Released 30 years ago today.
This is probably my second favorite studio album, behind the The Land of Rape and Honey.
Lots of great tracks on this album. Here’s to 30 years of Twitch!
It’s hard to believe this album is 30 years old. I started discovering what was considered industrial around '86/'87, and Twitch was almost two years old when I first heard it. My intro to Ministry was the Wax Trax singles, so this album didn’t ‘shock’ me as much as going back to Cold Life and With Sympathy afterward. Rape and Honey? That was definitely surprising, but really not too far a departure from Twitch, in hindsight (and not as many actual guitar tracks as I thought, if Al’s recent comments are to be believed).
It’s interesting after so many years how we know so much more about how the sounds of the album came together, how much Sherwood and LeBlanc were likely responsible for, and how cut and paste the whole prcoess may have actually been. Still, the Where You At Now? trilogy is just a remarkable piece of angry dance music, and still one of my favorite Ministry concert intros ever (only to be topped by Breathe during the Mind tour).
I think Rape and Honey is ultimately my favorite album, but Twitch was #1 for a long. long time. I really don’t care so much about rankings anymore, it’s all about the mood I’m in. Twitch is definitely a one-of-a-kind record.
I have always wanted to cover “We Believe”, but have no idea how Al created those random ‘clangy’ percussion sounds. I’m guessing it’s just a sample (Fairlight or otherwise) sequenced with a percussive pattern on different parts of the keyboard, but I have never been able to come close to re-creating it.
1002
Twitch was the last thing Ministry released before I was born. I first heard it in 2005.
Lots of great tracks on this album. Here’s to 30 years of Twitch!
Don’t forget other 1984-1987 stuff as well - remixes, b-sides and outtakes, because it’s more or less in the same vein. Nowadays one can make nice 45-minute compilation of those as a companion album.
Rape and Honey? That was definitely surprising, but really not too far a departure from Twitch, in hindsight (and not as many actual guitar tracks as I thought, if Al’s recent comments are to be believed).
Well, Abortive is a track of Twitch times, Hizbollah was used in live openings way back as 1984 without the slowed down vocal song sample, and LORAH partly just has that “Twitch” sound - at least in some of the synths and drums.
It’s interesting after so many years how we know so much more about how the sounds of the album came together, how much Sherwood and LeBlanc were likely responsible for, and how cut and paste the whole prcoess may have actually been.
Yes, for example you can hear so much “Twitch” in 1987 Tackhead Tape Time album, or is it vice versa. They traded a few songs though, like Move. As for cut and paste, I think Al “learned” this Fairlight use during early Revco sessions, I don’t remember the exact quote or source where I read it, but he said something like “we programmed a loop of a drum beat and let it run until the tape ended”.
Don’t forget other 1984-1987 stuff as well - remixes, b-sides and outtakes, because it’s more or less in the same vein. Nowadays one can make nice 45-minute compilation of those as a companion album.
It’s all great stuff. It would be interesting to see what else is lurking outside of the Twitched and Trax! Box compilations. According to Adrian Sherwood, the Tackhead song “What’s My Mission Now?” is a rebranded Ministry song, complete with “O Fortuna” samples that would later find their way into “NO W”. Both the Tackhead Tape Time and Major malfunction albums sound like table scraps from the Twitch sessions, with some samples and sequences overlapping.
Twitch is the greatest. I’m slightly more into With Sympathy right now, because I held off for years on getting into it. The real drummer on WS makes it flow better. Much more organic. But Twitch with those lead bass lines…
Twitch was one of the first Ministry albums i picked up. I remember the opening track sucking me in with its industrial goodness. It’s so crunchy and mechanical in nature, it was exactly what i was looking for in industrial music at the time.
We Believe and The Angel are some real gems too. I wish they’d release a live album of this, these tracks sound fuckin’ devastating live.
My first was WS. Loved it for the most part.
Twitch seemed (because it was) much colder. Took a while to really get into it, but it’s brilliant. LORAH blew my head off! After that, downhill imo…