Customer Reviews

Hex Sex: Singles 1

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

 

 

Hex Sex features all Psychic TV's European hits including the famous Godstar (in the rare "Ugly" remix), their tribute to the Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones and a wonderful straight interpretation of the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations. Despite their uncompromising musical reputation, their singles are mostly accessible to mainstream rock fans. This version of Godstar sounds just like the Stone Roses and the energetic Good Vibrations will appeal to all. Note this truly bizarre rendition of the Serge Gainsbourg/Jane Birkin classic Je T'aime (Moi Non Plus), and the eerie Papal Breakdance featuring the voices of Pope John Paul the 2nd and John F. Kennedy, which is truly impressive with its nervous but lilting rhythms. Another impressive cover is their remake of P.F. Sloane's 1960s hit Eve Of Destruction. Even here one finds the bands sinister touches, as on tracks like Roman P, their tribute to Polanski, and Supermale. They perfected the art of integrating the sample and the found sound with the music way back, long before it became standard in hip-hop and rap music. Psychic TV were truly one of the great experimental bands and Hex Sex is perhaps the best place to start investigating them.

Good collection ofsingles - mostly from 1986 and 1989 (and one from 1994). Some of the singles are very hard to get by themselves and show a pretty good range of what PTV was all about during this period.

I got this album because the song Godstar is a favorite of mine. There are many versions of Godstar and I think they are all wonderfully unique(not just a bunch of remixes). The other tracks give it enough zing to make a full fledged album. You may find the "Good Vibrations" cover to be better than the Beach Boys original.

Overall, it's a happy synth poppy album with a few of Genesis's sinister touches on a few tracks. This a good album to have if lost your Psychic TV collection and can only afford one album. It has the feel of their earlier stuff with some of the more polished feel of "Jack the Tab" and even some tracks to satisfy the Throbbing Gristle fan. The order of the tracks also flow nicely so that you can listen to the whole album in it's entirety without having to skip any tracks.

Where one reviewer wrote that this is good for someone who is new to PTV, I have to add that it's good for someone who already has been into the band for some time. If you already own these songs, more than likely they're on vinyl (unless you've been illegally downloading them... in which case Shame On You!), so the convenience of having these (mostly) rare tracks on a more portable medium is very nice. I like volume two a little better, but odds are if you're going to get one you're going to want to get the other.
Most of the tracks here are from their Hyperdelic phase, with a few tracks from when they were just beginning their acid house phase.
With both singles collections, there is a little overlap with Godstar: Thee Director's Cut, but who cares. Get Thee Director's Cut for the listening experience, then get the singles collections to fill in the gaps.