Rudimentary Peni — Cacophony
The album originally appeared in 1988, and this 2013 reissue comes in two editions: An LP version that comes in the form of 180 gram vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with a eight page lyric booklet, bonus poster & digital download code. A CD version that comes in a gatefold wallet with 20 page lyric booklet. I’m reviewing the CD version.
The album is themed around the work of master of foreboding & cosmic dread filled horror fiction H.P Lovecraft. It features 30 tracks in all, and mostly these are fairly short & sharp mixes of: spiky darting 'n' weaving art punk riffs, death rock chugs, playful anarcho-punk simmers, more speedy hardcore moments, and the odd comic ‘n’ deranged vocals/ spoken word elements. The album has often been seen as the punk rock version of Trout Mask Replica, and really that’s quite an apt description, as the album unfolds like a strange jerking ‘n’ darting surreal sonic ride. But another description could be if the original Monty Python team took a shed load of weird drugs, got into punk/death rock, and became obsessed with the work of Lovecraft….you’d end up with something like this.
Cacophony really is one of those albums that seems to reveal it’s many details, layers and oddness over time…as there is just so much going on here from darting, speeding up & slow down riffs, layers of unhinged vocals, weird comic English voices, speeding-by sketches & skits, and genreally a overloaded & deranged feeling.
Neither of reissued versions offer any new or extra material, but really I think with a album like this additional material would just take away from the odd & deranged impact of it all. As already mentioned the CD version comes with a 12 page inlay booklet, and this purely takes in the lyrics off the album…which in themselves read like a shortly novelette- as there really are some many words for each of all the tracks. Sadly there is no extra info or write-ups about the album it’s self, but again I think that type of thing may have taken away from the impact of the whole thing.
It’s fairly safe to say there hasn’t been a album quite like Cacophony, before or since…it truly is a one off, deranged, yet wholly memorable & replay-able slab of art punk/ death rock/ anarcho-punk…and really even if your not normally a fan of all things punk based, I can see this appeal to you still, that is if you enjoy jerking, odd & weird sonic fare!.