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Streetcleaner

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For the concept, see street cleaner.
Untitled

Streetcleaner is the second release and the debut full length album by British band Godflesh, released on November 13, 1989, on Earache Records.

Background

Justin Broadrick has stated that the drum machine sound was heavily influenced by hip hop artists in the late 80s, particularly the beat on "Christbait Rising" which Broadrick was quoted as saying, "It was my attempt at copying the rhythm sample on 'Microphone Fiend' by Eric B & Rakim".[1]

Release

Streetcleaner was released on November 13, 1989, on Earache Records. It was remastered and re-released on June 21, 2010.

The titular track was covered by Isis on a split EP with Pig Destroyer. The album cover is a shot from the third hallucination scene in the movie Altered States.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[2]
Chicago Tribune[3]
Entertainment WeeklyB+[4]
MetalReview.compositive[5]
Piero Scaruffi[6]

Streetcleaner received positive reviews, and was hailed as a creative masterpiece. Ned Raggett of Allmusic said, "Streetcleaner doesn't so much grind as crawl, but it does with an awesome, bass-heavy power,"[2] and "Drum machines shatter, shudder, and downright assault, while the riffs the two (or three) cook up are bludgeoning."[2] He also states that "the band deliver everything with a pinpoint precision."[2] Entertainment Weekly gave the album a B+.[4] Chris Sessions of MetalReview.com said Streetcleaner was "almost too pure to handle... hypnotically beautiful and awful and spellbinding."[5] In The Rough Guide to Rock, Richard Fontenoy said, "With the heaviest of metal riffs, slowed down to a crushing, claustrophobic pace and backed by a drum machine, Godflesh created a relentless, alienating wall of sound overlaid with feedback, samples, and Broadrick's misanthropic vocals."[7] In The New Metal Masters, H. P. Newquist and Rich Maloof wrote, "Never before had one band incorporated metal, industrial, techno, and electronica into a single form—let alone one so sinister sounding."[8] Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune said that while the vocals were typical of death metal, "the sonic landscape is something else, blending the vicious with the ethereal."[3]

Track listing

All tracks are written by J. K. Broadrick and G. C. Green, unless otherwise noted

No.TitleMusicLength
1."Like Rats" 4:28
2."Christbait Rising" 7:00
3."Pulp" 4:21
4."Dream Long Dead" 5:22
5."Head Dirt" 6:13
6."Devastator" (Broadrick, Green, Paul Neville) 3:20
7."Mighty Trust Krusher" (Broadrick, Green, Neville) 5:26
8."Life Is Easy" (Broadrick, Green, Neville) 4:53
9."Streetcleaner" (Broadrick, Green, Neville) 6:50
10."Locust Furnace"Broadrick, Green, Neville4:48
11."Tiny Tears" 3:24
12."Wound" 3:07
13."Dead Head" 4:07
14."Suction" 3:23

Track information

  • Tracks 1–5 were recorded at Soundcheck in Birmingham, May–August 1989.
  • Tracks 6–10 were recorded at Square Dance in Derby, May 1989.
  • Tracks 11–14 were originally recorded as the Tiny Tears EP, which the band wanted the label to release as their follow up to the Godflesh [EP]. Earache Records, however, pushed the band to record a full length album instead, and the Tiny Tears EP never saw an independent release. The tracks were instead later appended as bonus tracks to the second CD issue of Streetcleaner.

Accolades

Year Publication Country Accolade Rank
1995 Alternative Press United States "Top 99 Of '85 to '95" 34 [9]
1998 Alternative Press United States "The 90 Greatest Albums of the '90s" 79 [10]
2000 Kerrang! United Kingdom "200 Albums For The Year 2000 (Industrial)" 5 [11]
2000 Terrorizer United Kingdom "100 Most Important Albums of the Eighties" * [12]
2002 Revolver United States "The 69 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time" 66 [13]
"*" denotes an unordered list.

Personnel

References

  1. ^ Rock-A-Rolla Magazine. Jun/Jul 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d Raggett, Ned. "Streetcleaner Review". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved July 31, 2012.
  3. ^ a b Kot, Greg (February 21, 1991). "Godflesh Streetcleaner (Combat/Earache..." Chicago Tribune. Retrieved August 1, 2012.
  4. ^ a b columnist. "Streetcleaner". Entertainment Weekly. January 1991, cited March 19, 2010
  5. ^ a b Sessions, Chris. "Review of Godflesh – Streetcleaner". Retrieved March 27, 2010.
  6. ^ Scaruffi, Piero. "Godflesh". pieroscaruffi.com (Italian). Retrieved on March 19, 2010.
  7. ^ Fontenoy, Richard (2003). "The Godfathers: Godflesh". In Peter Buckley (ed.). The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. p. 432.
  8. ^ Newquist, H. P.; Maloof, Rich (2004). The New Metal Masters. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 38–39. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  9. ^ "Alternative Press – Top 99 Of '85 to '95". Alternative Press. Retrieved 2009-12-03. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  10. ^ "Alternative Press – The 90 Greatest Albums of the '90s". Alternative Press. Retrieved 2009-12-03. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  11. ^ "Kerrang! – 200 Albums For The Year 2000". Kerrang!. Retrieved 2008-04-16.
  12. ^ Eighties "Terrorizer – 100 Most Important Albums of the Eighties". Terrorizer. Retrieved 2008-04-16. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  13. ^ "Revolver – The 69 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". Revolver. Retrieved 2009-12-03. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
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