Label – Touch & Go, Blast First
Produced by Butthole Surfers
As a counterpoint to much of the 80s stiff, slick, automated synth and fairlight generated music, Butthole Surfers’ loose, ramshackle and mainly bizarre mix of metal and punk must have come as sonic relief for some. Recorded in a rental house converted into a semi studio in Austin Texas, producer /guitarist Paul Leary recorded the album using one microphone and an ancient 8 track, which lends itself to the primitive deconstruction of rock the band were fully intent on creating. Using the house instead of a recognized studio also meant that “Locust Abortion Technician” could be recorded without the obvious time and cost restrictions, allowing the members of the band full access to whatever chemical cravings they required without intervention. Newly recruited bass player Jeff Pinkus would go on to comment that the band would ingest copious amounts of drugs during the day and then pick up their instruments late at night, almost as an afterthought it seems.
The pilfered riff from Black Sabbath’s “Sweet Leaf” is utilized superbly for the deliriously extended metal jam that opens the record (“Sweat Loaf”). “Human Cannonball” is undoubtedly the only conventional song within the collection; its strung out punk aesthetic bears many resemblances to The Dead Kennedys and is one of the few highlights. “Kuntz” takes an un-credited Thai song and uses studio vocal effects to emphasize the title with amusing results. The rest is a spurious mass of half formed, drug baked, oddball noises that deliberately aim for weirdness ahead of traditional musical values. Eventually, all the disparate threads that lie within, including various animal noises, gibberish vocals and a song built around a woman reliving the nightmare of a sexual assault on a talk radio show all leads the listener to a lingering sense of confusion.
“Locust Abortion Technician” is one of those once in a lifetime listening experiences. Hear it once and then consign it to some nether region of the memory, along with all the other bands that aimed for the weird extremes at all costs approach, but neglected to provide the listener with anything memorable in return.
4/10
A1 Sweat Loaf 6:09
A2 Graveyard 2:27
A3 Pittsburgh to Lebanon 2:29
A4 Weber 0:35
A5 Hay 1:50
A6 Human Cannonball 3:52
B1 U.S.S.A. 2:14
B2 The O-Men 3:27
B3 Kuntz 2:25
B4 Graveyard 2:45
B5 22 Going on 23 4:24
Sweat Loaf
Kuntz
