Consumer Guide Album

Big Black: The Hammer Party [Homestead, 1986]
One side the 1983 Ruthless EP Lungs, the other the 1984 Ruthless EP Bulldozer, and if you think Steve Albini is less than profound now, here's where you shore up your belief in progress. "Steelworker" presages "Deep Six"'s gothic fantasies about the working class (or is it just guys with muscles?). "Pigeons" is a cute bit about an oppressed teenager whose mom makes him kill feathered rodents. Beyond that it's sound and fury. B