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Select - Swastika Eyes Review
SINGLE OF THE MONTH
PRIMAL SCREAM
Swastika Eyes
CREATION
Bringing together General Sir Mike
Jackson of NATO's Kosovo taskforce
and Michael Jackson, King Of Pop,
here Bobby 6 condemns the demonic
military industrial complex over a four
to-the-floor dance track. Sounding like a
vigorous three-way splice of The Bee
Gees' 'Stayin' Alive', The Chemical
Brothers' 'Out Of Control' and The Clash's
'Know Your Rights', this is the opiated
moods of 'vanishing Point' awakened by
a good bitch-slapping and a bucket of icy
water More remarkably, it manages to
encompass lines like "Government
thieves... psyhic amputees" and still
sounds as immediate and enticing as
Frankie Goes To Hollywood's 1984 gay disco
nuclear war hit 'Two Tribes'
Alongside the A-side we have, first The
Chemical Brothers knocking up an elongated mix
to delight the Gatecrasher nation, while Spectre's
grimy overhaul gives the nod to New Order. The
equivalent of a band riding onto a floodlit stage on
big motorbikes, it also shows how the Scream may
forget their own names, but they'll never forget
those crazy acid days of '88
"IT'S ABOUT NATO,
THE WORLD BANK
OR THE IMF"
Bobby G orders the powers that be to get
In line - or da'Scream be on their asses.
Some artwork by Sex Pistols
designer Jamie Reid has the
Queen with swastikas for eyes
Any connection with your single?
"I've never seen that It came into
my head last year I thought it was a great image
and a great insult."
Is the single spedifically anti-NATO?
"It could be any authoritarian figure or organisa
tion, whether it's NATO, the World Bank or the IMF.
We've no time for that CNN view of the world
we're saying we don't fall for that propaganda
and we oppose it. I don't walk around all day
thinking about it, but I think rock'n'roll should be
wide open for people to say what they want It's
pop art We've made a pop record."
Despite the lyrical imagery, it is quite accessible..
"Totally accessible But there was no reason other
than it just happened, honestly we really wanted
a Giorgio Moroder feel, like 'I Feel Love' meets
New Order Dead pop but with a bit of darkness in
there, like Cabaret voltaire."
Originally Appeared in Select Dec, 1997. Copyright © Select.
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