SUICIDE

Suicide: Martin Rev, Allen Vega. Suicide: Alan Vega (vocals); Martin Rev (synthesizer). Includes a bonus disc of live recordings. Suicide: Alan Vega (vocals); Martin Rev (keyboards). Seven years after the duo's inception, Suicide's debut album finally sneaked out in 1977 on the coat tails of the nascent New York punk scene. If its aim had been to confuse, startle, or repulse, SUICIDE succeeded in spades. By the same token, if a part-time sculptor and avant-garde jazz musician form a two-chord synthesizer duo and call it Suicide, commercial considerations are presumably low on their list of priorities. SUICIDE was a record destined to have future journalists reaching for words like "seminal". Synth duos start here. SUICIDE's bleak, one-act plays of violence and sexual deviance, and that lo-fi monotone punctuated by sleazy groans and horrifying screams, still induce nervous tension despite the passing years. To hear Alan Vega, an Elvis caricature out of time, crooning "Girl" is unsettling enough. When he acts out the desperation of "Frankie Teardrop" over the strictly controlled minimalism of Martin Rev's grinding keyboard and time-bomb rhythm, you're guaranteed a listening experience quite unlike any other.