American Supreme

Performer: Suicide
Engineer: Perkin Barnes
Producer: Suicide
Distributor: Caroline Distribution

Notes: Suicide: Alan Vega (vocals); Martin Rev (keyboards). Recorded at 6/8 Studios, New York, New York in 2001. Personnel: Alan Vega (vocals); Martin Rev (keyboards). Recording information: 6; 8 Studios, New York, NY. Authors: Guy Debord; Tony Hancock . Photographer: Jonathan de Villiers. Is American Supreme -- the first Suicide album in a decade -- an update, a return to form? Yes and no. Those who hang on Alan Vega's every streetwise grunt and growl will doubtlessly be pleased as punch with the results, as will anyone who hasn't heard any music that has been recorded since 1990. Perhaps the strangest twist about this record is how much of it sounds more crude and antiquated than the duo's first two albums, which were released over 20 years prior to this one. Those two albums did what few groups had done prior, and this one recycles hip-hop and dance beats that were recycled many times over by the mid-'90s. The opening "Television Executions" is the worst culprit, using turntable scratches and a bounding late-'80s funk groove that the Red Hot Chili Peppers would scoff at. It would be expecting far too much for Vega and Martin Rev to deliver something as revolutionary as those first two albums. A more realistic hope would be for this album to not be an embarrassment. Thankfully, due to Vega's sharp-as-ever observations (he still sounds ornery and underfed), they narrowly escape that pitfall. ~ Andy Kellman

Rolling Stone (11/28/02, p.88) - "...In a world going black, Suicide bring the light..." Uncut (1/03, p.94) - Ranked #9 in Uncut's "100 Best Albums of the Year" Uncut (12/02, p.136) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...The most potent and intelligent artistic response yet to the events of September 2001..." Magnet (1/03, p.107) - "...There's a softer edge to the group's spookhouse minimalism..." Mojo (Publisher) (12/02, p.108) - "...Fractiously funky..."

As Suicide, New York City's Alan Vega and Martin Rev created a type of music unlike anything else going on around them in the punk era. Combining Vega's punk/futurist Presleyisms with the electronic squeaks and squawks of Rev's keyboards and rhythm machines, Suicide created a sinister yet strangely joyous noise that inspired everyone from the Cars to the 21st century Electroclash movement. Though they'll forever be identified as part of the downtown NY no wave scene of the 1970s and early 1980s, they've periodically reunited in the decades since.

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