"The only good policeman is a dead one/The only

  good laws aren't enforced/I've never hung a darkie

  but I've fed one/I've never seen an Indian on a

  horse." With these gentle words, acerbic Chicago

  fanzine writer Steve Albini began his extremely

  serious adventures in the rock'n'roll skin trade. For a

  while, Albini assembled makeshift lineups from other

  bands (Big Black subsequently stabilized a lineup of

  its own); regardless of who, they make music that's

  grating, angular, humorless and very

  intelligent--sort of a cross between Gang of Four,

  PiL and the Great Crusades (not a band). Albini's

  self-righteousness sometimes causes him to be as

  much unaccommodating as uncompromising, but his

  bile is generally well-directed, and he's immune to

  corruption, except from within. All these records are

  challenging and rewarding. 



  Lungs is at once the most homegrown and

  overwrought Big Black release. Over a skeletal

  art-funk background, Albini creates bleak, tough

  images of recessioned industrial America. While "I

  Can Be Killed" is almost laughable for its delusionary

  self-importance, "Steelworker" is intensely muscular. Bulldozer goes for a chunkier sound and more

  violent imagery. The recording quality and playing are more sophisticated, making it less alluring than

  the spartan Lungs. "Cables" is about voyeurs at a slaughterhouse; "The Pigeon Kill" is about poisoning

  birds; "Seth" is about a dog trained to attack black people. Overambitious, but sincere and scary. (A

  limited number of copies of Bulldozer were packaged in a sheet metal sleeve, with the band's name

  etched in acid.) The CD of The Hammer Party, which on vinyl is simply a combined reissue of the first

  two EPs, adds the third, Racer-X. 



  Racer-X is less obsessively cranky than the first two records (a positive development). The basic

  elements remain: one-riff industrial funk grooves, coarse vocals, jagged guitar. But this EP fills out the

  sound without sacrificing any of its amateur appeal. The musicians, while skilled technicians all, keep

  the sound raw. And if Albini is still something of a cartoon curmudgeon in his boasts about being "The

  Ugly American," he at least includes a James Brown cover and a tribute to Speed Racer's cooler brother.

  Not as idiosyncratically brilliant as Lungs, but fine stuff nonetheless. 



  Atomizer comes thundering out of the starting gate like a wounded rhino, charging around madly with

  awesome, claustrophobic rock power. Albini leads his troupe through such angry slices of

  niho-philosophy, depravity and arson as "Big Money," "Stinking Drunk," "Fists of Love," "Jordan,

  Minnesota," "Kerosene" and "Bazooka Joe" (for which the liner notes note "part of the drum track is an

  M1 carbine being fired in a field exercise by a guy named Joe"). A magnificently rugged record and a

  major sourcebook for countless bands to come. 



  As a sticker prudently warns, Headache is nowhere near as good as Atomizer. With the exception of

  the slow-to-fast chugger "Ready Men," nothing approaches the same level of excellence. Although

  Headache is the weakest Big Black LP or EP, it will forever be remembered for its original

  (fortunately?) limited edition sleeve: the most gruesome, disgusting photo imaginable, an accident

  victim's head so grotesque the record had to be sold with a covering black jacket. 



  Sound of Impact is a rather mysterious, extraordinarily limited edition live LP. Big Black's name

  appears nowhere on the sleeve or spine; many are unaware of the record's existence. Recorded live in

  Muncie, Indiana and Minneapolis, it includes early versions with different lyrics of later material, and is

  as jarring and unrelenting as their concerts were. 



  The CD-only Rich Man's Eight Track Tape (ha-ha) is a sixteen-track compilation containing all of

  Atomizer and Headache plus both sides of the "Heartbeat"/"Things to Do Today" single. 



  As Big Black was splitting up, they released their finest work: a second actual LP, Songs About

  Fucking. As if to go out kicking, screaming, howling and biting, it's their most raging, abrasive,

  pulverizing record, with only an excellent and ironic guitar take of Kraftwerk's "The Model" providing

  any relief. Albini's screeched vocals are so low in the mix they're just another instrument. Obsessing as

  usual on the excessive and bizarre side of human life, his stories remain mini horror movies set to the

  punishing, scathing guitar attack. Lyrically and aurally like Atomizer, it's liable to alter your

  perceptions. (The CD and cassette add Big Black's cover of Cheap Trick's "He's a Whore," originally

  released as a 45, complete with parodic sleeve photo.) 



  Although the main reason Big Black split was because guitarist Santiago Durango enrolled in law

  school, he's since found the time to record two EPs as Arsenal, assisted on the second by Naked

  Raygun's Pierre Kezdy. (Durango was in Raygun's original lineup, prior to Kezdy's arrival.) In 1991, the

  rock'n'roll lawyer cropped up as Cynthia Plastercaster's attorney in her phallic property litigation with

  Herb Cohen. 



  Manipulator is too experimental, as if Durango hadn't decided what sort of music he wanted to make.

  "Little Hitlers" could be a Big Black outtake, but the rest sounds like an afternoon of self-indulgent

  knob twisting. The vocals, delivered in a barely discernible Darth Vader growl and deliberately hidden

  behind the instruments, make Albini's anti-singer mixes sound like a U2 album. 



  Factory Smog is much better. Including songs originally done by the legendary Strike Under and Trial

  by Fire (Kezdy's two old bands), this EP carries on Big Black's harsh wallop, with big-fuzzed

  instrumental passages that also bring to mind Breaking Circus. While the vocals are still nowhere near

  the front of the mix, the harrowing riffs make for real drama. (One CD contains both EPs.) 



  Following Big Black's windup, Albini got busy producing records (usually without taking sleeve credit)

  for the Pixies and zillions of other bands. He also formed the short-lived Rapeman and discovered entire

  new vistas of aural and conceptual antagonism that have proven astonishingly influential. (The

  steel-edged thrash trio's crudely provocative name, borrowed from a Japanese comic character,

  contributed to the brevity of its existence.) 



  Three of the four songs on the Budd 12-inch were recorded live and loose, an unfocused batch of

  impressive shards that doesn't make a convincing introduction to the group. Two Nuns and a Pack

  Mule (which, like Budd, has a nifty die-cut cover) fits Albini's distinctive meltdown guitar and shriek

  vocals into rough song forms outlined by the ex-Scratch Acid rhythm section of David Wm. Sims (bass)

  and Rey Washam (drums). Whether paraphrasing Sonic Youth ("Kim Gordon's Panties"), dismantling

  '70s rock ("Radar Love Lizard"), slowly discussing sex scenarios ("Trouser Minnow") or revving up

  ambiguously intended furiosities ("Hated Chinee"), Rapeman spits out sparks with the conviction of

  Albini's acerbic intelligence. (Both records are on a single CD.) 



  (John Leland, Ira Robbins, Jack Rabid)