Customer Reviews

Bedside Toxicology

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A very well composed album. Nivek Ogre and Martin Atkins have been making great music for many years and this album is definitly not a downer. Ogre's vocal styling has shown a lot of growth on this record. His voice seems more defined than it does on some of his other work, and he actually sings. Martin Atkins' drumming is amazing as always. It's a wonderfull piece of art and I highly recommend it.

It lacks the depth and layering of skinny puppy, and some of the tracks are a bit weak, but overall a very good album. The last half of the album is probably the weaker part, which is a bit of a downer since it diminishes your desire to listen to the album as a whole.

So, I'd give it 4.2 stars. Oh yah, and the decision to open with Scarecrow is pure genius.

This is great. Weird stuff that makes me feel like I'm on various prescription drugs. If you like this, try The Damage Manual, which isn't quite as strange but definitely has a bit of that too-many-pills feel.

Since just about everyone who stumbles across this page will do so because they are looking at Skinny Puppy albums, ohGr albums, or some closely related topic, let me just get this out there: Rx's Bedside Toxicology is NOTHING like any of those. This is totally distinct in focus and execution from Skinny Puppy, who lent its singer to Rx. In fact, when this album was composed, Ogre was probably trying to distance himself from his previous band as much as he could. Skinny Puppy was all about environmentalism, politics and all the horror and blood that can exist in the raging morass called humanity. I can sum up Rx (aka Ritalin) with one word: Drugs.

This album isn't just about drugs; it sounds like being on drugs, and like drugs, if you let it, it will take you on a trip deep into bat county, a mystical place Ogre knows well. After his own addictions nearly killed him during the Last Rights recording, drugs contributed a lot to Skinny Puppy's dissolution as a band and led to the death of his friend and bandmate Dwayne Goettel. So if anyone wants to portray drugged-induced depravity and "real bad craziness" Ogre's the man do it.

Surreal, hallucinogenic and sleazy, Bedside Toxicology is a psychedelic collection of songs that were totally unexpected, especially for those coming down from a Skinny Puppy high. It opens with a Pink Floyd cover- and it's cleanly sung by Ogre over an acoustic guitar! The whole album is oddly mininalistic, or so it seems at first. Nivek Ogre's voice and Martin Atkin's drumming are pretty consistently the most prominent elements... it's what they did with those elements that's so genius. It's very creative and unconventional, which is why fans of Skinny Puppy should enjoy this, but sadly many don't seem to. For the record, this isn't in any way bad music, it's just different. So different that people don't know what to do with it. It has none of the dense Cyborg sound collage of classic Puppy, but it is far more nightmarish than ohGr's Welt and Sunnysyop albums. It's something altogether unique, and altogether sinister.

It's a very dark picture Nivek Ogre and Martin Atkins paint with this album. Even with lighthearted covers like "Scarecrow" and "Downtown" the atmosphere is downright oppressive. For the most part, the beats stay mid-tempo, and Ogre's voice is often a cybernetic drone, deceptively masking the actual intensity simmering just below the surface of the songs. Listening to something like "Imago" on headphones will soon have you questioning your own sanity. What seems like half a dozen voices assault your ears from every angle while a taped loop of drumming starts and stops seemingly at random. "The Daze" is repetitive and distressing, and the sounds sort of swirl back and forth like a pendulum, and can totally mess with your perception of time and space. The oft maligned song, "The Crackhead Waltz" seems to be played on a rusty keyboard by someone who is clearly unhinged, meanwhile an oddly tremulous Ogre says something about a "dead little baby," an idea he almost sounds amused by.

But don't let that comment relax you, Ogre's terrific sense of gallows-humor is obvious in his lyrics and performance, but the fact that he's so gleeful in all this darkness makes it seem all the more unnerving. It's like having the insane hitchhiker from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre riding in your car: he'd laugh while he's murdering you. Also, though I'm no trained musician, I'm familiar enough with proper music to know that these have to be some of the most discordant sounds I've ever listened to. I put on this album at night, laying down on my bed in my dark room, often growing increasingly nervous, because that's the natural reaction when you're eavesdropping on the internal monologue of a heavily sedated psychopath. Even songs that some have called "boring," like The Daze, seem to conjure up these images of medicated ravings and lunacy just barely kept in check. Drug flashbacks are a common occurrence, as is restlessness and urge to put on some Abba instead, to try to get out of the bad mental space you've started exploring. But if you stick around you'll be proud of yourself... just like the time you sat through all of the Exorcist back when you were seven, even though you were scared out of your prepubescent mind. You did do that, didn't you?

You see, that's what I want in my music. Not just pretty songs, or strict adherence to a particular style. I want an experience. I like music that puts pictures in my head and takes me places I'd be afraid to go in real life, like dark, rat infested alleys that lead to filthy opium dens. Bedside Toxicology is one of the most effective albums at creating a rich atmosphere. It doesn't really have any single tracks that particularly stand out to me... I prefer to listen to the whole thing from beginning to end and see what my mind dreams up in the process.

Using a full scale attack on the senses this long awaited album fills every bill. Funny, the comparison one can draw between Ogre and Barret, both musical geniuses, both incredibly shattered landscapes that leave us everything on their art. This album is a mind blower, puppy heads don't miss it or anyone else who has a taste for the Industrial obscure.

We waited long. We watied patienly. We dreamed. We knew that someday it would come. And then at last came a thing of beauty far more powerful then we could have ever imagined. Bedside Toxicology stands alone.. Ogre proves his lyrical genius once again.. Martin Atkins takes us halfway to heaven providing the perfect sonic enviroment for Ogre's less chaotic lyrics.. Even Bagman lends a helping hand.. And to top it all off a very worthy tribute to a man who should be a hero to us all, Syd Barrett.

Ohgr and Atkins surely work well together. With an acoustic intro, followed up by dark industrial masterpieces, this CD will have you hooked in no time. I thought Crackhead Walz was annoying, and The Daze repetitive and boring, but the other songs were fantastic. The only other quip I can give here is that the CD is rather short, which makes the good sounds stop too soon.

RX (Formerly Ritalin) is Martin Atkins and Nivek Ogre formerly of the groundbreaking Skinny Puppy. They succeed in breaking new ground here as well, but with some mixed results.

This is definately a good album and if your a fan of Puppy or either of the front men's other work then there is no reason to wait on this purchase. But for the casual listener this will be a difficult audio experience. Some songs such as SCARCROW and KY:re:main are easy to grasp onto and give a good beat filled listen, while others seem to drive steel shunts into your psyche. Which isn't a bad thing, but it is not for everyone.

Someof the experimentation gets a little over the top such as CRACKHEAD WALTZ, causing the instinct to skip a track. Which you shouldn't do, suffer through it and be a better listener because of it.

Not much to talk about this album. some songs have the skinny puppy flaver...some dont!!! if you ask me i think it dont have enough energy.

I bought this CD used at Amoeba records in Hollywood for like 6 bucks because I saw the words Ogre and Atkins on the CD Sleeve...and I was impressed. Granted it isnt on par with some of skinny puppy's works or even what Atkins has done in the past ( Pigface, Ministry, etc.) but it still an entertaining listen.