Fugazi
In On The Kill Taker LP

‘In On The Kill Taker' is like scrubbing your face with steel wool. It finds the band relying on rusty guitar shards that scrape, seethe, and hiss, further removing itself from the sound of '13 Songs' and ‘Repeater'. harsh and grating, Fugazi surprisingly produces sheer noise at times, best witnessed in the lengthy closing of '23 Beats Off' and the unintentional gremlins homage that opens ‘Walken's Syndrome.' Joe Lally's bass and Brendan Canty's drums are relegated to acting as a guide; they're pushed - but not squashed - down in the mix, allowing for Ian Mackaye and Guy Picciotto's guitars to take control, corrosively so. iI’s probably Fugazi's least digestible record from front to back, but each track has its own attractive qualities, even if not immediately perceptible. ‘Facet Squared' and ‘Public Witness Program' open the record furiously, but the majority of the following ‘Return The Screw' is hardly audible, aside from occasional vocal tantrums. a good amount of time is spent alternating between low-key guitar noodling and intrusive bursts of aggression. They're smart with their sequencing, placing the gentle instrumental ‘Sweet And Low' (the only track where Lally plays a prominent role) after the exhaustive cacophony of '23 Beats off,' and generally piecing together a set of rather diverse tracks that flows well. Picciotto's anti-hollywood rant on the properly titled ‘Cassavetes' is a classic Fugazi moment, as is his similarly name-dropping ‘Walken's Syndrome.' buried at the end of the record are two excellent lurchers, Mackaye's ‘Instrument' and Picciotto's ‘Last Chance For A Slow Dance.' not Fugazi's finest hour, but one of its most daring and rewarding.

NEW / Released in 1993 / Reissue

Tracklist:

A1 Facet Squared

A2 Public Witness Program

A3 Returning The Screw

A4 Smallpox Champion

A5 Rend It

A6 23 Beats Off

B1 Sweet And Low

B2 Cassavetes

B3 Great Cop

B4 Walken's Syndrome

B5 Instrument

B6 Last Chance For A Slow Dance