministry live shows like?

Total insane mental ecstasy.  I loved every one of them and I did not hide it! Hahaha

(This is abundantly on the early RevCo live video, You Goddamned Son of a Bitch, a messy riot of barely controlled chaos – Ed)

AA

AA

How was Wax Trax! Records started? What was the idea for what the label wanted to release?

It started with the release of some 45 singles by Divine and Eno illegally. Than Al joined and brought Front 242 and Ministry to the table. I think it was foremost the roster of odd bands and projects that once put together was something people would identify with…

What are you working on now, Luc?

I just finished tons of artwork for an exhibition, and I released 2 tracks of a new album. (It’s been a while and empty room) I am also working on a stories book.

Any future plans and projects for you?

Expo + Album+ Book + Tour

PHOTO-2025-02-17-12-10-24

Little Musgrave – Matches

Posted: 29 April 2021 in Albums
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Wild Goose Chase Records – 27th April 2021

Christopher Nosnibor

Little Musgrave – the vehicle for Brussels-based Joey Wright – was conceived and recorded during the first Coronavirus lockdown, and its homemade, DIY, lo-fi stylings are perhaps representative of the style and form that will, ultimately, prove to define the period from Spring 2020 to Summer 2021 as musicians, twitchy and desperate for release took to recording at home, minus bands, and without access to studios or even half their kit, let along bandmates. Primitive drum machines, apps, recording and even mixing on mobile phones and releasing via Bandcamp has for many been the only way.

Why not wait? You may ask. Because creatives often need to create and to put it out there: creativity is a compulsion, and for many, public reception is validation of their output, even though got many it’s equally a source of anxiety and self-doubt.

‘Matches’ is a no-messing mess of sinewy guitars chopping out some rough and ready post-punk tinged indie that lands, lay-legged and in a heap between The Fall and Pavement. Wright isn’t really a singer in the conventional sense, often adopting a more Sprechgesang mode of delivery – although that isn’t to say he can’t sing, and there are some brief moments of melodic reflection. This is also a fair reflection of the abstract / elliptical lyrical content, which is wildly veering and often abstract, but not without moments of sensitivity.

The lack of polish, while borne out of necessity, is endearing in that it also presents a lack of pretence. And, also of necessity, the fizzing guitars and simple, insistent rhythms that pump away and pin the loosely-played songs together, are found alongside, as the liner notes proffer, ‘sounds which could have been recorded live in the dentist’s chair – we’re talking drills, saws and high-pitched whines’. With trips to the dentist off the table during lockdown, one assumes these extraneous sounds were sourced elsewhere, and primarily around the home. It’s remarkable just how unsettling a blender or electric shaver can sound when recorded and played back out of context, you know.

More often than not distilled into sub-three-minute bursts, clattering percussion and jarring angles are defining features; ‘Your Reputation Precedes You’ pitches a semi-spoken word performance over a clanking industrial-edged backdrop, while elsewhere, ‘Workers’ day’ is dissonant, difficult, and antagonistic, but as a thunking synth bass groove emerges through it all, it takes on an awkward electrofunk vibe that evokes the stylings of early Shriekback – before dissolving into a mess of feedback, whirs, and buzzing, and the scratchy Fall-esque ramble ‘Stick By Stick’ collapses into mangling noise.

And while Matches doesn’t sound like The Fall per se, its wild eclecticism and the levels of discord achieved by the guitars (are they in tune, let alone playing the same key? Just listen to ‘Which of you has done this?’ to get a handle on the stylistic collisions that aren’t just characteristic but define the album.

Weird and wonderful with the emphasis on the latter, Matches is inventive and unusual. At times difficult and brain-bending, it’s also self-aware and interesting, and deserves some time to adjust to. It’s not mainstream, but it’s got real cult potential.

AA

a3799742460_10

Watch: ‘My Only Son’ by Evi Vine

Posted: 31 January 2019 in Recommended Streams and Videos
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Evi Vine previews ‘My Only Son’ single ahead of the Black Light White Dark album. The new LP features The Cure’s Simon Gallup, Fields of The Nephilim’s Peter Yates and Martyn Barker (Shriekback, Goldfrapp).

Evi formed this band while living in LA, quickly getting a support show opening for Slash at the Whiskey-agogo. She has collaborated with Graham Revell (SPK, The Crow Soundtrack), The Eden House, Tony Pettit (Fields of the Nephilim), and Peter Yates (Fields of the Nephilim).  In 2016, Evi sang on Phillip Clemo’s DreamMaps album, together with Talk Talk’s Simon Edwards and Martin Ditcham, subsequently making appearances on BBC6, BBC3 Late Junction and Jazz FM.

In recent years, Evi Vine has toured with The Mission, Chameleons Vox, Wayne Hussey, And Also The Trees, Phillip Boa and The Voodoo Club, and Her Name is Calla. After hearing Evi Vine’s debut album and including it among his top five albums, Wayne Hussey invited them to tour with him in 2016 and subsequently with The Mission in 2017. Invited on stage to sing three songs by The Mission, the seed was sown and Vine joined The Mission as featured vocalist for their 30th Anniversary Tour.

Watch ‘My Only Son’ here:

AA

Evi