Ahab Rex fully incorporates the vast diversity of
Chicago scene-rock into Blood On Blonde, resulting
in a post-industrial power pop hangover (think Urge
Overkill signed to Wax Trax! Records). Blood On
Blonde’s slender production, processed breakbeats
and club-ready drug dirges take many shapes as Rex
progresses through an intoxicant-fueled romp of skuzzy
discothèques and shady alleyways: from the pre-party
grime lines of “To Whom It May Concern” (“Well
I was born again through chemistry for a second chance
at this”) to the buzz-deadened, slow-creep sunrise
of “Dope Sick” with it’s Tom Waits
howl and deadly-sick oboe flourishes.
Blood On Blonde’s early standout cuts, “Ordinary
Things” and “Queen of Softcore,” invert
plastic pop structures, dynamic indie rock and faux-doowop
soul, respectively, with the help of Public Image Ltd’s
Martin Atkins and all-around industrial wunderkind
Chris Connelly. Both tracks allow Ahab Rex’s
sinister, gravel-growl vocals to be framed and contrasted
by Brooke Cassell’s everyday woman backing swoons,
like a classic Stax gone goth.
The eclectic tracks only sometimes get bogged down by Rex’s flare for the
clichéd, as on the roadtrip-to-hell narrative of “To Whom It May
Concern” where lines like, “We started out in Kansas with a suitcase
full of dreams/ We’ll I’ve never seen the ocean, but I’ve heard
there are better things” emerge as disconnected attempts to reconstruct
a story that dried up long ago. But the death-stomp garage slag of “Bye
Bye My Baby” and the static damaged vocals and spider-leg guitar solos
of “Undertow No. 5” quickly make up for any ground lost. The addition
of two remixed tracks (by Pigface and Assasins) fleshes out the disc with some
dark-disco beats, but don’t manage to distance themselves enough from the
originals.
Favorite Track: Track 1, "Ordinary Things ”
