The 1981 Listening Post - Snowy Red - Snowy Red

 Reviewed by Timothy Sprague

Released: January 1981 Snowy Red Snowy Red Genre: Electronic New Wave Rating: 1.5 out of 5 Highlights: Maud Is Dead (Just for the title. The song sounds exactly like everything else on the album.) Blood Blood Blood Here is what it says on Discogs … "Snowy Red was the one-man electronic band of the former Chainsaw bassist, Micky Mike. With the "Vision" LP and some tracks on the "The Beat Is Over" LP, Snowy Red was, for a brief moment only, a band. After the Belgian New Beat boom, Snowy Red called it quits and Micky Mike disappeared, only for the band to resurface again in 2004 as a duo (with guitarist Didier Retelet) at the Belgian Independent Music festival." I would describe this music as a mash-up of Tones on Tail, Gary Numan, Alien Sex Fiend and the XTC album Go 2. It actually sounds fairly ahead of its time and you could fool me into thinking this album came out more recently. The vibe is right at home with other repetitive techno music like Squarepusher and Aphex Twin but the echo-y monotone vocals give it away as vintage New Wave. Three tracks in and I can tell this one is going to be an endurance test. Each track consists of an electronic beat and one synthesizer riff repeated over and over again, while Micky Mike spouts a bunch of nonsense over the top. Remember the movie Liquid Sky? The characters in that film probably enjoyed this a lot when it came out. Everyone else? Not so much apparently. There is still a Snowy Red official Facebook page with very few posts. The latest is from May, 2019 - a note from his son or daughter commemorating his his birthday 10 years after his death. I see comments and replies in different languages calling him a genius so this is apparently another case of us Americans just not "getting it.” One of my criteria for judging music is whether it sounds like something I could have done in my spare time. If it seems like I would be able to do the same thing with my limited musical talents, it probably isn’t very good. And Snowy Red surely falls into that category. I have a synthesizer and Garage Band so I imagine I could whip up something very similar to this album over a weekend with enough beer and weed consumed. My 1.5 rating is a little generous just because this sounds like the other (much more interesting) bands I mentioned above so it’s not completely irritating but I have no plans to explore Snowy Red any further once I am done writing this review. Blood Blood Blood is the only song I might want to hear again. “Blood blood blood on your bed. Die die die crush your head…” That’s a tune I can easily see on one of my mix tapes from high school. Other than that, my recommendation is to skip this album.