Customer Reviews

Subliminal Sandwich

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When Satyricon came out in 1992, it was a huge underground hit. Satyricon had almost everything a true techno fan wanted: trippy sounds, fast and hard beats, and great lyrics all done by one of the most influential people to ever hit techno, Jack Dangers.

When Dangers grew up in Swindon, England he hated it. He got fired with his family while working in a railway station in an industrial wasteland of a town in England."I spent three years cleaning out toilets," Dangers growls,"I think that would make anyone angry." This led to the creation of the band Meat Beat Manifesto (MBM), when Dangers wanted to protest musically. He released an [EP] called Suck Hard which was an album of very dark tortured feedback and loud distortion. But one of the wonders of MBM is their ability to "evolve". After the release of Satyricon, Dangers disappeared for 4 years when he made a stunning comeback in the summer of 1996, he released Subliminal Sandwich, perhaps the single best album to represent industrial, techno, and a little ambience. This album gives people what almost every other can never achieve. Sprawling across two compact discs, the 140-minute, 28-track epic made up Subliminal Sandwich and repositioned MBM as studio masterminds. Every single one of those songs are spectacular. The songs vary to bass bombed beats, with a futuristic Raggae edge in "Nuclear Bomb", to relaxed whispers, tree rustling, space sounds, and a plethera of lifeforms in "The Woods/Mad Utterer". It also ranges from 1950's scientific laboratories with the wisdom from beyond genius professors in "Radio Mellotron" to a never ending abyss, filled with noise and a heavily dark mood in "Cancer". Truly Remarkable can't even really describe this album. But heed this warning! The album is filled with songs, so you might feel a bit overwhelmed. The package even comes with a warning label: "Important: Play Twice Before Listening." So listen to what Dangers had to say before judging the album to harshly.

"It's a reference to the fact that there's a lot of music on there and you've got to actively listen to it. If you don't, and you write a review of it, you're gonna look like a fool. Someone did recently. They'd obviously just played the first few songs because they said 'there's too much singing on this record.' Which is completely untrue, but there it is in print." Jack Dangers

So after reading this review you should pretty much know what to expect from this album. This is very different from their earlier albums because MBM has "evolved" since then. Upon saying that I give this album my highest recommendation. Thanks. And I hope my review has influenced you to buy this extremely superb album.

After 19 years of existence, I have finally decided that my favorite album is "The Best of Roy Orbinson" by Roy Orbinson.Ha!
No seriously, it is Meat Beat Manifesto's acid drenched "Subliminal Sandwich". This CD would've really worked well with the title "Prime Audio Soup", for that is the only way I can describe this CD (well not so much Disc1, but definitly Disc2)
Disc one is absolutly jam packed with 18 songs,every one carving it's own niche in the CD, and not a single one is boring. Each song retains MBM's signature sound, while representing a different side of it. So many subgenres are represented on this album that it is downright daunting to analyze and describe what they all are. Just listen to the samples and you will know what I'm saying. Simply fantastic, absorbing, and oddly emotional.

Somehow, by some weird act of fate, Disc Two absolutly trumps Disc One, and with only 10 songs. This CD is why I'm writting this review in the first place. Each song has an extreme volume of euphoric sound pulsing in-and-out of earshot. How Mr. Dangers
managed to make real audio soup I will never know. I'm just glad that he did in the first place.
To all you pyschonaughts out there (and you know who you are), this CD will suck you into worlds otherwise inconceivable for the sober mind. It sounds like an acid trip, as in how you would hear normal music on acid, without the acid (Get it?Got It?Good!). On acid (or you're
hallucinogen of choice) this CD is utterly absorbing all of the way through, but espescially so on tracks 7 through 10. All in all great while sober (both Cds), but unbelievably fantastic while tripping. Buy it now, so that the CD will not disapeer due to low sales. This masterwork must be preserved.

The Opus Magnum, the Everestial summit, that is MBM's Subliminal Sandwhich. This (double)CD is worth buying at ANY price. It is the synaesthetic mind-body-soul experience that music can and should be, listen, after listen, after listen... Layers, depth, lyrics, groove, production, mental bliss-its all there. This is the one MBM CD you have to have. BUY IT AND YOU WILL NEVER REGRET/FORGET IT.

Likely the most prolific and highly-engineered Meat Beat album to date, this double-disc set expands on Mr. Dangers past records and gives them a subtle, darker twist.

Disc 1 is more "contemporary" Meat Beat, with deep bass lines and memorable vocal samples distributed throughout.

Disc 2 is a more "introspective" (some may say experimental) venture, which is truly unique and memorable, even if you won't be dancing to most of the songs.

Overall, a must-have for any new or old Meat Beat fan.

The two CDs are really two different albums. The first is a MARVELOUS collection of groovy songs driven by compressed drum loops and melodic bass lines. The second is a set of longer minimalist evolutions. What is striking about Subliminal Sandwich is that it clearly is the result of a song-oriented composition process driven by melody and harmony rather than algorithmic repetition and evolution. To me it is purely a rock album although I think the tendency would be to lump it with electronic dance music. But it is no way constructed like typical electronica (using, say, Orb or Orbital as a prototype)--it bears more resemblance to quasi-improvisational styles like Pete Namlook or, really, the first group to popularize tape loops and found sounds, Pink Floyd. In any event, whether or not you dig the second CD, the first is a gem.

It's hard to belive how few people have heard of MBM. One of my frinds at work drilled into my head how great of an album Subliminal Sandwich was. When I saw it at the store for $8.99 I had to buy it. To my delight, I found it the best 10 bux I had ever spent on a CD. At first it seemed complex and oversampled. The name Subliminal Sandwich fits the album, there are so many samples/beats etc. that it takes months of subliminal proccessing to separate. So what do you get in the end, an album I listened to for 2 months straight.

I remember back in '96 I saw this CD in a Columbia House catalog and decided to give it a try. I liked the name, what can I say. I bought it, listened to it a few spins, decided I liked it, but that was that. Fast forward a few years, when in high school art class I throw this in my discman and finally start realizing what's going on. This is a lot... murky bass, ephemeral sounds just drifting in the background. Some subterranean hip hop, dub/jungle/toasting cut ups (which would be fully realized during the In Dub CD), organic rusty sounds everywhere. And this is just the first CD. Basically, a culmination of their rougher, earlier sound with the grooves of Satyricon. Top notch.
Then you get to CD two. The night to CD1's day. I can't sum this stuff into words. It's what techno music should have become. It's vicious, entrancing, LONG, rough. Analog squelches and bass are the order here. There's so many moments to choose from here. The spacious, deep space groove of "Mad Bomber/The Woods". The crushing, slow building "The Utterer", the trip hop freakouts of "United Nations, Etc" and "Plexus", and the multiple buildup/breakdowns of "Electric People". I mean, it took me forever to notice the grungy sound that carries the song around 4 minutes in is actually a distorted clarinet solo. It's just filled with little things like that. It's really one of the few electronic CDs around which betray it's electronic roots to come across feeling completely natural. More than a sum of it's parts.
As you can tell, I like CD two the best, but both CDs are completely f***ing awesome. It all depends on your tastes. But, it's a damn good buy and one of the most original CDs I've ever heard.

I discovered MBM after hearing his/their track "Prime Audio Soup" used in "The Matrix." At the time I had the idea of a sort of techno/rave group, and had certain expectations. As one might predict, those were totally swept aside when I heard "Subliminal Sandwich" for the first time. Exploring a new avenue of music, I found it hard to love this collection at first. However, two years later, I gave it another listen and decided differently.
Perhaps my two favorite tracks are "Future Worlds" and "Asbestos Lead Asbestos." The former, a sort of electronica-jazz-fusion cocktail, is nothing less than a fun and groovy listen, with an odd little sample line- "we can design future worlds." Its approach is ominous, with a bassoon bobbing in with a low note before the rhythm begins, but the most enjoyable element is the laid-back guitar soloing.
"Asbestos Lead Asbestos" is not openly hostile, but somewhat sarcastic and cynical in its lyrical message. Dangers offers an opinion of the classes, and it's not terribly nice to the rich. "Equal opportunity, except if our pedigree dogs don't like the smell of your children..." At least I think that's what he says; it's hard to tell, because his pronounciation is very odd. Whatever the case may be, it's obvious that while he's not promoting anarchism, he definitely doesn't like the general shape of society that he sees. The whole song has a very nice tap to it, again more like music played on instruments than arranged on a Mac. This is common throughout most of the album.
Until you get to CD 2, that is. While there are several songs here that fit into the performed category, a good portion of the disc is made up of gradual progressions of sound and melody. "Electric People," for example, makes me think of... well, I don't exactly know, but it's definitely more techno than most of CD 1. It's not hard to see, after you listen to this ensemble, why the experts can't quite figure out just exactly in which genre Jack Dangers fits.
I honestly don't know the industry well enough to say whether this album is influential or not, but I can say that for anyone who is imaginative and enjoys experimental music of any kind, this is something worth checking out.

This 2-disk cd from MBM is a really well constructed mix of music. The songs are generally easy to listen and groove to, keeping up the tradition of hypnotic subtlties in the tracks. The second disk was more my style than the first, a little harder and more driving. A few of the songs are unfortunately long, you may have to fight the urge to skip through them when some samples loop on for minutes. When put together in conjunction however(especially on random), they create a much fuller experience.

Where has the meat been all my life? A truly transcendental experience that must be heard by all. Listen to this in the aromatic presence of Nag Champa and other intoxicating vapors. Don't hesitate, just get it...