Executive Slacks - Nausea

Released in 1985 on the French label New Rose Records, Nausea is the highly anticipated debut full-length studio album by Executive Slacks. Following the critical success of their Our Lady EP, the Philadelphia outfit officially stepped into the LP format with an album that perfectly encapsulated the gritty, paranoiac apex of mid-80s underground music. Produced by the band themselves, Nausea acts as a stark, cynical reflection of urban decay and psychological isolation. It is widely considered a cult masterpiece of the American industrial-rock and post-punk cross-pollination.

Musically, Nausea dialed back the primitive dance-punk tempos of their debut EP to foster a far more sinister, atmospheric, and calculated sound. The record prominently features a more complex interplay between John Young's freezing synthesizer patches, Albert Ganss's aggressive acoustic-meets-electronic percussion, and Matt Marello's jagged, metallic guitar slashes. The album elevated Executive Slacks from a dance-floor curiosity to a premier darkwave force, earning them a massive cult following in continental Europe and cementing their legacy alongside acts like Front 242 and Neon Judgement.

Nausea is a towering, beautifully repulsive monument to mid-1980s existential dread. The album does not merely invite the listener into its world; it traps them inside a cold, gray concrete labyrinth of mechanical rhythms and psychological decay. Moving away from the short-form bursts of their previous EPs, the band uses the canvas of a full-length LP to stretch their legs, creating a deeply cohesive, agonizingly tense sonic environment. The production—steered by Martin "Youth" Glover and engineer Mark Angelo Lusardi—is brilliantly abrasive, prioritizing a raw, trebly guitar bite and booming, hollow drum machine claps that evoke the feeling of a live performance inside an abandoned warehouse.

The album kicks off with "In And Out," a definitive statement of intent driven by a pulsing, danceable synth-grid and punchy electronic percussion. Over this relentless electronic momentum, Matt Marello delivers a vocal performance defined by a manic, unhinged calm, shouting deadpan observations about mundane urban alienation. It is followed closely by the paranoid skittering of "Spiders" and the toxic grime of "Magot," showcasing the band’s mastery over rhythmic hypnosis. They build rigid, danceable grooves out of cold electronics, only to violently tear them apart with chaotic guitar feedback and throat-shredding screams.

Where the album truly shifts gears is on the flip side, spearheaded by the sprawling, five-minute epic "Electric Blues". Here, the band twists traditional blues structures into a nightmarish, industrial crawl, utilizing a heavy low-end bassline and lumbering tempo to construct an imposing wall of claustrophobia. Tracks like "Ecce Homo" and "Sisyphus" continue this mythic, brooding descent, relying on droning synth pads and sparse, clattering percussion to sustain an uncomfortable tension. Rather than relying on simple shock value, the band proves that quiet, mechanical stillness can be just as terrifying as an all-out sonic assault.

Ultimately, Nausea stands as the absolute creative high-water mark for Executive Slacks and a crucial blueprint for the future of industrial alternative music. It seamlessly marries the danceable urgency of European EBM with the raw, confrontational spit of American punk rock. Decades after its release, the album’s cold, mechanical heartbeat and venomous lyricism haven’t aged a day. It remains a mandatory, exhilarating listen for anyone looking to explore the dark underbelly of 1980s music.

Ripped to MP3

Side A

1. "In And Out" (4:56)

2. "Spiders" (4:08)

3. "Nausea" (3:41)

4. "Magot" (1:30) (Alternative spelling: "Maggot")

5. "Smoking Man" (4:14)

Side B

1. "Electric Blues" (5:28)

2. "Ecce Homo" (2:29)

3. "Sisyphus" (3:16)

4. "Cold" (2:15)

5. "The Park" (4:55)