CARTER THE UNSTOPPABLE SEX MACHINE レコード& CD

Review: For many to whom the inaugural question, "where were you in '92?", is posed, the answer will simply be: in Love. Or at least, captivated and entranced by the Love Album, the seminal third LP by alt-dance post-punk masters Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine. An authentically London band, the indie rockers / synth poppers came up in the miasmic heyday of charity gigs and demo tapes, and blew newfound fans away with their live ambition, which became known for their walls of white stage lights, which psychically implanted the suggestive seed: gyrate or else. This album is ludicrously varied, centring on the impassioned Dylan-esque vocals of Jim Bob fused together with huge synth bass arpeggiations, rhythm guitars courtesy of Fruit Bat and emotive lyrical interludes, centring on themes of knightlike chivalry, beautiful London souls, and dreams frittered away in the crowd of youth.

Review: Early 90s eccentrics Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine were a crucial force in establishing of a certain brand of chart-bound power pop informed by post-punk; fusing scratched-up, sample-heavy beat progressions with histrionic ballads dealing with every topic from queer identity to late Thatcher-era alienation. By then a Rough Trade fixture, 1992: The Love Album was then their grandest project to date, though this one saw them break from the Cartel to join the majors with Chrysalis. It's now re-issued as a four-side behemoth producing parodic London-centric highlights like 'The Only Living Boy In New Cross', substituting Simon & Garfunkel's American big smoke for historic, humble ole' Hatcham.