Rema, Rema

[Hofmann@AMSAA.ARPA]

A couple of days ago, the latest release from 
Big Black came in the mail.  It's a limited, one-side
only edition from Forced Exposure for subscribers only.  

Steve Albini, the driving geek/force behind Big Black,
said in an interview that you can tell alot about a band
by the covers they do.  Up until this point, I didn't know
of Big Black doing any covers but Albini kept referring
to this Rema, Rema as if everyone should know what he was
talking about.  Probably an inside joke ... I haven't the
foggiest.     The label says Rema, Rema was written
by someone named Rema Rema of whom I have never heard.  I
pretty much figure this is some sort of joke or something
because the song basically consists of a monotonous, brooding
beat with the words, "rema,rema" yelled at the end of
phrases.  OK to do dishes by but not a primo slab in the
least.  In ways, it's derivative of the Buttholes (one of
the few contemporaries Steve lists as major influences) if
they had a drum machine.

Note:  Big Black doesn't have a drummer and uses a preprogrammed
Roland machine.  If anything is interesting on this record, it
is how they have succintly simulated African drums.

So, The Bottom Line is:  if you aren't already subscribing to
Forced Exposure and like stuff like Mission of Burma, Big Black,
Tesco Vee, Lydia Lunch, Couch Flambeau and Sonic Youth, you should.
And if you do, you should still be able to get this one sided
45 as a bonus but don't subscribe just for the 45 ... well, you're
all smart and wouldn't do that anyway so why am I wasting space
here.