MSI really know how to sell themselves when announcing the arrival of their ‘lost’ album, penned some 20 years ago but unrealised and unreleased until now.
With caps lock jammed on, the press release forewarns that ‘THIS RETRO 1990S ALBUM IS THE LOST PUZZLE PIECE IN THE FORMATION OF THE UNIQUE MSI SOUND THAT WOULD EVENTUALLY PISS OFF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE.’
Credit where it’s due, the charmingly-named Jimmy Urine and co get self-effacing humour, and ultimately, that’s the key to what renders this irritating technopunk racket bearable. It’s impossible to take anything this over the top seriously, and it’s quite a relief to note just how tongue-in-cheek this all is. Unless, wait, they really think they have reached MILLIONS of people…? Of course not. Back to the press, because the context maters here:
PINK IS 19 TRACKS INCLUDING 15 NEVER BEFORE HEARD MSI SONGS/ TRACKS OFF THE SELFTITLED EP /HIDDEN SONGS /AN AUDIO DIARY FROM 22 YR OLD JIMMY URINE /A PICTURE ANATOMY OF WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE A MINDLESS SONG /AND FINALLY AFTER 20 YEARS THE REVEAL OF THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF THE BAND !
"PINK" THE LOST RECORD YOU BEGGED FOR IS NOW THE REALITY YOU WILL REGRET
It kicks off with a truly preposterous electro cover of Depeche Mode’s ‘Personal Jesus’ which pumps and grinds and has no redeeming features, yet still manages to piss on Marilyn Manson’s predictable take on the track. The same can’t be said for the hardfloor take on Duran Duran’s ‘Girls on Film’, which is plain nasty.
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Still, across the albums 19 tracks – that’s a lot of Mindless Self Indulgence – they crank out the high-octane dance beats and anti-establishment lyrics, liberally strewn with clumsy samples. It’s not supposed to be pretty or subtle, and on this level, ‘Pink’ is an unmitigated success. Echoes of ‘PHM’ and ‘Downward Spiral’ era NIN reverberate through this theatrical set of thumping industrial beats and darkly pulsating grooves. If at times ‘Pink’ sounds a little derivative, it’s important to remember is context and origins, and to consider how far they’ve come.
And y’know, on balance it ain’t bad.
author: Christopher Nosnibor
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