As the new year dawned, Unsane found themselves in something of a holding pattern. With a new drummer in their ranks after the death of Charlie Ondras, they did the most obvious thing and released a singles compilation which could serve as both a tribute to Ondras and allow people who had got into the band after the release of their debut album - a record which John Peel had absolutely caned throughout late 1991 - to discover their earliest work. Urge to Kill was a b-side on the band’s first single, This Town, released in 1989. It leans towards the industrial end of their sound, albeit underpinned with those sudden swerves into melody underneath the drone which always meant that Unsane never sounded bland or one note in their sonic attacks. This Town even manages to sound close to funk-noise-drone-rock.
Urge to Kill takes the listener through the progressively darkening mood of someone driven to psychosis. The crunch moment appearing to be around 3:04 when the battering cymbals and downbeats on guitar and bass paint the picture of the psychotic impulses being played out for the first time, with the playout suggesting both the scramble to hide the evidence and the chase on to find the next victim. It seems appropriate that the fadeout feedback at the end of the track feels like the screams of the next victim or of those discovering the dead bodies.
When they released Urge to Kill in ‘89, the band were known by their original name of Unsane N.Y.C and I wondered just how much of an influence their home city and things like New York based slasher films had been on them. This was a bit of a stretch as far as theories go given that if the band were looking to slasher films for inspiration, they appeared to be taking their cue from Italian director, Dario Argento given that they were named after the English language title for Argento’s 1982 film, Tenebrae. But the scores to Argento’s films, especially those made with groups like Goblin, tend more towards electro-folk than noise rock - I cannot claim this to be all-encompassing as I’ve only seen a couple of Argento’s films and I don’t really like his movies. I had thought the track may have been inspired by Abel Ferrara’s 1979 film, The Driller Killer in which an artist living in New York cracks up due to a mix of money, work and romantic troubles which are further exacerbated by disturbed peace from a rock band who rehearse at all hours in the flat above his. This conspires to send him on a killing spree around the city, murdering various homeless alcoholics with a drill powered by a battery pack. Until this week, I hadn't seen the film but could remember its opening title card which declared This film should be played LOUD. But while the film was great, the soundtrack was a million miles away from the kind of anarchy suggested by a track like Urge to Kill, the rock band specialises in sub-blues pub rock while the rest of the soundtrack owed more to those of John Carpenter and Wendy Carlos. I’m still waiting to chance upon an early 80s New York based slasher film with a hard-rocking, urban, industrial soundtrack. Maniac (1980) is another film which brings the scuzz in terms of its look, but which is trying to pitch for dinner-table music with its soundtrack. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.
Unsane started 1993 by touring the UK and Peel revealed that he and his oldest son, William were hoping to go and see them in the coming week.
Video courtesy of Unsane - Topic
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