Twitch

by Ministry

Product Description:

Ministry: Alain Journgensen (vocals, guitars, keyboards, programming).

Additional personnel: Luc Van Acker (vocals); Brad Hallen (bass); Stephen George (percussion); Keith Leblanc (programming); Patty Jourgensen (background vocals).

Producers: Adrian Sherwood, Alain Jourgensen.

Engineers: Gareth Jones, Adrian Sherwood, Alain Jourgensen.

Recorded at Southern Studios, London, England.

TWITCH was something of a transitional album for Ministry. Released in 1986, and falling squarely between the band's early new wave synth-pop and their later fist-pumping industrial metal, TWITCH blends the group's use of drum machines and synthesizers into a darker and increasingly aggressive art-noise amalgam.

Though the album teems with the sound of mid-'80s technology, much of the studio trickery is quite inventive, including the band's intense use of vocal effects, thumping dance rhythms, and sampling. The results are impressive, given that club and trance music were still in their infancy at the time. Those who came to the band through their later albums will want to look to TWITCH's follow-up, THE LAND OF RAPE AND HONEY, where Ministry perfected their industrial heaviness, But TWITCH is an interesting document nonetheless.