Lungs EP

VINYL FORMAT. Sensibly the most developmental and skeletal of Big Black's releases, Steve Albini's first official contribution to the rock world is a batch of sparse, minimal new wave recorded cheaply in two different apartment locations. With the exception of some sax provided by John Bohnen, everything is done by the young Albini, then a student at Northwestern. Not-so-pleasant views of morality ("I Can Be Killed"), post-mortem fornication with an army vet ("Dead Billy"), and primal living ("Steelworker") provide some of the subject matter, matching the bleakly realist lyricism of Swans with a slight bastardization of the precise, jagged minimalism of Wire, Devo, and Suicide. Limited to a trebly buzz and augmented by a Casiotone, the guitar has little of the electrifying clamor and rattle of later releases.