Station (CD)

Alan Vega spent five years making this, his sixth solo album. The Suicide frontman certainly didn't show any signs of calming down. Within the first few seconds of Freedom's Smashed you're immersed in a blistering soundworld, dominated by caustic waves of white noise and static before Vega's familiar doom-prophet vocals barge in accompanied by a tirade of punishing electronic beats. As the album progresses you get the impression that some of his collaborative work with Pan Sonic's Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen must have rubbed off: Station Station is a more economical venture into rhythmic noise with a simple but potent combination of minimal beats and pulsing noise signals. Continuing in a similar vein is Psychopatha in which Vega takes on a sinister bogeyman persona scaring off children and their mothers alike with invitations to quot;take your kids to Deadlandquot;. Like much of this album - and indeed much of Vega's career - the track is haunted by images of war. Combine that with the apocalyptic hardcore of Gun God Game, the obliterated breaks of Warrior, Fight Fa Ya Life and the Primal Scream-referencing S.S. Eyes and you've got one chilling world vision, with suitably scary end-of-days sonic architecture to back it up.