Alan Vega & Revolutionary Corps Of Teenage Jesus -‘Righteous Lite’ (re-issue) (Creeping Bent)

Originally released in 1999, this collaboration between Suicide frontman Vega and Stephen Lironi (originally of Altered Images, later Creeping Bent’s in house remixer) is reissued to celebrate the label’s 20th anniversary. The collaboration happened after a RCTJ remix of Suicide’s legendary and not a little unsettling ‘Frankie Teardrop.’

Suicide’s self-titled debut album in 1977 was so out-there and so confrontational that it out-punked the punks (check out the legendary ’23 Minutes Over Brussels’ for a gig that ended in a riot) and it still sounds way ahead of it’s time all these years later. It’s impossible to listen to this album without being reminded of it, because Vega’s vocals sound the same and the music is underpinned by the same basso continuo ultra-minimal keyboards and drum machines – but also into the mix come rather nineties dance influences which have dated rather less well, and interesting samples of what sound like religious rallies. It’s as if the Suicide debut, My Life In the Bush Of Ghosts and Primal Scream’s Vanishing Point had mutated.

While it probably doesn’t sound as radical as it would have done at the time of its’ release, tracks like ‘Money Day’ and ‘Pay The Wreck, Mr. Music Man’ give an insight into a project that has much to recommend it, particularly for fans of both acts.

***1/2

Righteous Lite is out now on Creeping Bent