Primal Scream XTRMNTR CD

Primal Scream's XTRMNTR is a wild burst of raging, full-on, glorious noise, as funky beats meet distorted rock guitars head-on, united by the inimitable, agitated vocals of front man Bobby Gillespie. This album is all the Primals' previous incarnations thrown into a blender and mixed with a splash of free jazz, with production credits from the Chemical Brothers and David Holmes.

The follow up to 1997's VANISHING POINT, XTRMNTR is a far more aggressive album. It ranges from the cynicism of the opening track "Kill All Hippies" ("You got the money, I got the soul"), to the intense ranting of "Pills" and "Swastika Eyes" ("all jails are concentration camps, all judges are bought"). But despite the evident aggression, XTRMNTR isn't lacking in color. "Blood Money" features some wonderfully jazzy brass over the top of a driven bass line, while "Keep Your Dreams" is laid back, dreamy and reflective. XTRMNTR is a blazing, top-notch album, both terrifying and magnificent.

Primal Scream: Darren Mooney (drums); Gary Mounfield, Martin Duffy, Andrew Innes, Robert Young, Jim Hunt, Duncan Mckay.

Additional personnel: Keith Tenniswood (programming); Darren Morris, Kevin Shields, Phil Mossman, Bernard Sumner, Greg Knowles, Gay-Yee Westerhoff, Marco Nelson, Zac Danzinger, Brendan Lynch.

Rolling Stone (5/11/00, p.131) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...A sober, brutally visceral experience....This is one ball of aggression that hangs together, thanks to the band's smarts and funk. Just call XTRMNTR the BATTLE OF LONDON."
Entertainment Weekly (5/19/00, p.74) - "...Mixes thunderous big beats and red-alert synth squalls into a loose concept album that rails against political oppression and other evils....the U.K.'s most adventurous pop band-turned-white-noise addicts." - Rating: B+
Q (7/01, p.90) - Included in Q's "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time".
Q (1/01, p.93) - Included in Q's "50 Best Albums of 2000".
Q (3/00, p.110) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...a darkly uncompromising and often difficult record: uneasy, sinister and, in layman's terms, a bloody racket....anyone with the first notion about rock'n'roll will catch thye whiff authentic mayhem here....as avant-garde as the mainstream gets..."
Alternative Press (11/00, p.144) - Included in AP's "10 Essential Political-Revolution Albums"
Alternative Press (5/00, p.75) - 4 out of 5 - "...a Baskin-Robbins shop that makes 31 flavors of amphetamine sulfate instead of ice cream: each flavor is totally wired and totally tasty..."
Magnet (1-2/01, p.45) - Included in Magnet's "20 Best Albums of 2000" - "...Hypnotic, frenzied songs...reinvigorate tired pop standards and introduce a new world order..."
The Wire (1/01, p.34) - Included in Wire's "50 Records Of The Year".
CMJ (1/08/01, p.17) - Included in CMJ's "Best of the Year" for 2000.
CMJ (5/00, p.67) - "...They've ratcheted up the intensity quite a bit this time around....loud, kinetic bass and keyboards, a menacing mix of abrasive squeals, block-rockin' beats and post-'Blue Monday' electropop..."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.59) - Ranked #65 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "[A] harsh marriage of pounding electro and speaker-blowing punk rock..."
Mojo (Publisher) (2/00, p.87) - "...a continuation of that sub-basement tapes attitude, frayed memories of revolutionary music...crafted into a rare kind of discordant anti-pop malevolence....Brutal, aggressive [and] subterranean..."
NME (Magazine) (12/30/00, p.77) - Rated #2 in NME's "Top 50 Albums Of The Year [2000]".
NME (Magazine) (2/14/00, p.44) - "...obligatory, heavy, urban and set out to take the strain of a world at war with itself. Their finest music since SCREAMADELICA set an early high-water mark, and in dealable quantities, there was even jazz, too. Trrfc."