Sister Machine Gun, [R]evolution

Don't let the title mislead you: this disc's about as revolutionary as my laundry hamper, and half as interesting. As far as the "evolution" side of the oh-so-clever double-entendre contained in the title goes, you're likely to find things higher on the evolutionary scale in said laundry hamper than on this, Sister Machine Gun's fifth salvo of tired and uninspired industrial-tinged whinge-rock.

As if the Nine Inch Nails formula of shouted beggings and lamentations towards the ubiquitous "you" for crimes against the whiny "me" hadn't had the last penny squeezed from it by Stabbing Westward, Sister Machine Gun offer up tracks like "Got To Be". Sample lyrics:

"What have I got to be?
What have I got to do?
What do you want from me?
What does it mean to you?"

Ouch. There's really no excuse for this sort of thing in 1999, now is there? I suppose there's no need to tell you that "Got To Be" is quiet during the verse (or "brooding", as the press release likely crowed) and loud during the chorus ("explosive!"). Compelling stuff. Memo to frontman Chris Randall: if you're trying to present yourself as a tortured soul, lyrics that spell out your problems in clinical terms don't help your posturing: "a borderline case of manic-depression".

After the self-explanatory "Smash Your Radio!" (See? Sister Machine Gun are the real alternative!), "[R]evolution" gets embarassingly schizoid. Unfortunately, Sister Machine Gun are even worse at copying other bands than they are Nine Inch Nails. Mercifully avoiding Skinny Puppy terrain (SMG's moniker was swiped from Puppy's lyric sheet), Randall borrows heavily from Underworld's "Cowgirl" to present "Transient Two".

After that, it just gets weird. "Closer To Me" goes into cool-jazz shuffle, replete with swinging horns and hammond organ. At first you think we're wading into Mr. Bungle weirdo territory, but no, it's just a straight-forward come-on song that Randall is trying to deliver in a disturbingly sultry voice. Icky and awkward. Then, a page gets torn from Nick Cave's book (No one's safe!) for the piano-driven getting-along-fine-without-you track "Wrong". I think things degenerated into sub-porno white-boy funk in the last three tracks, but in all honesty I'd just stopped paying attention by then.

Exploring numerous styles in the space of an album is often a great thing. Usually it speaks to an artist's confidence in the basic essence of their material when they're willing to apply different treatments to a group of songs, but I don't think that's the case here. It's almost as if Randall was worried that people might realise that his band was ripping off the same scant sources and decided to look further afield for other "influences".

You'd think that after working as a roadie for KMFDM, Randall might have learned that even if you don't have anything new to say, you can get pretty far in the industrial world just on sleek-sounding noise and tongue-in-cheek chutzpah. Say what you will about KMFDM (I do all the time), but at least they know how to have a good time and look cool whilst doing so. Sadly, both melody and a sense of delivery are completely lacking on "[R]evolution", making the album a long and embarassing endeavour for all involved.

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