i did a few for this track last year when it was in demo stage and was going to skip it, but i think i missed a few things.
1997-1999 or so was my big puppy kick, so when i was converting noise punk demos into electronic tracks, they were really a guiding influence. but it's not always obvious, because i was still working in traditional rock song structures and still leaning heavily towards my upbringing in synth pop, new wave and college rock. this is one of the few tracks where it's a lot more obvious.
last rights, as a whole, along with too dark park, were just seismic shifts for me in terms of what music could be. and, i fell into it right at the time when i was shifting from being formative to defining my own identity. get to the kids, as they say. it's about 16-17 that you fall into this conflict between young idealism and crushing realism and are stuck trying to find some kind of balance. everything about them, from the apocalyptic sounds to the dystopian lyrics, just made sense when not a lot else did. and, keep in mind that this was the period when punk, as a whole, was at it's highest point of absolute commodity - across the spectrum. it was that feeling of being born ten years too late.
there's maybe 10 records like this that i can cite as legitimately changing how i interpret the world around me. as agit-prop, it's just a kick to the skull, there's not much else that compares to it. it still sounds every bit as jarring and extreme as it did then, too - because it's written from a point of musical and artistic literacy, rather than from a point of total shock value. it's that artistic centre that industrial music lost with dwayne goettel and has struggled to find since.
it's both the apex and the definitive end of the genre as an artistic force.
(relevant tracks: schizoid, confused, why, eat my fuck, hexonxonx remix, idiotic, most of the stuff from 1998-2002, especially, but continuing on as a substantial background influence)
