Attention Whore! Sorry must stop talking to our readers like that. Nope in all seriousness what we have here is a new and apparently strictly limited single from Belgium EBM outfit Suicide Commando. Of course being of the electro persuasion it is no mere a and b side single but comes crammed with an extra five remixes of the songs so by the end of it the words ‘Attention Whore’ will be going round in your head for several weeks at least. Johan van Roy is the man behind these catchy ditties and has previously got plenty of other unforgettable titles embedded on our psyches. Who can forget the likes of Die Motherfucker Die and Fuck You Bitch? For me the first track I encountered was the smashing Hellraiser a club anthem and a half and one that even old Pinhead would no doubt have approved of whilst dispatching souls to the netherworld.

As expected these songs are quickly addictive. We start with the unadulterated songs themselves. ‘Attention Whore’ has klaxons sounding an alert mixed with a robotic female voice. You are kind of reminded of an alert to get the hell out the Umbrella Corporation as something nasty is just about to happen. Of course then there is the thud of the body popping beats, which are muscle flexing and pumped up on steroids. The pace is easy to move to, somewhat sinuous rather than fast and furious and the rasping vocals somewhat demonic and inhuman “we are all whores” apparently and this dig at scene egomania will probably be embraced by those at clubs far too fucked up to look beneath the beats and realise that the song is having a dig. Time to ‘Evacuate’ and that is the next cut and equally sci-fi futuristic terror inducing. This has a solid techno backbone going through it and is perhaps that little bit more up tempo and it twists and turns all over the place giving you a good workout. It’s left to samples to replace the vocals but that works just fine for me.

We get four remixes of Attention Whore and one of Evacuate by some big names (well even I have heard of a couple of them so guessing they must be as I am no expert on things here). There is a little bit of a wob wob wobble as Funker Vogt step up to the controls but this seems like more of someone having a laugh as this does not do the dub step but gives things more of a synthesized pulsating makeover. More wobs from x-RX who give it large with some cheeky pompous and downright cheesy retro beats. Things get even more amusing as Streetgrout go all sandy and add Ibiza rave culture to the song. It’s the sound of Shaz and Trev’s favourite ever holiday put to the beat. As for Nachtmahr, well the Austrians caught our attention on the never ending Morbid Angel ‘Illud Remixes’ and take the track back to a more militant and future sounding pound. Finally we have John Lord Fonda who sounds to me like he should be a hairdresser to the stars rather than an électronique artist but his bass trembling repetitive beat and strobing mix finishes the disc off nicely and certainly hits the spot at full volume.

Apparently this should be an appetite wetter for the forthcoming album; well consider me well and truly wet!

 

(7/10 Pete Woods)