3 out of 5

Label: Touch and Go

Produced By: Jim O’Rourke

I’m not happy Tim Taylor died.  Let’s surely establish that.  But maybe I’m happy we never got that Interscope debut from Brainiac   that may have followed this Electroshock EP, because although I don’t think it ever would have been “mainstream” – the 90s were actually an okay time for allowing some weird stuff to make it big – I don’t think I would’ve been satisfied by the purposefully roboticized twist on their sound the group might’ve pursued, and if not for the band’s dissolution, who knows what would’ve happened with John Schmersal’s amazing post-Brainiac projects Enon and Crooks on Tape.

Electro-shock was the group’s last release, a “teaser” for an upcoming album, showing off a sound much more dissonant and less herky-jerk than what came before.  On openers Fresh New Eyes and Flash Ram, this is a promising blend of Brainiac’s generally oddball sensibilities with a newly underlining ominousness or discomfort, which follows why people like Trent Reznor might cite this disc as influential.  But the following few tracks – fully instrumental or with completely scrambled vocals – are so down-tuned and nearly un-song (or brief) to work as standalones, or even bridges to a next track (as this kind of experimental stuff was used on the previous albums) when they’re all grouped together, and unfairly, this grouping is what gives me pause when fantasizing about what could’ve come next.

Anyhow, what’s my favorite track?  Closer Mr. Fingers, which sounds like it would’ve slotted right on to Bonsai quite nicely.

Electro, taken as a teaser and not a fully committed EP is, on the one hand, not enough to judge.  On the other hand, the group put it out and slapped a title on it, so taken on its own merits, there’s definitely stuff of interest here – and one great track, a couple of good ones – but a much more muted, and this maybe disappointing, effort than what preceded.