Sacred City

1992 studio album by Shriekback

Sacred City

Studio album by

Shriekback

Released

1992

Recorded

January – May 1992

Studio

The Stone Room, London

Genre

Pop rock

Label

Shriek Records
World Domination Records

Producer

Barry Andrews
Ian Caple

Shriekback chronology

Go Bang!
(1988)

Sacred City
(1992)

Naked Apes and Pond Life
(2000)

Sacred City is the seventh full-length album by Shriekback. Released in 1992, after the failure of 1988's Go Bang!, the album was much more experimental, returning to the original Shriekback sound. Barry Andrews was again joined by founder, Dave Allen, and longtime collaborator Martyn Barker, as well as Karl Hyde.^[1] With little commercial success, the band dissolved shortly after the album's release.

A companion film, also called Sacred City, was offered in a limited home-video release.

Critical reception

AllMusic's Jason Ankeny said that "the advantages of 20/20 hindsight proves the group to have been well ahead of their time, their music predating the subsequent rise of electronica via its use of dub and drum'n'bass-styled sampled rhythms... Sacred City lacks the ingenious spark of such peak Shriekback efforts as Oil and Gold and Big Night Music, but their intellectual art-funk always makes for intriguing listening."^[1] Spin magazine featured it in their "Heavy Rotation" column of staff favourites, with Staci Bonner describing it as an "evocative concept album exploring the myths of cities around the world".^[2] Jim Sullivan of The Boston Globe called Sacred City "a probing, atmospheric album -- not unlike some of Peter Gabriel's music" but noted that it had only sold "a modest 30,000 copies."^[3] Writing for The Seattle Times, Ken Hunt remarked on the use of "tribalistic drumming" and summarized the album as "a thematically unified collection of songs analyzing what urban life is all about."^[4] In the Los Angeles Times Mike Boehm observed that the album's songs "have a restrained, night-time mood, and aren't supremely catchy or readily danceable" but recommended Sacred City as "a worthwhile album to chew on."^[5]

Track listing

All tracks written by Shriekback (Dave Allen, Barry Andrews, Martyn Barker)

"Signs" – 4:18
"Psycho Drift" – 3:54
"The Bastard Sons of Enoch" – 5:05
"(Open Up Your) Filthy Heart (To Me)" – 5:05
"Exquisite Corpse" – 4:20
"Below" – 4:35
"Beatles Zebra Crossing?" – 4:04
"Hymn to the Local Gods" – 4:29
"Every Force Evolves a Form" – 5:27
"3 A.M." – 5:05

Personnel

Shriekback

Barry Andrews – keyboards, synthesizers, vocals, co-producer
Dave Allen – bass
Martyn Barker – drums

Additional personnel

Kat Evans – violin on "Every Force Evolves a Form"
Lu Edmonds – guitar on "Signs"
Karl Hyde – guitar
John Kline – guitar
Sarah Partridge – backing vocals
Wendy Partridge – backing vocals
Mark Raudva – didgeridoo, percussion
Ian Caple – engineer, co-producer

References

^ ^a ^b Ankeny, Jason. "Review: Shriekback – Sacred City". AllMusic.
^ Bonner, Staci (November 1992). "Heavy Rotation". Spin. Vol. 8, no. 8. p. 30.
^ Sullivan, Jim (23 October 1992). "A tour de force for Dave Allen at Avalon". The Boston Globe. p. 42.
^ Hunt, Ken (6 November 1992). "Three Alternatives: Heavy Funk, Industrial Rock, Psychedelia". The Seattle Times. p. 30.
^ Boehm, Mike (9 November 1992). "Shriekback Kicks Back at Rhythm Cafe". Los Angeles Times O.C Edition. p. 1.