MOTORHEAD

ORGASMATRON

  1/  Deaf Forever                               (Motorhead)                   4.26
  2/  Nothing Up My Sleeve                       (Motorhead)                   3.10
  3/  Ain't My Crime                             (Motorhead)                   3.43
  4/  Claw                                       (Motorhead)                   3.34
  5/  Mean Machine                               (Motorhead)                   2.59
  6/  Built For Speed                            (Motorhead)                   4.56
  7/  Riding With the Driver                     (Motorhead)                   3.46
  8/  Doctor Rock                                (Motorhead)                   3.36
  9/  Orgasmatron                                (Motorhead)                   5.25
  10/ On the Road (Live)                         (Motorhead)                   4.59
  11/ Steal Your Face (Live)                     (Motorhead)                   4.15
  12/ Claw (Alternative Version)                 (Motorhead)                   3.31

          Recorded at Master Rock Studios, London
          Produced, recorded and engineered by Bill Laswell and Jason Corsaro

Lemmy Kilmister : vocals, bass; Wurzel : guitar; Phil Campbell : guitar; Gill : drums.

          1986  -  Profile/GWR (USA),  PAL-1223  (Vinyl)
          1999  -  Castle Music (USA),  CMACD 525  (CD)

Note : Bill Laswell does not play on this album.
Note : Tracks 10, 11 and 12 only appear on the 1999 issue.

REVIEWS :

The mid 80s found Motorhead in a bit of flux. Both Fast Eddie Clarke and Philthy Animal Taylor had leftfor other pursuits in life and the revamped lineup of Motorhead had gone three years between proper studio albums. While the lineup of Lemmy, Phil Campbell, Wurzel and Peter Gill had debuted a few tracks on the compilation double album of No Remorse, Orgasmatron was the first full studio release for the quartet, three years after Another Perfect Day. More interestingly, Orgasmatron featured the production talents of Bill Laswell and somehow ended up being a subpar job from one of music's best studio rats.

Regardless of some of the potential pitfalls of being a band in transition and an unusual recording situation, Orgasmatron is still one of Motorhead's best albums of all, mostly due to the fantastic songs and quite appropriate performance of the band. With a twin guitar attack being utilized, Motorhead's music did indeed transform slightly to acknowledge that new things could be done but not so much that the band's motif was lost. Pete Gill offers a very competent performance on drums, though this would be his one and only studio appearance with the band (No Remorse tracks notwithstanding). Lemmy's vocals are varied, insomuch as this guy can actually vary his approach. "Orgasmatron" is snarled and angry, the raging "Ridin' with the Driver" is intense and over the top, while "Claw" is sinister and dirty. Quite a few of the songs have a stronger attack than the band had shown since their '79-81 heyday, with the aforementioned "Ridin' with the Driver" being on of their most aggressive songs to date. "Ain't My Crime" is a fun, rocking number while "Built For Speed" is simply the band's operational directive. The unfortunate part to this record that might put off some listeners is that the production squashes a lot of the sound into a bit more mush than Motorhead should have. All the instruments are audible, but are placed strangely in the mix. Considering Bill Laswell's ability in his vast number of other projects, this is an unexpected twist.

The reissued version of Orgasmatron does offer some rare goodies, including b-sides of singles from the era. "On the Road" is an early live version of "Built For Speed", which is identical to the studio version except for the chorus. "Steal Your Face" appears as a live track while the album closes out with a slightly different studio version of "Claw". Regardless of some its superficial flaws, Orgasmatron finds Motorhead alive and well in 1986, showing that rock'n'roll was still the fire that kept the band going, problems and transition phases be damned.

John Chedsey (courtesy of the Satan Stole My Teddybear website)