Primal Scream
If They Move, Kill 'em


Released 1998 on Creation
Reviewed by windago, 09/11/2000ce


Ok it's a single, and from the looks of it, characteristically slim pickings from the band who've twice included two versions of the same tune on LP's and aren't affraid of bolstering releases with remixes.

Why include it here? Incidental reasons aside [...Because gone is the ep as a means by which more obscure bands can register in our national chart...at thirty minutes it's as long as other records in Unsung...] it rocks, and from the first time to THIS TIME MAN it amazes me. And though I love Primal Scream, it's the most stylistically accomplished and consistant disc they've released to date.

Track one, The My Bloody Valentine Arkestra Mix builds and builds and leaves you staring at the turntable thinking one of us is gonna break...Holding your breath till you hear blood squirting at your neck and temples...If after it fade you've missed a fire drill, don't be surprised.
The cover of 'Motorhead' on the accompanying LP 'Vanishing Point' is the template here: The idea that war is just a release, a playground for thrill seekers is interposed into punk myth- This is how it feels. When I hear "Are ready to testify?!" When I'm hurtling out of control in a shot to shit stuka...All places are interchangeable, I'm unsure if I've been there or not, but that same feeling of freefall and surrender HAS TO BE THERE. It does everything it sets out to do in honouring John Coltrane, Can and Ian Curtis, but it's got so much BASS it's as if it's pointing it's finger at me.

An extended version of the LP mix of 'If They Move Kill 'em', dubbed 12"Disco Mix it had The NME commenting that 'this says more about the kind of disco these guys frequent than anything else', and yes you do wonder...It's funk, it's got the bassline from Bobby Womacks' 'Who is He and What is He to You?', but it's got guitars mixed frightenly high and If it could speak it'd probably tell you that IF there's hell below we're ALL gonna go, but somehow I already know this...

Segued around the two title tracks are two interpretations of Darklands by Gillespie's old band The Jesus and Mary Chain [who were in need of the cash I wonder...?]. 'Take me into the dark, and I'll get down on my knees...' sung over a gospel organ...everyone in the rock n roll church may stand. The instrumental version closes proceedings like a blessing and I just know that something that feels this good can't be bad.


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