*** The Damage Manual

1

(Invisible)

Musical violence mitigated by melody is the Damage Manual's text. So this underground supergroup of sorts -- singer Chris Connelly of Pigface, Ministry and Revolting Cocks; Killing Joke guitarist Geordie Walker; Eno collaborator and PiL bassist Jah Wobble; and drummer/producer Martin Atkins -- wrangle studio paintbrushes like ProTools and the snarl 'n' hump of real guitar amps and drums into lumps of music that embrace everything from vintage '80s hardcore ("Scissor Quickstep") to futurist big-beat trip-hop ("Sunset Gun"). This seven-song debut EP and their current tour test the waters. Is there a place in the muddy currents of contemporary pop music for a group who weave dub bass lines, Hendrixian guitar, flailing catch-all sonics, and fairly thoughtful lyric imagery around a singer who can ricochet from spewing venom to crooning like The Man Who Sold the World? Certainly Atkins's busy-but-uncluttered production seems able to accommodate just about anyone with a spine for both the raw 'n' mighty and the tuneful. Which makes the Damage Manual's retro-nuevo combo seem enduring.

-- Ted Drozdowski