Second-best Ministry album. It just doesn’t get much more angry, venomous, cold, paranoid, or… hell, TWITCHY than this.
This was undoubtedly my favorite album ever my junior and senior year of high school.
Fuuuuck. Not a bad track on here.
I think its a pretty crappy record. LORAH is the first Ministry album I think is great.
I think its a pretty crappy record. LORAH is the first Ministry album I think is great.
I wouldn’t call it crappy but I agree that ‘Land of Rape and Honey’ is where Ministry really begins in earnest.
I think when Paul Barker came into the picture, he brought a sinister groove that would come to define Ministry for all their best albums.
This was my first Ministry album in 1986, and its the one if given the choice I would take to a desert island.
I appreciate everything that came afterward, LORAH, Mind, and Darkside being my favorites among the Luxa/Pan albums.
Some of the beats and song chord/bass patterns on Twitch came out of those sessions…although the Song Titles themselves are different. At least, a lot of things are similar and in that style. We had started recording again as a band in the winter of 83/84 at a studio called Pierce-Arrow in Evanston and that’s when things fell apart for the WS version of Ministry. At least for me.
Were you and Al staring to work on tracks like “Everyday is Halloween” and “All Day” during the Pierce-Arrow sessions? Or did Al come up with these later by himself? Were you sensing a change in musical direction at this point, or was that later?
“Twitch” sounds like it was all programmed on a Fairlight. I like “Twitch” but it doesn’t feel like a full album - more like an EP.
Funding must have been tight without a record deal at the time. I recall the Roland keyboards costing anywhere between $1,500 and $2,500 back then, and a Fairlight must have cost around $20k??
At 01:48 on the 12" version of ‘Over the Shoulder’, that is an electronic ejaculation.
I might assume that because Stevo and Brad have credits on Twitch that their contribution may have come from some of the stuff that we worked on at Pierce-Arrow. I don’t believe either of them ever went to Germany with Al to work with Sherwood. So it would make sense, just as some of the tracks from WS were actually recorded in Chicago before the Boston sessions. Note that John Davis gets a credit on WS…but he was never in the studio in Boston.
I would think that Stevo and Brad are credited because of the inclusion of “All Day”, since they were on the original 12" single. I’ve always believed that this song and The Angel was the part of Twitch Al didn’t like. He has mentioned having to make compromises with Sire on this album in the past. Of course, Sire ended up running with OTS as the actual single release, so maybe Al hated that idea as well, along with shooting that goofy promo video.
Twitch was a fascinating album to hear back in 1986, because there wasn’t anything else that sounded like it at the time (until Tackhead Sound System came out). I do remember that Twitch didn’t get released on CD until 1990, and four years seemed like forever at the time. I was on vacation in San Diego in early '90, shopping at Blue Meanie Records in El Cajon of all places. When my eyes landed on that Twitch compact disc (with no knowledge of it getting a CD release), I felt like I’d struck gold. This album was my favorite Ministry record for many years, but it probably sits a close second to LORAH now.
It’s too bad a full-length Wax Trax album never materialized. I think that would have created a more sensible bridge between WS and Twitch.
1002
You’re right 1002 that wait for Twitch to come out on cd was like an eternity. Glad that it had the bonus songs on it though from the 12". I still have the cardboard long box for that one along with LORAH and Mind.
What was up with the parental advisory for lyrics sticker on it though? I know the PMRC was going full swing then, but c’mon Twitch has like maybe one curse word on it.
Were you and Al staring to work on tracks like “Everyday is Halloween” and “All Day” during the Pierce-Arrow sessions? Or did Al come up with these later by himself? Were you sensing a change in musical direction at this point, or was that later?
Funding must have been tight without a record deal at the time. I recall the Roland keyboards costing anywhere between $1,500 and $2,500 back then, and a Fairlight must have cost around $20k??
I can’t recall any songs actually called EIH or AD that I specifically worked on. I do remember a song called “Hard Man” that sounds a lot like EIH. Just as Primental morphed into IWTTH is not unreasonable to assume that other songs also went through some kind of transformation. I’ve got a call into Stevo to see what he remembers. His powers of recollection are a lot better than mine. To be honest…after I left…I more or less just tried to clear my mind of the whole experience and didn’t have any contact with Al, or listen to Ministry music for years…maybe a decade. I’d put it out of my mind for a long time.
As for sensing a change, the Pierce-Arrow sessions started more like a change back to what we had been trying to do before WS, I thought. The idea was to build and write and record the songs as a band. We could get a more cohesive sound and not waste a lot of studio time on writing. That lasted about 2 weeks. Studio bills mounted, Al diddled with the tracks. It was more of the same. No $$ coming in/bills piling up. I split.
We had quite a few keyboards still from the WS tour. We were better equipped than we had ever been. But with Brad playing a lot of real guitar bass, and Al (at least initially) playing more guitar it felt as though we were becoming more of a real 4 piece band, which is something that Brad and Stevo and I wanted. I do remember Al insisting that we acquire a Fairlight, which went against everything we had been trying to do. I left before the Fairlight ever arrived.
I would think that Stevo and Brad are credited because of the inclusion of “All Day”, since they were on the original 12" single.
1002
That begs the question… “Where and when was ‘All Day’ recorded?”.
All I know is that the All Day/Everyday 12" was mixed in Chicago and the remixes were done in Boston (at Synchro Sound). I don’t have the All Day vinyl any more so I don’t know if any dates were printed (but the year was '84). I recall Stevo’s credit reading “additional percussion” on Twitch. Would love to hear some input from Stevo on this stuff.
1002
I liked Twich a lot, but my first listen of it was Twitched. I almost regret buying Twitched because it prevented me from going to Masterbatour. Looking back now the only real reason to have Twitched other than being a diehard Ministry fan is to have the 12" version of Over The Shoulder and the short version of The Angel. I guess having Twitch pt. 1 and the full version of My Posesssion are cool to have, but it really isn’t worth that much. It also wasn’t worth missing the last tour where Ministry would be playing a good chunk of their classics. It also wasn’t worth missing seeing them and RevCo on the same night
This album sounds exactly like Twitch without Al singing.
On the Twitch sleeve it credits Brad and Stevo for bass and percussion respectively for ‘All Day’. But the song on Twitch is ‘All Day Remix’ which is stated as being recorded and mixed at Southern Studios, London.
All Day reminds me too much of Everyday Is Halloween imo. Personally, I like both. I was pretty mixed when I first heard this, but I ended up REALLY loving this album the more I hear it.
isnt all day intro = samples from full metal jacket? i always thought they were
[reply]I think its a pretty crappy record. LORAH is the first Ministry album I think is great.
I wouldn’t call it crappy but I agree that ‘Land of Rape and Honey’ is where Ministry really begins in earnest.
I think when Paul Barker came into the picture, he brought a sinister groove that would come to define Ministry for all their best albums.[/reply]
Barker was the backbone of Ministry. You and I have both said this on the phant many times before but Ministry started to suck once he left. I know you pretty much bashed every album after he left. I didn’t think Houses was that bad but RGB was mediocre and The Last Sucker sucked. I didn’t even bother with Cover Up
But back to Twitch. I burned my own version of it awhile back. Took trax from the original and Twitched and came up with an ok version of the album. At least IMO
Track listing:
Just Like You
We Believe
The Angel (short version)
Over The Shoulder (12" version)
Isle Of Man (version 2)
Possession
Abortive (twitched version)
Twitch (pt 1)
Where You At Now/Crash & Burn/Twitch (pt. 2)
isnt all day intro = samples from full metal jacket? i always thought they were
The Full Metal Jacket samples are used on ‘Thieves’ and maybe some other tracks but FMJ was 1987, ‘All Day’ was before this. It’s possible both the song and film used stock sounds but I’m not sure. I have a vague feeling I’ve heard the All Day samples in a different film.
The “short version” of the Angel that I am familiar with is when they played it about 2X as fast as on the album in concert.
Just keep twisting the knife, man.
SLOWLY.
[laugh]
Luckiest bastard on this forum, bar none.
Some of the samples in All Day have guys talking with accents… Sounds either like Australian or really really really deep southern accents. Can’t tell from the short clips in the song.
The “Reality is here” voice sounds like Charles Manson to me.