Rocktrospectiva: The Thrilling "Liquidizer" Turns 35

Released on 2 October 1989, "Liquidizer" was the debut studio album by British indie rock band Jesus Jones, under the production of Craig Leon, boosting the band to achieve its signature tone. The album is a techno and power pop collection, borrowing influences from hip hop due the huge amount of ssamples, the album spawned three singles "Info Freako", "Never Enough" & "Bring It On Down", helping the album to peaked No. 32 on the UK Album Chart. 

Nearly after the band signed with Food records for a single, but with the option for a second single and an album, the band started to performed sold-out gigs and this helped to gained coverage from the music press. The band members left their day jobs in order to support the Shamen and the Wonder Stuff on their respective tours between March and June 1989. 

Food Records proposed that "Bring It on Down" should be touted as a single; Balfe recommended David Motion as the choice of producer, but Motion's "ultra-glossy and professional approach" did not work with what they wanted. Liquidizer was ultimately produced by Craig Leon, except for "Info Freako", which was produced by Edwards, in mid-1989

Musically, the sound of Liquidizer has been described as power pop and techno, with influence from hip hop, drawing comparison to the work of Pop Will Eat Itself, Renegade Soundwave and World Domination Enterprises. 

Baker said their use of sampling made them stand out from their contemporaries, despite the technology being in its infancy having limited use. The opening track to Liquidizer, "Move Mountains", was inspired by taxi rides the band would take while during the album. the lyrics for "Move Mountains" were influenced by a taxi ride that Edwards took through the North part of London, which was adorned by numerous religious artefacts. The piano part was taken from various American house records that Baker, who was working in a record store, had sent Edwards, while the "go!" sample was taken from a World Domination Enterprises song. "Never Enough" is based on the first scene in Stardust Memories, where Paul Lester of Classic Pop wrote that the "protagonist finds himself dismally dissatisfied with his lot" of associates. "What's Going On" features hip hop break sections, with wah-wah enhanced guitar parts layered on top, and is followed by the industrial track "Song 13". For the latter, Baker explained that Edwards was inspired by albums in his parents' record collection, in particular, the self-titled album by the Beatles. "Info Freako" grew out of a 19-second snippet of a bass part and a guitar sample, "Too Much to Learn" is a dub-inspired track that was influenced by mundanity.

The band ended the year and decade with a show at the Town and Country Club to a crowd of 2,200. Then they signed to American-based EMI imprint SBK Records, which had plenty of chart success with its acts Vanilla Ice and Wilson Phillips in 1990. The label's radio promoter Mike Mena was annoyed that he had no alternative bands on the roster to work with; when he raised this with senior promoter Daniel Glass, the latter told him to search for those kind of acts. After having no luck courting Nick Cave and Screaming Trees, he came across Jesus Jones. Though they were unknown in the US, Food Records had an option to release its albums with any label in the United States provided it was a part of EMI. Mena thought the band would be perfect to aid in diversifying their roster and pestered chairman Charles Koppelman about them: "Quite frankly, I think he said yes to shut me up", So the label would release Liquidizer in the US on 4 June 1990, with "Broken Bones" and the "I Don't Want That Kind of Love" cover as bonus tracks. Other tracks such as  "Move Mountains", "Never Enough" and "Info Freako" subsequently received significant airplay from alternative radio stations, while the video for "Never Enough" similarly began receiving airplay on MTV's 120 Minutes.

The critics generally praised the album, especially in their songwriting and mix of samples considered it as a thrilling experience, even if the end results are oddly enough one-dimensional: instantly catchy power pop fed through industrial, techno, and hip-hop approaches, this was because the band incorporate some of the most sophisticated and subtle samples to appear on record, admitting that it was hard to pinpoint where instruments end and samples begin.

 

Liquidizer Track List: 

 

1. Move Mountains

2. Never Enough

3. The Real World

4. All The Answer

5. What's Going On

6. Song 13

7. Info Freako

8. Bring It On Down

9. Too Much To Learn

10. What Would You Know?

11. One For The Money

12. Someone To Blame