h e a t h e r

Security is part of that early 80s trifecta shared by Remain in Light (Talking Heads) and Discipline (King Crimson) where the group attempts to merge art rock with world music. Security is the most muscular-sounding of the bunch, with a focus on massive sounding polyrhythms built from layers of drums and synthesizer. The polyrhythmic tracks range from "The Rhythm of the Heat" which is foreboding to the gentle sounds of "San Jacinto" which recall the bronze tangle of a gamelan orchestra. Some of the tracks are more "normal". "Shock the Monkey" and "I Have the Touch" almost sound like 80s synth-pop but have an underlying mood of tension and even paranoia. The cymbal-less drumming of Jerry Marotta and stick playing of Tony Levin makes for rhythmically interesting listening. review by Heather Mackenzie — 2-10-03 —

j o e

His fourth, and the first to have an actual title...probably a good thing considering the lengthier alternative: Peter Gabriel (IV: Scary Distorted Blue Demon Face). Gabriel was truly taking his music increasingly off the beaten track. While Security may sound quaintly proto-world-pop-crossover by today's standards, most pop artists in 1982 weren't importing drummers from Ghana to help convey images of Carl Jung pulling a Lord of the Flies somewhere in the African desert. Though I think Sting was trying to impress us by writing lyrics in French... For Security, Gabriel rallied a strong team of support, and given who's on board, the result is something that flies impressively afar from prior Genesis, current King Crimson (bassist Tony Levin), Synergy (keyboardist Larry Fast), and solo Peter Hammill (the Lord/Hammill/Ellis axis). The first two tracks alone give you your money's worth. "The Rhythm of the Heat," with its pervasive sense of unease, finely conveys its theme through the music: a Westerner's 'civilization' being cast off like a layer of clothing for something deeper and darker. When Gabriel screams the final line, "The rhythm has my soul," he treads a perfect line of interpretive ambiguity. We don't really know to what degree the protagonist's surrender is a wholly wished for consummation ending his quest or an involuntary, doomed struggle against an unaccounted-for primal force. This is followed by "San Jacinto," a portrait about a Native American rite involving getting bitten by a snake on a mountain, countered by the encroaching symbols of modern, capitalist America. From the keyboards' opening flickers of light to the thundering climax and enigmatic coda, you have what is simply a perfect six and a half minutes. To date, this remains to me the finest song Peter Gabriel has produced with his solo output. Even past these outstanding songs, Security still delivers more than its required share, with additional standouts "The Family and the Fishing Net" and "Kiss of Life." Of course, the most popular song on the album is "Shock the Monkey," firmly in that fraternity of neurotic 80s pop hits including The Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House" and David Bowie's "Fashion." It seems that era of popular music was consistently marked with these uncomfortable-sounding sleepers, where you didn't really know what the hell people found attractive about them enough to want to play repeatedly. And yet, they managed to firmly implant themselves in one's brain nonetheless. Certainly one of Gabriel's best albums, and I daresay one of the most important to come out of the early 80s. review by Joe McGlinchey — 3-15-03 —