Rent Pussy, King of the Pirates (Acker, Kathy)

Synopsis

A match made in avant-pop heaven: Kathy Acker, lesbian punk heiress to William Burroughs's edge-of-humanity literature, together with the Mekons, eclectic punk survivors and underground music gods and goddesses. In a musical/literary pairing that easily beats the Burroughs/Cobain collab a few years back, Acker and the Mekons meet to produce what must be a first, a soundtrack to a novel. Pussy, King of the Pirates is an aural companion to Acker's novel of the same name, a typically brutal journey into a wonderland of oblivion where the real and imagined intermingle freely, and horror and obscenity live side by side with childhood fantasy and adventure.

Though the record might make a bit more sense if you've read the novel, the Mekons do an exceptional job of conjuring musically what Acker attempts in words. Acker's recitations of book excerpts introduce each of Pussy's seven songs, which echo the writer's disjointed and cacophonous collage style by mixing samples from pirate radio ('Ange's Song As She Crawled Through London'), dub reggae ('The Song of the Dogs'), lesbian pirate shanties ('Ostracism's Song to Pussycat'), industrial noise ('Into the Strange'), and disco synth-pop ('Antigone Speaking of Herself'). Acker brings out the Mekons' savage female side--with Jon Langford's vocals taking a back seat to Sally Timms's singing and Susie Honeyman's shrill fiddle--while the Mekons bring Acker's lyrics into a new, sensual realm without compromising the power of her naked words. --Roni Sarig

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