Lung

Lung came out of Vancouver at the start of the 1990s as a power trio, with songs credited to Clark, Taylor and Hanley. Their first record, Psychopornadelia, appeared on Scratch Records in 1991 (SCRATCH 3), a 7-inch single at 33 RPM pressed on red and black marbled vinyl and sold in a polybag with a sticker on the front. 'Mother (Makes Me Feel Like A Man)' took the A-side and the five-minute 'Consume' the B-side. The band co-produced it with Don Gordon, founder of Numb, one of the city's leading electro-industrial bands, and Ken Marshall, who had engineered for Skinny Puppy, recorded it at Mushroom Studios. The release carried a 1991 copyright and phonographic copyright under Illumination, while the run-out grooves set the tone for everything that followed: 'Almost As Good As G.B.H.' on one side and Aleister Crowley's 'Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law' on the other.

The single attracted attention on both sides of the border. In the summer of 1991, Snipehunt described Lung's destructive live performances, with guitars, drums and musicians taking a beating on stage. That October, Maximum Rocknroll praised the band's heavy guitars, ferocious vocals, tape editing and thunderous drumming. Hype criticized the recording quality but acknowledged the tight playing, while Flipside compared Lung's sound to Slug. Vancouver's Georgia Straight heard elements of NoMeansNo's hardcore intensity and Ministry's industrial aggression, and The Rocket singled out Lung as evidence of the strength of Vancouver's heavy underground scene. By spring 1992, Psychopornadelia had appeared at No. 4 on a DJ's favourite 7-inch singles list in RiFLe, the magazine of the University of Kentucky radio station WRFL.

By 1992 Lung had grown to four, with a fourth songwriting surname, Scoular, appearing on the 1992 recordings. On the sleeves the members went by first names only. Mike played bass, credited with low frequency harmonic distortion. Doug supplied guitars and sonic emanations. Richard handled drums, bellows and, by his own account, the manipulation of space and time. Vocals, guitar and "the word" are credited to Jason on the British single and to Max on the album.

On their 1992 releases, Lung built an elaborate mythology around the music. Each came with a missive from Ignatius B. Giles, president of the Illuminated Friends of Lung, a fan club whose members called themselves Lungites. Giles wrote in the voice of a deranged Victorian evangelist, warning the public that Lung was a neural virus, a threat to the Archonic Conspirators and the coming soundtrack of revolution. Prospective Lungites were asked to swear an oath to wreak havoc on multinational corporations, government officials and the local police. Looking back on Psychopornadelia, Giles reported that all hell broke loose.

In 1992 Britain's Serial Killer label issued 'Litany' backed with 'Fuck Generator' (FATAL 02). The B-side was an older song, carrying a 1990 copyright, and it resurfaced on the 1993 Vancouver compilation Wade Free Vancouver. Giles's insert essay recalled first witnessing Lung at a small San Francisco coffee house in the summer of 1991 and staggering away permanently rewired. Again the run-out grooves carried messages: 'Sounds Like He's Building A Shed' on one side and 'Good Deal For The Punters' on the other.

Lung's only album, Magnum Opiate, followed later that year on Zulu Records, on CD (ZULU 8-2) and cassette (ZULU 8-4). The booklet credits an overnight session at Mushroom Studios, from 11 PM to 8 AM on October 2, 1992, again with Don Gordon producing and Ken "Hiwatt" Marshall engineering, and Gerry Hughes credited for "live audio terrorism." The result sat between noise rock and the industrial sound coming out of Vancouver's studios at the time.

The nine tracks include 'Glow,' 'Dive Bomber,' 'Pat Hogue Must Die,' 'Pretty Rabid Dipshit' and 'Superpornoreaction,' closing with a reworking of 'Litany' subtitled 'Absolution Rₓ.' The band handled art direction with the artist Steakface. Giles's liner notes, now datelined from Arkham, Massachusetts, H.P. Lovecraft's fictional town, announced the album as Lung's "first full-fledged evisceration," timed by the I Ching to the fall equinox. The thank-you list ran from Scratch Records and Serial Killer UK to Madonna Louise Ciccone and The Guy That Lent Doug His Guitar.

-Robert Williston