By Jason Fierstein
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Consolidated
"Business of Punishment"
London Records
Politicians and legislators have always conspired to cripple voices in subcultures that have threatened quaint and accepted social stratification. The federal government would have their hands full with the members of Consolidated.
For the sake of the rest of America, there have always been militant musicians willing to accept the leadership roles of political and social underminers. Consolidated knows that task is difficult.
Creating an aurora borealis of sound samples and nuclear-powered lyrics, Consolidated's radicalism and politically correct idealism are welded together with techno-heavy funk. Then, smooth propaganda is pumped IV-like into the listener's sensory and auditory nerves for the true activist essence.
Dealing with prostitution in "No Answer for a Dancer," capital punishment in the title song, "Business of Punishment" and animal experimentation on the track "Cutting," Consolidated approaches voids of music possibilities. Meat Beat Manifesto-like rhythmic samples and Rage Against the Machine-type militancy sire a release well worth popping your allowance cash for.
Cynicism and apathy are laid to rest with spoken-word tracks such as "Meat, Meat, Meat and Meat," a comic, one-minute testimony about a stereotypical red-blooded, NRA gun-toting America who proclaims: "What's all this crap about you not eating meat? That's such a bunch of crap. . Sausage, ham, bacon, steak Ä goddamn, I'd eat Cap'n Crunch with beef berries if they made the damn stuff."
Techno, comedy, rap, activism, thrash, sociology and anger are mixed in this musical melting pot and are served up for brain food to the true activist: the college student.