Just One Fix Single Review
By Alejandro Fernandez
"Just one fix", as the
second single from "Psalm 69", is maybe
considered one of the most strong
Ministry songs. It's a track which has
a fast, stable structure and
which resembles the rythm of a traing going
straight forward. Maybe this
is the reason of why they choosed the
picture of a train as the cover
of the maxi-cd single.
The distorted sound of
a guitar serves as riff just as a knife cutting
into a pice of meat, once and
again, over and over. It instantly makes
you bounce your body and your
head even if you don't want to. A heavy
song with an unstoppable spirit
this is; kind of a member of MTV's
Headbangers, but still the fav
of many aggro fans.
The single doesn't contain
the LP version, but an extended one ("Just
one fix" 12" Edit) and and an
edited one ("Just one fix" Video edit).
They're both extremely good
and they both preserve the scent of the original.
The 12" version starts
with the same mad scream (which can only come
from an unbearable pain) and
then it continues with a 3 minute
introduction to the rest of
the song, an introduction that is the basic
programming drum sequence with
stains of the guitar which will later be
added to form the second part
of this song. When a new mad scream fills
the void, the complete set of
sound appear to fire your ears like a
cannon. The rest comes by itself.
The video edit version
is somewhat similar to the original version but
with the step-by-step introdution
that you can listen in the video. It's
also very cool indeed.
As an extra ingredient
(where "extra" doesn't mean "casual" at all) we
havewhat I think is the strangest
Ministry song ever: Quick Fix, a
collaboration between the gang
of Barker and Jourgensen and the late
beatnik poet William S. Burroughs,
author of "The Naked Lunch" and other
controversial books.
"Quick fix" is a slow,
spoken song whose lyrics were written by
Burroughs (the music was made
by Ministry) and which is sung by
Burroughs himself. By now you
can tell it doesn't have the typical Al's
distorted vocals, but it doesn't
mean this song is lame. "Quick fix" is
actually a poem with music as
background. Burroughs reads it with quite
enough irony to make you wonder
about what he's talking about, until you
get the message (which is pretty
clear); meanwhile, siderurgical sounds
on the background create a jungle-like
atmosphere which gives hypnotic
interest to Burroughs'speech.
Sometimes (some calculated times) the song
loses its temper and a furious
guitar bursts into it. Explosions of
music and sound in a filthy
world...
This song about echology
and the political attitude of the powerful
nations contains a lot of samples,
and it's entertaning to elucidate the
source of each one. After listening
to it you're left with the sensation
not of having listened to Ministry,
but anyway of having listened to an
interesting piece of work. It's
for not missing it!
Besides the fact that
some prints have an error in the track order on
the CD itself, this is a flawless
and shocking single.
"Contrast" is the word!
Alien
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