Six Million Years Ago Today...
A message was seen traveling through space...
Transcending time...
Moving faster than the speed of light...
Breaking the sound barrier...
This message was known as THE FUTURE LANGUAGE...
And we are here to deliver this message to you NOW...
LONG LIVE HEAVY METAL!
Then, like a no wave rocket ship headed straight for your head, Von LMO and his band of time traveling, interplanetary rock-mongers launch into the funkiest throw down Downtown Manhattan has produced since James Chance and the Contortions were at their ugliest and heaviest, commencing lift off on Von LMO’s first album: FUTURE LANGUAGE.
This album was Von LMO’s first release since performing with Rudolph Grey as RED TRANSISTOR, and would demonstrate LMO’s rebirth from No Wave scuzzball on a death trip to The Cosmic Messenger from the Black Light Dimension.
Advocating universal peace and confidence in one’s individuality with flanged-out spaceship guitars, no wave solos, proto-hardcore drumming a la THE TESTORS, and the bleating saxophone of Juno Saturn (himself sounding like a blown out supernova hologram of X-RAY SPEX sax-woman LORA LOGIC) this is music for those who want to ascend to the cosmos without fear or any explanation of why. Just BE YOURSELF.
Above all, FUTURE LANGUAGE is a showcase for LMO’s insane vocal delivery, falling somewhere between a freaked-out intergalactic motivational coach and a true-blue punk rocker. LMO alternates between spoken word anecdotes and emotionless commands to an unseen audience, all while his unreal and unheralded outer space band relentlessly pounds and smashes around him. There is little music to stack this album against, before or since, though Von LMO’s space-age musical deconstruction is clearly rooted in Punk, Free Jazz, and No Wave.
But then, on “This Is Pop Rock,” he destroys all assumptions with the little three-letter word no punk ever wants to hear:
THIS IS POP ROCK!
Cue the Space Guitars.
So come on baby – pick up your feet, get up and DAAAAAANNNCEEE!
And the drums break into a lightspeed beat that would make anyone believe that this IS pop rock, and that it is GOOD.
Then as the song ends, in a commanding whisper,
This is just rock and roll, baby, all night long!
On “Leave Your Body,” LMO is speaking directly to the invisible audience in his mind:
Did you ever leave your body?
Did you ever leave your body
Did you ever leave ... your body?
Well come on,
LETS LEAVE OUR BODIES TOGETHER!
And drummer Bobby Ryan engages the thrusters for yet another orbit around the sun, with his tight and propulsive hardcore drumming pulling the levers and flipping the switches. It’s really his relentless attack and humongous drum breaks that make FUTURE LANGUAGE different from other no wave albums of the era. This is an album you can put on and party to, dance to, launch a rocketship to. Not just a no wave head-trip, FUTURE LANGUAGE is a sweaty and damaged celebration of humanity spiraling into the void, and instead of the psychotic pathos and indifference so many punkers and freaks latched onto to help them deal with this inevitable journey, you’ve got Von LMO as some sort of intergalactic cheerleader, sharing with us:
THIS IS THE INTERNATIONAL TRANSMITTING SYMBOL FOR UNIVERSAL PEACE, I REPEAT, THIS IS THE INTERNATIONAL TRANSMITTING SYMBOL FOR UNIVERSAL PEACE,
WE TRANSMIT SIGNALS THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE...THE UNIVERSE...THE UNIVERSE...
ARE YOU READY TO ADVANCE YOURSELF??
The reissue of Future Language features an utterly insane version of Bill Hayley and the Comet's “Shake Rattle and Roll” featuring a brutal skronk sax and guitar freakout intro with a tense and uneasy sounding Von LMO bellowing, “Get out of your seats now.... get out of your seats NOW.... I want you to SHAKE.... I want you to SHAKE!!...I want you to SHAKE!! ... I want you to SHAKE...RATTLE...and ROLL!” Before the band kicks on the afterburners, laser beam guitars swirling as you are sucked into the same interplanetary time warp these fearless spacemen were spewed from.
And here's a little von LMO Live at Max's Kansas City for you to chew on...
