Customer Reviews

Influence

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For any fans of Sister Machine Gun circa early thru mid 90s, Influence will be the best thing your ears have heard since they went independent. For those who have never experienced the genius of the Chicago based industrial mayhem, what have you been waiting for?
Influence magically combines hypnotic beats, riviting guitar distortion, and symphonic programming into the industrial masterpiece of 2003. I'd offer an analogy or comparison, but it's uniqueness requires a listen to finalize your opinion.

I grew up during the height of the Wax Trax! heyday, taking solace in all those classic discs throughout my high school years. To say that I was thrilled with the new SMG, which harkens back to those days is a true understatement.

I don't know what I could say that hasn't already been said much more eloquently by other reviewers other than this: this is very easily one of the best records of the year, and is right up there with "Metropolis" as one of SMG's best releases ever. I waas compelled from beginning to end, and this is one disc that is going to be in every CD player I own (home, car, discman) for many, many years to come.

If you're sitting on the fence about this one, do yourself a favor and buy it. Chris and Miguel have turned out a fantastic disc that recalls the past and steps into the future at the same time. My hat goes off to both of them, and again, buy the record! You will not regret it one iota.

Do yourself a favor and pick up this CD. Sister Machine Gun goes back to it's roots on Influence and the results are a CD that sounds like Wax Trax era industrial updated for the new millennium.

It's SMG's most danceable release since Transient 5.2 - it has everything I ever loved about electro-industrial, irradiated with enough creativity to keep it from ever getting stale. Chris Randall and Miguel Turanzas have done the seemingly impossible - they combined everything the band has ever been into one package. It has taken my CD player hostage, and I couldn't be happier.

Sister Machine Gun has effectively carved out a cozy niche for itself and their latest release Influence does nothing but carry on the winning account. Some of the sound design seems a bit out of date but that scarcely deters from the fact that Chris Randall is one of the best songwriters in the Industrial Hard Rock genre. Randall's hooks and melodies are seldom matched in the field while his panache for powerful downbeats and dance grooves should never be over-looked either. Sister Machine Gun feeds the fire.

By: C. Curry

i'll make this short.. Sister machine gun attempts to recreate that 90's industrial feel and for the most part they succeed. although there is a couple tracks that bore me.. for the most part this is as good as it gets aside from those original songs back in the day. highly reccomended if you're an industrial fan.

Ok, we should all Know by now how powerful SMG can be. This album however, takes the cake. SMG has made a grade A effort to make you listen. Find out what song reminds you of what. The whole album is a throwback to the early Wax Trax days and that is wonderful and exciting in itself! The album is full of hard hitting songs that grab your concious and tell it to speak! Noone can seem to resist commenting on the latest creation from SMG! "Influence" is a truly album oriented written record. This we all haven't seen in a while. The music stems definatley from the Chicago underground and many other industrial and electronic influences. SMG however, always seems to take things to the next level. One or two songs fail to tell the story. This is definatley an album to lay in bed and eagerly contimplate! Some tracks, accompanied with that all to familiar Chris Randall voice, will take you back to your first love, or maybe make you dream of such a thing. The other tracks will just plain have you dancing around your living room floor while you try to figure out every lyric!

This album is a must buy for anyone with good grass roots in electronic and industrial music. It's also great for anyone trying to find a little something new in the vast abyss of sound in the world.

I beg you...buy this album..let it take you away..cause we all know we can't afford a vacation.

Ani

First of, this album is absolutely incredible-- I have NEVER heard anything like it. It should be listened to start to finish, preferably with a high-quality setup (sometimes his vocals are hard to make out with low-quality gear {such as iPod earbuds}), and it should be listened to with attention being paid to what he's saying, and an open train of thought.
The way I interpret it, the album is a man's psychological journey, going through a hard part of his life, going through different things, slowly BUILDING UP (explained in a moment) to him just "coming out;" not caring anymore about what others think, knowing he's really better than any of the people still faking their attitudes (which turns out to be everyone around him) hiding their true selves. Sort of a story of realization.
The building up part is what I see as the defining characteristic of the album; the whole thing is a bomb, the explosion finally coming on at the final track. Things start off intense, and wane a little, then he starts to think and realize things, going back and forth between the "decent, textbook-type normal person" and something else, the real him (and a real person) trying to break out, and him trying to hold it back. Then, (third to the last track), he starts ticking, his last effort to hold back. The instrumental portion (second to the last) is him finally realizing what's really going on, he finally hears what he is telling her (everyone, really), and realizes he's not only been lying to everyone his whole life about his true feelings, but, most importantly, he's been lying to himself. Now he's fed up, and next, he becomes who he really is.
That's how I see it; I've listened to this album probably over a hundred times by now, and still love the whole thing, and learn new things about it every time. Sister Machine Gun is amazing as is; I dare say this is their best album.
I do recommend getting the CD if possible; better quality recording, blah blah blah. But, any way you can, give it a listen!

When WaxTrax! became WaxTrax!/TVT, everything went downhill from there. Countless fans across the world mourn this time as the end of an era. For some time, I counted myself among them...

But no longer! What Influence demonstrates is that which I already knew: the better bands from the WaxTrax group move on.

And get better! Sister Machine Gun founded Positron! records after their release from TVT, and Influence is the 14th record put out.

And I use the word record here very specifically. Influence is much more a record than an album. That is, the record of something happening more than a senseless amalgamation of "singles". Each song flows into the next- it is seamless. A discussion of the individual songs would detract from this- other than to say that it begins with a hard, bombastic, angry opening ("To Hell With You"), falls into introspective groove ("Clean") and ends with an anthemic pounding virtuoso ending ("The Antagonizer"). Everywhere in between, more mood swings than an Italian Opera. It makes so much sense together.

When the profanely talented guitarist, Miguel Turanzas, entered the scene, he brought with him a new dimension to SMG. Beautiful guitar to fill in the spaces between Randall's crooning, screaming, and keyboards. This is where the combination truly pays off-- Their contrasts fit together here perfectly- better than ever.

I've run out of things to say, other than I'll be marching to four syllables for the next few months -MO-TI-VAY-TA (see song #7 if you're confused). If you get this CD, you'll never get bored with it.

Example: I was driving a friend home from work, and "Entropy" was playing. She said, apparently out of nowhere, "wow, that was so sexy." To which I replied "huh?" I thought it was the way I tap my fingers when I drive. But no. She said "When he did that there." though I rewound the CD, and she kept saying "THAT!" I still have no clue what she means. But that's the point: it appeals to me because I love the music, it appeals to her because it's sexy.

How will it appeal to you?

...
...Or is it?

Ever since the untimely end to the halcyon days of Wax Trax! Records (yes, the early 1990s pre-TVT era - come on and reach WAY back with me), when a beat was a beat and synthesizers were analog, you've been waiting for this album, whether you knew it or not.

Sister Machine Gun's latest release (and their 3rd full-length since breaking free from the fetters of "The Industry[tm]" and launching their own label, Positron! Records) is at once both a throwback to the golden era of Industrial, with tracks like "Another One Down", "Motivator", and "Influence" and a nod to the way modern electronica should be with slow-burn grooves like "Clean" and "Everybody" and the insatiably bouncy "To Hell With You".
While there's enough frenzied synth work on this album to satisfy even the most demanding tecnhojunkie, the staple guitar sound of Miguel Turanzas, Esquire, provides a classy, organic counterpoint that we just don't hear often enough, effectively keeping your ears grounded in this sea of blips and beats.

In short, I highly recommend this album, and if you dig it, then check out some other releases from Positron! Records as well...I can't think of a single one that has disappointed me thus far.

So get a move on!
Pick up a copy of Influence today, and if you happen to find yourself asking, "[Gosh dang it]; what the [fark] am I supposed to do with this?", I'll tell you:

You're supposed to rock it, champ.
And rock it hard.