Music Street Journal - Music News & Reviews

Andi Sex Gang Inventing New Destruction Review by Gary Hill I know that a lot of people consider this group to be Goth – and to good degree I can see that. For my money, though, the type of weirdness they create isn’t all the different from Mother Gong – and that music fits into progressive rock – so, that’s where I’m putting this. Fans of strange music will love this – it is odd, but very cool. I really like this CD a lot, perhaps because of its eccentricities rather than in spite of them. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2008 Volume 4 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

International Third Position A voice says, “forever happy in the face of deformity,” and then ambient elements begin to bring this in – including the sounds of siren. There is noisy guitar off in the distance, but in general this is composed of sound effects type stuff. We get more free form readings over the top of this as they carry onward. There are some sung vocals later in the course of this. It ends with a spoken voice giving us the title.

Celebrate! They turn things much more energized here. This is a cool, punky piece that has a lot in common with Porcupine Tree at the same time.

King Richard in the Heartland Another spoken reading with weird sound effects type music, this really feels a lot like Mother Gong. They power it up more at times and give a different musical aspect when they do. I love the section late where the spoken words say, “Life is a b***h and then you die” and then a high pitched voice in the background starts repeating, “you die” and the other voice begins repeating, ever more urgently, “or is it?” For some reason I find that to be quite a cool touch.

Dust and Death This is a bit more “song” oriented. It’s got that punk meets moody prog texture. It isn’t pretty, but it’s cool. There are some dark keyboard textures that come over later for great effect. The vocals remind me of Marianne Faithful.

Into the West Keyboard textures bring this up and in. Percussion joins and it builds in unusual ways. The vocals here are in a similar vein to those on the last cut. This is one of my favorites on the disc, perhaps because the keyboard textures really bring in a space rock element.

Kamikaze Beauty There is a dark beauty to this, but also plenty of RIO-like weirdness.

Rhineland Barbie This is gentle and rather pretty, although still a bit weird.

Sick Kicks Although this one is probably not extremely prog like, it is one of the most “song” oriented pieces here.

Hasenschwanz With lyrics in German this has an almost classical music feeling to a lot it. The keyboards bring in some nice textures.

Black Widow Trial This one is definitely more ambient and strange in a RIO sort of way. It gets pretty noisy before it ends. And, actually, that noisy section doesn’t close this, but rather gives way to silence and ambient sounds that take it out.

Optidog (A Certain Kind of Silence) Here odd sounds and effects are placed alongside room noises (someone coughs early and gets louder later). A spoken vocals is placed in the midst of this.

Dust and Death (Edit Bonus) The disc closes with another version of this song that appeared earlier.

Return to the Andi Sex Gang Artist Page

Artists Directory

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
© 2024 Music Street Journal Site design and programming by Studio Fyra, Inc./Beetcafe.com