RECOIL
Unsound Methods / Liquid / SubHuman (Mute)
Former Depeche Mode keyboardist and sound arranger Alan Wilder’s Recoil project lies somewhere between Nine Inch Nails and Massive Attack, with a taste for suspenseful imaginary soundtracks a la Mute colleague Barry Adamson. Still, when a groove kicks in on a Recoil track there is nothing quite like it.
Although Wilder has been effectively retired for the last decade, Mute are reissuing the three most recent Recoil albums on coloured vinyl and CD. The journey into a heart of darkness that is the dub-laced electronica of 1997’s Unsound Methods is effective throughout, with Red River Cargo addressing segregation and racial hostility: the aural equivalent of Alan Parker’s film Mississippi Burning.
With Liquid, originally released in 2000, Wilder moved even further away from the conventional pop song format. The muti-talented Diamanda Galás guests on Strange Hours and the biblical Jezebel, which also samples The Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet. Although Recoil often took a dive into the darker realms of human nature, there was also an element of social commentary: take Supreme, with New York spoken word artist Samantha Coerbell. Sadly the tracks that did not make the final cut of Liquid, featuring Richard Butler of the Psychedelic Furs show no sign of avail.
SubHuman, from 2007, saw Wilder hook up with Louisiana bluesman Joe Richardson for what would become an authentic electronic blues-soaked listening experience, with society’s evils being at the core of its subject matter. Today, these three dark and sublime soul-stirring Recoil albums still sound as sonically powerful as they did on initial release.
words DAVID NOBAKHT