In 1985, Big Black recorded their first full-length, ‘Atomizer’, as well as finishing the ‘Il Duce’ 7”.

It's also Albini at his most plainspoken and bleak: "Stare at the wall/Stare at each other and wait 'til we die. Additionally, Atomizer and all post-Atomizer releases by the band do not feature the TR-606, instead opting for the E-mu Drumulator. The song "Kerosene" has been covered by Kerbdog (as a b-side to their single " End of Green" [22]), Pitchshifter (on the "enhanced" version of their album Deviant [23]), Lamb of God (on their album Legion: XX, under their original name Burn the Priest [24]) and St. In addition to the ones mentioned below, the album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. But needless to say this is a great album, really an example of the Great Lakes underground sound of the 80s, where you can really feel the failing cities and abandoned industrial dystopia of that time and place.Big Black always credited Roland along with the band's members, though Roland is a brand of drum machine and not an actual person. Steve's guitar is the distance between ice and hoarfrost, the lyrics archetypal of on the edge sociopath, or maybe just a frustrated disc-jockey. One song from the album, "Big Money", was released as a B-side to the " Il Duce" single prior to the release of Atomizer. You should take every opportunity to scratch them, fingerprint them, and eat egg and bacon sandwiches off them. By 1984, the band haddone some touring and recorded the ‘Racer X’ EP andthe start of the ‘Il Duce’ 7”.

This is the band’s first recording since bassist Jeff Pezzati left in late 1984 to work more closely with his other group, Naked Raygun. That same year Atomizer was compiled onto compact disc along with the Headache EP and the band's "Heartbeat" single under the name, The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape. Big Black was started by Steve Albini in 1982 while he was attending Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Soon after, Steve recruited Jeff Pezzati (Naked Raygun) on bass and Santiago Durango (also Naked Raygun) joined them on guitar.Atomizer was originally planned for release sometime in late 1985 – however, the band ran into some legal issues with the album cover, which originally featured Marvin the Martian. That same year, the band recorded and released the 7” of ‘The Model’ / ‘He’s A Whore’ as well as their second full-length album, ‘Songs About Fucking’. Instrumentally, Atomizer is a wailing behemoth of assaultive Roland beats, Steve Albini and Santiago Durango's clanging and whirring guitars, and new member Dave Riley's lumberjack bass.

He played everything on the EP himself, except the sax bleating courtesy of pal John Bohnen and the drums courtesy of Roland.

Pezzati was replaced by Dave Riley, an audio engineer who worked closely with Parliament/ Funkadelic. My copy (bought new in '86) has white labels, plain white inner sleeve with a printed insert, so make of that what you will. Apparently they ran out of inner sleeves before first press vinyl (if it's even true that the printed inner sleeves predate the inserts). Hey it's not Zep but if you're against the Big Black grain then maybe you exist in an airtight, brain-free starless environment. Don't worry about their longevity, as Philips will pronounce them obsolete when the next phase of the market-squeezing technology bonanza begins.