Search - Nocturnal Emissions :: Drowning in a Sea of Bliss / Anthems of the Meat Generation

Enjoyably unpleasant

L. Harvey | Baltimore, Md USA | 12/04/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The nocturnal Emission's best album is divided into two tracks for the CD which correspond to the two sides of the original record. This is odd because on the record, which I purchased in 1984, all of the tracks were separate and had names. This makes it difficult to search through and find specific tracks.
It works in an odd way, however, because like many early 1980s industrial bands Emissions had two styles, one percussive and aggressive, the other electronic and disturbing.
Track one starts with the blending of synth sounds with screams and lots of scraping/pounding of metal, sometimes the sounds are indistinguishable from one another. It evolves into the band's favorite device... the tape loop and sounds from other sources cut together. (Very much like the Severed Heads before they started doing more commercial music) All of this makes you feel that you've either entered the mind of a madman, or it can really annoy you.
Track two is the sort of nightmare disco sound that eventually evolved into techno and is really the best stuff on the record. I can do without the final track on the album, slow and dreary, but the rest is pretty good.
Back when this record first came out-early 1980s, it was a welcome attempt at doing an industrial theme record like SPK had done. Emissions was very much into animal rights so the theme (though not always obvious in their recordings) was stopping animal torture. They were no where near as talented as SPK and more on the level of Portion Control, but Throbbing Gristle had just broken up and Emissions were more on target than Psychic TV, Chris and Cosey or Cabaret Voltaire.
Drowning in a Sea of Bliss is not an easy listen, but thats not what you buy this stuff for, is it?"