A Ritual Sacrifice for the Big Nothing (2004)
A Ritual Sacrifice for… / Shut Up / Evil Dead / Uomoz / Take It Or Leave It / The Land of Gold / The Difference Between Us / Our Jeans Are Talkin' Of Us / Holy Shit / Frosh / Human Tanga / Planet of the Apes / Ritual Prelude / Don't Forget
NO,
YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO'S CONFUSED!! This is really me, Guy Peters, your
best Belgian friend and yes, I'm REALLY reviewing an album by a band called
HUMAN TANGA. That they felt the need to add the "human" in front of the "tanga"
suggests a lot about their wacky world, doesn't it? Well, the name is only
half the fun, as singer/guitarist Mr. Murky Tanga actually wears a tanga when
he plays live. On his head. When you look at the guy, you'll realize how insane
that is: he looks like a 100% bad-ass, capable of killing people with his
bare hands while drinking a case of heavy Belgian beer to quench his thirst,
yet he insists on wearing the silliest piece of clothing since the chastity
belt. On his head. And you know what? You know what's the most perverse thing
about it all? It's the fact that the pompously titled A Ritual Sacrifice
for the Big Nothing is actually a damn fine record. While the artwork
(Winston Smith goes industrial?) and title seem to be signs announcing
a self-important band with a big message, nothing could be further removed
from the truth. Like their Italian brethren and label mates of Los Dragos,
Human Tango set out to achieve one goal: to replace your teeth fillings with
one of God's greatest weapons and youth corrupters: rock music. Even though
they're only a three-piece, the band succeed in creating quite a racket, so
it's definitely no surprise their debut EP was called Death Rock 'n' Roll.
Even though they have the harsh attack of thrash and occasionally the velocity
of hardcore punk, they're above all a rock 'n' roll band, playing a fairly
traditional high-energy racket that's given a very powerful boost. The consistently
distorted vocals can become a bit grating over the course of an entire album,
but throughout these 13 songs (the first one is a moody noise-intro) the energy
level is kept so high that you'll only notice the album's weaknesses after
several listens. A few of the songs continue for longer than necessary ("The
Land of Gold") or are quite directionless (the otherwise wonderfully titled
"Our Jeans Are Talkin' of Us"), but there's a lot of fun to be had with this
ugly bastard: "Shut Up" HAS to be the best Italian example of revved-up filth
of the year, "Uomoz" is a frantic update of 60's garage rock, "Take It or
Leave It" a nearly-forgotten gem that reminds you of how much fun straightforward
punk-rock can be, and "Holy Shit" their claim to the title of Italian Motörhead.
In other words: the occasionally generic song-writing is more than made up
for by their filthy sound, sincerity and lack of pretentiousness. It may be
a result of my repressed working class inferiority complex, but I'd rather
settle with a fierce workman-like effort than a bloated failure with high
aspirations. If you're also looking for that kind of gratification, Human
Tanga delivers the goods. Despite that fucked-up name and image.
Read album reviews of similar or related artists: Motörhead - Los Dragos