Of the eight records Live Skull released throughout the 1980s, Cloud One is probably the one most often cited as the definitive LS album. This was the record that fine tuned the band's sound, transforming the polarizing power of the original No Wave into music that got under your skin and stayed there. A tightly-knit collection of songs and anti-songs years ahead of its time, Cloud One's chaos-scrambled hooks were a direct influence on the later breakthrough projects of Sonic Youth and Swans, Live Skull's co-conspirators in the so-called "noise scene" that emerged out of New York City in those years. Cloud One captures Live Skull at a creative peak, with the band generating a profusion of arresting sounds and ideas via the most basic rock and roll vocabulary: bass, drums and two traditionally tuned guitars. The resulting record, an inexplicably seductive song cycle that filters art through the nasty mood swings of rock, was something radically new for 1986. Nearly thirty years on, Cloud One remains a transcendent musical hybrid as mysterious as it is memorable. Reviewing Cloud One upon its 1986 release, Forced Exposure called the album "Live Skull's densest and most orgasmic disc yet," while Melody Maker UK declared, "Live Skull willfully derange and disengage conventional pop structures, harmonies and rhythms, preferring instead to exert a vice-like grip of droning guitars around the heart of the beast. It's an awesome racket." Acclaim for the album has continued through the years, with online source shockofDAYLIGHT describing Live Skull's magnum opus as Primo scary artnoise from the epicenter. The band's album happens to be their best and most focused. Right as you're trying to make sense of the bafflingly hot n' pre-apocalyptic cover art, you get walloped by one of the best opening tracks in rock history. I have a hunch that bands like Fugazi, Unwound, & Halcion got their entire careers from this album
Q**D
Just turn off the lights
It’s peculiar.After the sprawl of Bringing Home the Bait, Cloud One should have been a crown jewel in the Live Skull catalogue, reckoning the experiments of the previous album into a fully-fledged manifesto.Instead, it is completely overshadowed by the momentous Pusherman/Raise the Manifestation released the same year.And that’s a shame really, less to do with any shortcomings than just how far the bar had raised just a moment further on (especially with Don’t Get Any on You, also recorded within a year of Cloud One); Live Skull moved from provocative to self-possessed.But it starts here.Much of the free-for-all of Bringing Home the Bait is coalesced into something more approachable (relatively speaking), a more inviting face deftly concealing chaos swirling below, with the occasional outbursts to keep you just a little on edge: they had mastered sculpting noise into melody, and could now direct it instead of being directed by it.That’s not to say it couldn’t turn on you in a moment’s notice (re: I'll Break You), but they had more tools in their arsenal than direct confrontation of their earlier albums. Maybe subtlety isn’t the correct word here, but you get my drift. Anyone looking to delve into the cacophony of 80’s Americana, start here.Per usual, Desire Records have done a wonderful job with remaster and liner notes, with added tracks that further cement Live Skull’s reputation as a whirlwind of sonic blasts.Now if they could just get off their butts and release Don’t Get Any on You already.
L**N
Amazing record by an essential band
Look, if you like intelligent noise rock you should just buy this record, okay? Don't argue with me about it.
猿**戸
隠れたジャンク・ロックの名作
まずは祝！ 初ＣＤ化。長らく廃盤になっていたライヴ・スカルのアルバムが続々ＣＤ化され再発されるのは嬉しい。内容は、素晴らしく、文句なし。サイケデリックよりなサウンドは、ビッグ・ブラック、スワンズ、プッシー・ガロアら同時期に活躍したジャンク・ロック・バンドとは一線を画した独特のものであり、それでいて力強いエネルギーに満ち溢れた、文字通りジャンク・ロックの名に恥じない作品に仕上がっている。 ライヴ・スカルファンならずともアメリカン・アンダーグランド・ロックの好きな人には堪らない作品だと思うので、興味のある人は是非聴いていただきたい。もちろん、ジャケ買いしても損はない。
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