Chicks on Speed Albums (6)
'Cutting the Edge'
Release Date 6/9/2009
Tracks 47
Label Chicks on Speed
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
More than four years passed between Press the Spacebar and Cutting the Edge, but Chicks on Speed were more than busy during that time. Their label, gallery exhibits, and fashion shows seemed to take priority over a new album until Cutting the Edge's double-album sprawl arrived, reaffirming that the group's music hadn't gotten lost among all those other projects. Though this is Chicks on Speed's first album as a duo -- Kiki Moorse left the band shortly after the release of Press the Spacebar for a solo career -- not much else changed in their world; art, sex, dancing, and fashion are still their obsessions. The changes that are here are small but significant. Where the bandmembers used to diss six-strings so much that they wrote a song called "We Don't Play Guitars," Cutting the Edge features "How to Build a High-Heeled Shoe Guitar," a tutorial on transforming a stiletto into a musical instrument. This playful subversion is a welcome change from Press the Spacebar, which often felt strident instead of impassioned. Cutting the Edge includes the single "Girl Monster," which appeared on the band's excellent anthology of female/queer artists of the same name; in a lot of ways, this album is like Chicks on Speed's very own Girl Monster, where they can express virtually every side of their personality. They play with genres on "Super Surfer Girl"'s polluted surf-pop and "Vibrator"'s B-52's and Flying Lizards-loving new wave homage, nod to Neubauten on the mechanical rhythms of "Sewing Machine," and set "Globo Cop"'s visions of violence and megalithic corporations to a jittery, paranoid drone. Their fondness for playful social commentary continues with "Art Rules," which like its predecessor, "Fashion Rules," celebrates and skewers the art world; it might be an insular target, but with lines like "stir in a concept" and "your own exhibition at age 33!," its aim is dead-on. Chicks on Speed delve deeper into what is real, what is fake, and what is art on Cutting the Edge's second half, with mixed results. The clever "Black and White Diva" borrows from Weimar-era cabaret as it ponders image versus individual, but "Coolhunters" and the title track are more about questioning authority and authenticity than being musically interesting. That this is Chicks on Speed's biggest and most eclectic album is a blessing and a curse: it's often as overwhelming as it is fascinating. Cutting Cutting the Edge to its most potent tracks would make it more listenable, but that might be missing the point. Regardless, its best moments are just as smart as Chicks on Speed have been since the beginning. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
'Press the Spacebar'
Release Date 3/22/2005
Tracks 13
Label Chicks on Speed
See Album Tracklist and Review
'99 Cents & Remixes'
Release Date 11/2/2004
Tracks 20
Label Chicks on Speed
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Though there was a three-year gap between Chicks on Speed's debut album Will Save Us All! and its follow-up 99 Cents, the band was busy evolving via a prolific amount of singles. And, though the release of Will Save Us All! and 99 Cents roughly bookended the rise and fall of electroclash, the Chicks' second album underscores that the band still has more vitality and ideas than most other artists associated with that trend ever did. 99 Cents reaffirms that the band is more of a smart electronic pop project than anything else: fashion, consumerism, and conventional notions of originality and authenticity are all questioned and played with in the group's intellectually mischievous way. Chicks on Speed do this most overtly on the album's singles, such as the anti-rock of "We Don't Play Guitars," which nevertheless features a six-string solo and cameo from kindred spirit Peaches. The band borrows the Tom Tom Club's highbrow but inclusive dance-pop of "Wordy Rappinghood" and emphasizes its party vibe by inviting virtually every likeminded female electronic artist -- including Miss Kittin, Kevin Blechdom, Le Tigre, Adult.'s Nicola Kuperus, and the Tom Tom Club's own Tina Weymouth -- to sing on the track. "Fashion Rules," with its vaguely creepy refrain of "fashion is for fashion people," reflects the band's mingled fascination and repulsion for its targets. The title track could have been one of their most obvious attacks on consumerism, but it admits some ambivalence ("I'm not crazy about money, but I like what it can do"), and the album's liner notes also double as a catalog of Chicks on Speed merch. However, several of 99 Cents' album tracks make the group's points more subtly and are some of the most sonically interesting music that they've made. Where Will Save Us All! was a blast of righteous electro-punk energy, this album sounds more like fighting the system from within, with a surprisingly pretty, polished pop side that borrows mainstream dance-pop and urban production techniques. The choppy, acoustic melancholia of "Coventry" conveys the isolation of modern life far better than a harangue about it would; likewise, "Culture Vulture" makes the most of Kiki's Nico-like vocals. An unusually melancholy undercurrent colors 99 Cents, particularly on the trophy-girlfriend lament "Love Life" and "Shick Shaving," a pretty, and pretty disturbing, Miss Kittin-sung track that mixes images of shaving and cutting. This melancholia seeps into some of the album's louder tracks like "Sell-Out," which advises "do it to yourself before it's done to you" before descending into hellish marketing jargon. It's a far cry from the emphatic style of Will Save Us All! (although this sound pops up, with diminishing returns, on tracks like "Universal Pussyy"), but it shows how willing Chicks on Speed are to challenge themselves as well as their listeners. [The U.S. version of 99 Cents arrived a year later than the European release but rewards American listeners for their patience with a bonus disc that features almost an hour's worth of remixes of "We Don't Play Guitars" and "Wordy Rappinghood"; Cristian Vogel, Christopher Just, and Tiefschwarz's remix of the former and Dave Clarke's reworking of the latter are among the standouts.] ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Though there was a three-year gap between Chicks on Speed's debut album Will Save Us All! and its follow-up 99 Cents, the band was busy evolving via a prolific amount of singles. And, though the release of Will Save Us All! and 99 Cents roughly bookended the rise and fall of electroclash, the Chicks' second album underscores that the band still has more vitality and ideas than most other artists associated with that trend ever did. 99 Cents reaffirms that the band is more of a smart electronic pop project than anything else: fashion, consumerism, and conventional notions of originality and authenticity are all questioned and played with in the group's intellectually mischievous way. Chicks on Speed do this most overtly on the album's singles, such as the anti-rock of "We Don't Play Guitars," which nevertheless features a six-string solo and cameo from kindred spirit Peaches. The band borrows the Tom Tom Club's highbrow but inclusive dance-pop of "Wordy Rappinghood" and emphasizes its party vibe by inviting virtually every likeminded female electronic artist -- including Miss Kittin, Kevin Blechdom, Le Tigre, Adult.'s Nicola Kuperus, and the Tom Tom Club's own Tina Weymouth -- to sing on the track. "Fashion Rules," with its vaguely creepy refrain of "fashion is for fashion people," reflects the band's mingled fascination and repulsion for its targets. The title track could have been one of their most obvious attacks on consumerism, but it admits some ambivalence ("I'm not crazy about money, but I like what it can do"), and the album's liner notes also double as a catalog of Chicks on Speed merch. However, several of 99 Cents' album tracks make the group's points more subtly and are some of the most sonically interesting music that they've made. Where Will Save Us All! was a blast of righteous electro-punk energy, this album sounds more like fighting the system from within, with a surprisingly pretty, polished pop side that borrows mainstream dance-pop and urban production techniques. The choppy, acoustic melancholia of "Coventry" conveys the isolation of modern life far better than a harangue about it would; likewise, "Culture Vulture" makes the most of Kiki's Nico-like vocals. An unusually melancholy undercurrent colors 99 Cents, particularly on the trophy-girlfriend lament "Love Life" and "Shick Shaving," a pretty, and pretty disturbing, Miss Kittin-sung track that mixes images of shaving and cutting. This melancholia seeps into some of the album's louder tracks like "Sell-Out," which advises "do it to yourself before it's done to you" before descending into hellish marketing jargon. It's a far cry from the emphatic style of Will Save Us All! (although this sound pops up, with diminishing returns, on tracks like "Universal Pussyy"), but it shows how willing Chicks on Speed are to challenge themselves as well as their listeners. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
'Will Save Us All!'
Release Date 5/2/2000
Tracks 13
Label Chicks on Speed
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Chicks on Speed's full-length debut Will Save Us All! expands on the cyber-grrrl style the Munich trio forged on their early singles. As with many art school bands, with Chicks on Speed the style is the substance: even if the group's fusion of avant-garde ambitions and synth-pop seems paper-thin, it still has an exciting surface. But songs like the dance-pop anti-anthem "Glamour Girl" and the hipster putdown "Yes I Do!" condemn their fashion-victim status through their very blankness -- they call attention to the emptiness behind the surface and make it the focal point. The Chicks' punky, feminist undercurrents stand out in the disturbing spoken word piece "Little Star," which recalls the work of Miranda July and Julie Ruin; "The Floating Pyramid Over Frankfurt That the Taxi Driver Saw When He Was Landing" is reminiscent of the Raincoats' and the Slits' most explosive, political moments. And though harder-edged songs like "For All the Boys in the World" and "Procrastinator" may not be mistaken for Atari Teenage Riot anytime soon, they do display the Chicks' increasingly diverse original songs. This is an important point, as many of the group's singles -- and nearly half of Will Save Us All! -- are covers. In this context, however, the group's reworkings of the Normal's "Warm Leatherette" and the B-52's "Give Me Back My Man" come across as shout-outs to the band's inspirations. The covers also allow the group to play with their sonic identity: On their cover of Malaria!'s "Kaltes Klares Wasser," the trio sounds like a coven of digital witches, while their version of Delta 5's "Mind Your Own Business" is sleekly, chicly robotic. Interestingly, Chicks on Speed's version of Cracker's "Euro Trash Girl" is one of their most distinctive and unique songs, blending their blasé cool with David Lowery's wry, rambling lyrics. Subversive, sexy, and occasionally scary, Chicks on Speed may not be ready to save us all yet, but this album proves they're on their way. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
'The Re-Releases of the Un-Releases'
Release Date 3/13/2000
Tracks 33
Label Chicks On Speed
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
In early 2000, the music collective known as Chicks on Speed emerged from a very art-damaged electronic scene in Munich, Germany. Without a second's warning, Chicks on Speed took both the art and music worlds by storm, designing fashion shows, performing, and recording two records in under two years. And in that short time after their art-school formation, they were taken under the wings of Austrian electro-glitch producers Gerhard Potuznik and Ramon Bauer, only to become instant stars on the intelligent club circuit. Their first domestic record, The Re-releases of the Un-releases, is a brilliant collection of their early work as remixed by Bauer and Potuznik. The Re-releases is raw and unpolished but somehow charming and a bit more personal than their import-only full-length Will Save Us All. As well, The Re-releases preserves the studio chatter between the Chicks and their producers and includes strikingly innovative covers of the B-52's "Gimme Back My Man," the Normals' "Warm Leatherette" (with DJ Hell), and the Delta 5's "Mind Your Own Business." Although Chicks on Speed was originally conceived as an art installation project, they've obviously found a niche within synthetic pop music and they exhibit an impressive amount of songwriting skill and social commentary. Their humor is definitely tongue-in-cheek but is nevertheless relentless when it comes to teasing out the shortcomings of the international club scene. As well, they maintain a strong feminist perspective as they stride headlong into that territory via the tracks "Eurotrash Girl," "Glamour Girl," and "Song for a Future Generation." But while they may have found a great way of disguising their social jabs as humor, Chicks on Speed ultimately just want to have fun. With the Re-leases of the Un-releases, they do just that. ~ Ken Taylor, All Music Guide
