Track of the Week: Lydia Lunch: Suicide Ocean (1982)

"I wanted to contradict not just everything that preceded me but my own previous music." Lydia Lunch

Lydia Lunch has certainly stayed true to her word. After disbanding No Wave pioneers Teenage Jesus And The Jerks, her career has ranged from the jazzy 'Queen Of Siam' to spoken word, rarely if ever stepping over the same ground twice. 1982's '13.13' is arguably her strongest album, sounding like an unholy marriage between the cyclical guitar and cavernous drums and bass of 'Metal Box' and the untamed noise of the No Wave scene she originated from, all topped off with Lunch's signature howling. It's some record. The devastating 'Suicide Ocean' is a highlight. Lydia's monotone howl rises in intensity throughout the song, touching on the lyrical themes that she has followed throughout her career - sex, death and desperation. Like Public Image Limited's 'Poptones', the lyrics are a series of startling images - broken clocks, 'frozen angels', 'the scent of ghosts' - that are repeated over and over to create a nightmare-ish sensation of deja vu. Greg William's simple and memorable bass line and Cliff Martinez's slow and deliberate drums anchor the proceedings, whilst Dix Denney plays looping arcs of feedback over a circling riff, not miles away from the work of PiL's Keith Levene, which mutates into a searing lead guitar line for the chorus. The huge, spacious dubby feel of the drums and bass is filled up with swelling guitar feedback, almost drowning out Lydia's increasingly desperate screams, creating a sickening intensity that threatens to swamp the listener - you feel like you are drowning in an ocean of pain and desperation. The song doesn’t let up for its entire duration, just shy of the six minute mark; its single minded intensity bridges the gap between PiL’s ‘Theme’ and the punishing grind of Swans.
'13.13' sounds like both a cousin to PiL's 'Metal Box' and Flipper's 'Album - Generic Flipper', and, in tying the sonic chaos of No Wave to song-like structures, it paves the way for Sonic Youth's integration of radical guitar experimentation into rock music. But the album has its own sonic identity, and bears the unmistakable mark of Lydia Lunch's personality. Listened to today, it is an album of rare intensity and invention. Sadly, it appears to be currently out of print, a situation I hope will be rectified soon. But soon after its release, Lydia Lunch had already moved on - plays, movie appearances and collaborations with Einsturzende Neubauten, Foetus, Sonic Youth and Nick Cave are just some of the things she has done since then. To this day she remains a creative force to be reckoned with, and a true embodiment of the spirit of punk and No Wave.