Rapeman - Two Nuns And A Pack Mule (1988)


Albini's most obsolete, short-lived project is also a matchless one: Rapeman. Some may say however, that it's too much like Big Black, what I must disagree with, as Big Black, no matter how chaotic and noisy, didn't have much to do with the no wave/free jazz inspired, fortuitous time signatures that would lead to math rock, what Albini came to perfect, later with Shellac. In addition, while the presence of dissonant chords and angular melodies is undeniable in Big Black's music, we're missing the the atypical rhythmic structures. I believe Rapeman was Albini's first (un/onscious) attempt to form a project going in the opposite direction to that of the industrial consuetude. Their only studio full-length, "Two Nuns And A Pack Mule", stands out as one of the earliest math rock albums, and here I'm not talking the stepping stones to the genre, such as the Mothers Of Invention, Henry Cow, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, or Mahavishnu Orchestra.