Millionaire ‘Paradisiac’ (PIAS)

This is one of those albums that leave you wondering ‘what the fuckinell was that?’ A discordant disconcerting entanglement of acoustic and electric noise, the pounding industrial sound veers from heavy rock to gabba techno in a heartbeat and leaves you gagging for breath like an over zealous glue sniffer. It is that good.

I feel my descriptive skills are as incapable of doing this album justice as my speakers are of playing it at a suitably life threatening volume, but if you are up for something a bit different and challenging, this could be right up your street. It certainly isn’t easy listening. The garish psychedelic abstract artwork of the CD sleeve is a pretty good indicator of the sort of aural experience the album provides.

The closest thing I can think of to compare Millionaire to at the moment is Rob Zombie, who is ultra conservative and mainstream by comparison. I could probably think of better example to provide, but I am listening to the album right now and it’s a struggle to operate the brain effectively when my attention is being grabbed by the nipple hairs and dragged to a scary but exhilarating new place.

The best tracks on the album are ‘Love is a Sickness’, a kind of Jimi Hendrix - Fatboy Slim cocktail with dash of Black Sabbath and a bendy straw, and ‘Wake up the Children’ which bloody well will. A few minutes break from the unrelenting pressure of this album is provided by ‘Ballad of Pure Thought’ which although a pretty leftfield and refreshing original example of one of the worst types of song there is, it still sounds like Simon and Garfunkel compared to the rest of the album.

It would probably be remiss not to mention the album is produced by highly renowned Josh Homme, however while a producer can make good music sound mediocre, I refuse to believe they can make mediocre music sound good, so full credit has to go to Millionaire for this one. Now I am off to rinse the rest of the blood from out of my eardrums.

words: Harry Harris

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