Musick that Needed Work - R: Rudimentary Peni

 

Rudimentary Peni was a Hertfordshire UK hardcore/anarcho-punk band formed in 1980. Born out of the early English anarcho-punk scene, Rudimentary Peni never really seemed to fit in that scene. Though their sound was rooted in grimy, three-chord smashing, they were equally likely to fly off on tangents, composing Wagnerian mini-movements, repeating a single musical phrase for almost four minutes, or leaving the instruments aside while using their own voices as backing noise. Their lyrics, often fixated on death, would alternatively take a position of fear or joy at the concept of being no more. Insanity is also a central theme, with the band both reveling in madness as well as fearful of an all-encompassing depression.

Their thematic choices should be no surprise when you realize that Blinko spent time in a mental instution & Grant Matthews had cancer (recovered, in remission). Adding to this, Blinko's vocal style hinges on his mental issues. I believe the clinical tem is "Cluttering" which is "A speech/language disorder characterised by abnormal fluency with a rapid &/or irregular speech rate." 

 

The combination of Blinko’s gravelly, doom-laden, rumbling voice & crazed guitar combined with the pounding, wall-sized rhythm section of Grant Matthews on bass & Jon Greville on drums sounds like the insanity that they sing about. This album is based on the life & writing of H.P. Lovecraft. It is the benchmark of outsider Punk.

So let’s go crazy here... 

 

Rudimentary Peni - Cacophony, Outer Himalayan Records BOOBOO2, 1988.
decryption code in comments

Side 1 -
Nightgaunts
The Horrors in the Museum
The Only Child
Architectonic And Dominant
The Evil Clergyman
Brown Jenkin
Crazed Couplet
Sarcophagus
Lovecraft Baby
Dream City
C12 H22 O11
Zenophobia
Sunset for the Lords of Venus
Beyond the Tanarian Hills
Imps of the Perverse

Side 2 -
The Dead Loved
Periwig Power
Kappa Alpha Tau
American Anglophile in the World Turned Upside-Down
Memento Mori
Better Not Born
Arkham Hearse
The Old Man is Not so Terribly Misanthropic
Gentlemen Prefer Blood
Sonia
The Day he Universe Ceased (March 15th 1937)
The Crime of the Century
Musick in Diabola
Shard
Black on Gold

 

 

 

Enjoy,
NØ