XTRMNTR | 
| Artist: Primal Scream
Label: Astralwerks
Category: Music
List Price: $16.98
Buy Used: $1.00
You Save: $15.98 (94%)
New (13) Used (27) Collectible (3) from $1.00
Rating:  68 reviews
Sales Rank: 88984
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 49260
UPC: 724384926021
EAN: 0724384926021
ASIN: B00004SZG2
Release Date: May 2, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Kill All Hippies | | • | Accelerator | | • | Exterminator | | • | Swastika Eyes | | • | Pills | | • | Blood Money | | • | Keep Your Dreams | | • | Insect Royalty | | • | MBV Arkestra (If They Move Kill 'Em) | | • | Swastika Eyes | | • | Shoot Speed/Kill Light |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com's Best of 2000
Primal Scream's XTRMNTR is one of the most intense and innovative politically charged musical diatribes since the MC5's 1969 debut. Approaching electronic, funk, and alt-punk-based sounds with equal ferocity, this is arguably the band's finest record yet. The over-the-top brilliance of "MBV Arkestra" (a seven-minute, Kevin Shields-saturated noise fest) alone cannot be exaggerated. Really! --Mike McGonigal
Amazon.com
Seldom is a band's sixth album their best, and Exterminator is nothing less than a radical new dawn. Only a few years before, Primal Scream seemed spent--a drug-addled joke, numbing the pain with the idle comfort of rock & roll cliche. Exterminator is their baptism by fire. An album with a righteous social conscience, it rages against apathy and injustice with all the funk-fueled indignation of Sly and the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On. Musically, Exterminator is bound by a coherence that has eluded them since 1991. From the tense industrial trance of "Swastika Eyes" to the scurvy-thin hip-hop of "Pills" and the exultant krautrock of "Shoot Speed Kill Light," one minute the Scream are diseased and desperate, the next they're basking in glorious, righteous euphoria. Thank the guests, certainly--the Chemical Brothers, New Order's Bernard Sumner, My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields--but when you hear Bobby Gillespie screaming "from here to where" on the hyperdistorted pedal-to-the-metal drag race of "Accelerator," you'll know he's the one with the road map to a terrific rock & roll future. --Louis Pattison
Album Description
Limited Edition Japanese pressing of this album comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve. 2008
Album Details
New 11 Track Album Including Remixes of 'swastika Eyes; And 'if They Move Kill Them'
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| Customer Reviews: Read 63 more reviews...
 The best rock album in a long time November 13, 2002
Michael Kluge (San Jose, CA United States)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Yeah, it's full of processed sounds, production, and sampled beats, but this is, in both sound and mentality, a full-on rock and protest album. Every moment of this album is harsh and abrasive, and all the more enjoyable for it. It's like one strong tow-line that drags you along at its end. "Kill All Hippies'" driving beat and heavy bass will draw you in from the get-go, and pulls you through the white fire of "Accelerator," the pulsing rhythm of "Swastika Eyes," the crunchy beats of "MBV Arkestra," all the way to the final fuzzed-out blasts of "I'm 5 Years Ahead of My Time." Rarely in this decade have we heard music so alive, so angry, and so caustic. Not even Nirvana's music had such a unifying sense to back it. This kind of music will make you happy to be alive, to be able to raise your voice and make it be heard, to be able to take action. Turn on, tune in, rock out.
Very impressive May 16, 2000
Charles S. Hague (Somerville, MA)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
I haven't heard any other primal scream albums, although from what I understand this album is pretty unlike their previous material, which is unfortunate because this album is very good. Indeed, this one of few wholly integrated rock/electronic bands I've heard that pulls the trick off well (Cornelius is the only other one that comes immediately to mind). There are electronic bands that use rock moves (Chemical Brothers); there are rock bands that pretend to be electronic by throwing in burbly synth noises. But Primal Scream have created an album that rocks, which you can dance to at the same time. This is more difficult than it sounds. It helps that they're all over the map on this one: Kevin Shields (formerly of my bloody valentine) adds production to accelerator that makes the song sound, unsurprisingly, like a my bloody valentine song (albeit faster & angrier). This is a good thing. Shields also contributes to the aptly-titled MBV Arkestra, a very impressive dance rave-up complete with horns and random swirling noises. There's also neo-hip-hop sounds here (Pills, aided by the Automator's fine production); big beat (kill all hippies), and other meldings of electronic moves into rock stylings. Primal Scream have also generously included two entertaining versions of the song Swastika Eyes: the first version melds a satisfying electro riff with impassioned vocals, while the second version is a remix by the Chemical Brothers that sounds like a Chemical Brothers song; imagine that. One other thing to note is that the track listing on Amazon is wrong: the listing above is the track listing for the uk version of the record, but the American version of this album also contains the bonus track "I'm 5 years ahead of my time." Unfortunately, I bought the import version of this album a couple of months ago, so I'm missing that track. In fact, I'm seriously considering buying the album a second time to get that song. Yes, the album is that good: hype is rarely dead on (remember the Beta Band?) but in this case, I'd say you can believe the hype.
Battlefield Screamadelica September 7, 2000
MaddKhameleon (Singapore: The City of Sin)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
The year was 1991, the location was Britain, and the bands were Primal Scream and MBV amongst many other marvelous bands. Primal Scream released their `Screamadelica', MBV released their `Loveless', being the best two albums in 1991 and two of the best albums in the 90s, both of them immediately became touchstones for any album that was going to come. The latter is still unparalleled and without a follow-up while the band that made the former became one of the most influential bands in the last decade, whose names, together with Massive Attack and Radiohead, are representative of the entire decade, not even names like Oasis and Manic Street Preacher came close to. It looked like a battle between MBV and Primal Scream at that time, a competition for the album of the year. We also saw strong contenders like Nirvana's `Nevermind' and Massive Attack's `Blue Lines'. At last, quite a number of albums released that year became classics, I mean real classics. Then which album is the album of 1991? To me the answer is still MBV's `Loveless', which eventually became my album of last decade. Why do I have to talk about history? Consider this: `Xtrmntr' is released at the dawn of year 2000, a new millennium, the location is Britain, where some of the best music was made in the last decade, the band is Primal Scream, together with a whole team of veterans, including MBV's brain Kevin Shields, David Holmes, who is arguably one of the best DJs in terms of creating innovative sound consistently (just listen to his latest album `Bow Down...'), Dan the Automator was one of the most important figures in the hip-hop world...and many others, you might call this a collaboration between all the talents. The impact of this album is still unknown, but I have to tell you, this is going to be another benchmark album. Well, instead of calling this a collaboration effort, I call it a battle, collaboration is just the form of this battle, a battle that decides who is creating the best NOW. Just listen to the first track, `Kill All Hippies', the lyrics goes something like this:' You Got the Money, I Got the Soul', another battle? A battle against consumerism? A hate letter to the commercialized world? Definitely! The second track comes in, the abrasive guitar is typical of Kevin Shields, Bobby's vocal is angrier than ever, now he really is waging a war against consumerism, "Come On, Come On". Yes, it must be a hate letter then! The title track `Exterminator' is semi-industrial, an ominous track which talks about the devastating effect of our modern technology and again...consumerism. `Swastika Eyes' is simply the most danceable track here, the effect is immediate, ultra-dynamic, it feels like a roller coaster the sound brings up you to the sky, then it makes you fall down, then bring you up again. If you are into stuff like Chemical Brothers, you will definitely find yourself in love with this in no time, despite the fact that the original version of the song is better than the Chemical Brothers' remix version. `Pills' is angry, abrasive and vulgar, a song will make DJs who play it lose their jobs. `Blood Money' is an instrumental track, produced by David Holmes, it is long, complex and hypnotic. My favorite track on the album, it might not be extremely catchy at first listen, but dedicate some time and patience to it, and you will love this. `Keep Your Dreams' is probably the last part of the `Star' trilogy which starts with `Shine Like Star', followed by `Star', now the trilogy ends with `Keep Your Dreams'. Dreamy, comfortable and...politically correct, this is obviously the most easy-listening track on this horrendously noisy album. `Insect Royalty' should have replaced `Soul Auctioneer' on Death In Vega's `The Contino Session' album, a track that Death In Vegas are too bloody-minded to make. `MBV Arkestra' , the MBV remix of `If They Move, Kill Them' is simply the centerpiece of this album, yes, you didn't get it wrong. I know the original version appeared on `Vanishing Point', it is a great song , but this remix typifies the sentiment of this album: A BATTLE. What Kevin Shields did was to lock the Primal Scream sound into an forbidding cage of hardened steel, the tiger struggles to go out, he tried everything, from attempting to destroy the cage to roaring, but everything he did was in vain, finally, he succumbed... What appeared on `Loveless' as the transparent curtain of gold leaf has eventually become a steel cage here, clearly, this sounds more like Jeuse&Mary Chain than MBV in 1991. Does this mean that the line between shoegazer noise pop and rock is not so clearly drawn? `Shoot Speed-Kill Light' is the finale of the war-like symphony, providing an impractical and extremely idealistic `solution' to the problem: fly away. The idea sounds a wee bit like what `OK Computer' was trying to say. The song, with Bernard Summer playing guitar like he has abstained himself from playing it for ages and Bobby crooning in great frustration like he has all the anger and angst in the world, is a fantastic way of ending the battle, though idealist. To sum it all up, this album is momentous, it signifies the death of Britpop, also this marks the beginning of a new era in rock, the form may differ, but the core remains unchanged. If rock music has to progress, it has to depend external forces, yes, other forms to music, I am sure that electronica will be a huge influence on the Rock `N Roll in the next century. The future is not bleak if we are not dumb enough to believe the words of some `rock purists', the future is not bleak if we don't always stick to our lame old ways, the future is not bleak if we try hard enough.
 Ready to DESTROY Everything December 7, 2000
Un Anglophile (Davis, California, USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Primal Scream.....Okay, the band may not sound familuar to all of us Americans out there, but in Britain, this band is a zenith in the present scene. Besides acts like Radiohead and Travis that get much radio and magazine time on both sides of the Atlantic, this band has yet to cross-over to our East Coast shores, and believe me, when it does come on some future date, it'll probably be a massed invasion ready to destroy everything in its path. That's exactly what Bobby Gillespie wants--destroy the over-confident, over-rich, glubbed capitalist Yankees. But for a group of this caliber to be speaking on such a shouting social movement would of been unimaginable 10 years ago. Back in the early 1990s, when the rave and house scene were sweeping Europe and the UK by storm, Primal Scream, as well as fellow acts like the Stone Roses, Erasure, etc...were one of the first acts to jump into that bandwagon, ready to be at all-night raves, smoke hard, drink hard, take E seductively. Then it was hedonism, pure free love; songs like "Slip Inside This House" and "Don't Fight It, Feel It," gave off that giant-smile faced European house beat where everyone feels in love. Times have changed. Instead of remaining in that clubby clique, they have evolved into a ferocious monster that will eat anyone in a gulp. With enough bite and political terrorism, we now have a new, (although-slightly techno)enhanced band that should be the trans-Atlantic cousins of Rage Against the Machine. Not only their lyrics have changed, but also their sound. With the introduction of Manny (from their old rave cousins, the Stone Roses) they have successfully moved away from the sound of the club to the sound of war, and have appropriately named the album "Xtrmntr." "Xtrmntr" starts with "Kill All Hippies," beginning with a muffled sound of a little child, speaking over a communications radio, claiming, "Destroy, kill all hippies. Anarchy. Disco Sucks." A steady drum beat sets in, setting the tempo of the album, stacked with looping guitars, computer bleeps and whines, and Gillespie's soulful voice, decreeing, "You got the money/I got the soul." The song slowly morphs out into crunching silence; the child over the communications radio goes silent. But the album explodes like a fireball instananeously in the next song, "Accelerator," abrasive guitars thanks to Kevin Shields (ex-My Bloody Valentine) fill the air so violently that you have to turn the volume down to keep sanity still in control. Gillespie continues to take no prisoners, screaming "Come on! COME ON!!!!" in the background, like a battlecry for frightened listeners. That tempo is continued in the next track, "Exterminator," perhaps the best song on the album, and truly addicting to listen to. "Exterminator"'s thumping marching beat and abrasive guitar define Primal Scream's evolution from rave to revolutionary industrial. "Gun metal skies/Broken eyes/Claustrophobic concrete English high-rise/ EXTERMINATE the underclass/EXTERMINATE the telepaths...No Civil Disobedience," goes Gillespie to its hypnotic beat and guitar. (I remember they played this song before NIN took the stage in San Francisco during the Fragility Tour, and all the people were nodding their heads to it, wondering who the hell was this). It's safe to say that these guys don't like the way the world is run, espeically by the West. Much like the symbolism that Rage had when they were still together, "Xtrmntr"'s art work is basically a damming look at what Primal Scream feels to be American Imperialism--fighter jets and helicopters--all ready to attack, ready to take over. "Swastika Eyes," mixed my DJ Jagz Kooner is an intense bout of house beats mixed with industrial guitars (one can't help start to notice the major "industrial" influence on this album). It's dancable and utterly political, "The illusion of democracy," cries Gillespie at America, noting its military and corporations as the world's new fascist elite. Eat your heart out, George W Bush!!! The album slides into into hip-hop briefly with "Pills," with help from Dan the Automator (Handsome Boy Modeling School) joining this frenzy. Gillespie sings briefly about how un-true people have become before he ends the song by shouting "Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Sick, Sick...." no less that 40 times, before descending into the pure acid jazz of "Blood Money." Throughout the rest of this album, Primal Scream refuse to let up their unrelenting assault on the listener. They briefly give up their revolutionary zeal in "Keep Your Dreams," but before it becomes too peaceful, the song decends back into their fire with "Insect Royalty," a stab at the British monarchy and how they still to this day don't pay taxes for the State. By all means, this album is an extremly schizophrenic listening, and should be taken causiosly at first for its assaults. Once you understand it's meaning, you realize many of the truths and contradictions Primal Scream hold in their philosophy. And like Radiohead's recent "Kid A," this is a dense album to explore, although maybe more accessible than the latter. Yet unlike "Kid A"'s sense of quiet decay, "Xtrmntr" is on fire and hard to touch without putting mittens on. It doesn't suprise me one bit that Spin has named this one of the best albums of 2000, and a must for any lover of the alternative scene truly looking for an "alternative."
Better than whatever you listen to presently May 19, 2000
SlimJim McGuin (DoC)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
buy this, tape it, put on headphones and then go throw rocks at the bank.
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