08.26
While it’s true that the primary themes of this album (and most of the Velvet Acid Christ discography) are drugs and violence, the bounty of sci-fi movie sampling in VAC is almost overwhelming. Back on ye olde Usenet, VAC frontman (and often solo artist) Bryan Erickson was often given a hard time by others about it.
But I always enjoyed the samples, both because I liked that about electronic and industrial music in general, and because I felt they were appropriately used in VAC compositions as strong, critical threads as much as lyrics and instrumentation were.
Other albums have their own notable sample sources, but this one features some sci-fi staples: Starship Troopers, Event Horizon, and a collection of Borg-related samples from Star Trek.
While I’ve never described myself as a fan of Velvet Acid Christ, and find myself repulsed by the saturation of drug and violence imagery, I find myself coming back again and again to hear a few stand-out tracks and this album as a whole.
Velvet Acid Christ – Futile ’98
Official Website, On AmazonMP3
I think your write-up of the record is really interesting. One point stood out to me in particular. There’s a separation between the “nerd” elements of the record (like the sci-fi samples etc) and the “violence” elements – I think this record makes a really compelling case for the fluidity between those two things. I often feel like there’s willfull effort that nerds take on to underplay the violence and misanthropy that obviously pervades as an undercurrent in many elements of their shared culture. This record, on the other hand, puts all that stuff front and center. It’s definitely a silly record, one that is easy to make fun of, but the way that it stacks sci-fi escapism right next to violent fantasies of lashing-out at the outside world is really striking. For me, it feels like an honest representation of an under-discussed aspect of nerd culture.