With this album (pronounced Exterminator), Primal Scream had settled on a more confrontational approach in terms of their music. This was not going to be another Screamadelica (1991) release, and fortunately, Primal Scream was able to evolve their craft. Instead, Primal Scream decided to make an album that was politically motivated and different in sound. This album features contributions from multiple artists, such as Mani (of The Stone Roses), The Chemical Brothers, Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine) and Bernard Sumner (New Order). This was issued on Creation Records on 31 January 2000, just before Creation Records was finished as an album label. The album was produced by Brendan Lynch, Primal Scream, Jagz Kooner, David Holmes, Hugo Nicolson, The Chemical Brothers, Kevin Shields, Tim Holmes and Dan The Automator. The album was released to mostly positive reviews at the time and has been widely received as a classic album. Primal Scream at the time were: Bobby Gillespie (vocals, guitars and samples); Andrew Innes (guitars); Robert Young (guitars and programming); Martin Duffy (keyboards and programming); Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield (bass guitar); Darrin Mooney (drums); Jim Hunt (saxophone) and Duncan Mackay (trumpet). Let’s take a listen to this album and we shall hear where it is at.

1. Kill All Hippies begins with the looped sound of a phone ringing, before some sampled speech is present, alongside some weird and rather odd sounds are present. This has some sampled speech instructing to “kill all hippies”, which is pretty brutal. The sounds and textures are different. Soon enough, an electronic tune enters with some bombastic beats and this sounds quite good. This is a heavily textured and excellent listen that sounds incredibly interesting and catchy, once the heavy bassline and beats kick in. Some nicely sung vocals come over the top of it all, sounding very pretty and different. One can hear the influence of The Chemical Brothers and The Crystal Method throughout this tune, particularly the former as they contributed to this album. This track is a masterwork in a new type of sonic exploration (for 2000) and it sounds gritty, menacing and pulsating with energy. An excellent listen, this sounds good for what it is. A great start to the album, and even if you identify as a Hippie of any sort, you may enjoy this track. It winds up after nearly five minutes in length, a very good listen.

2. Accelerator begins with some distorted sounds (likely guitars) and drumming that sounds ferocious. This is a shorter tune with some impactful sounds that sound akin to Punk and Experimental Music. Bobby Gillespie has his stoner-styled vocals all over this tune, and it is a bit of an odd mismatch here. This doesn’t sound as good as it could be, although the effort is appreciated here. In any case, this song could have been much better as such. A loud, noisy and garage-sounding tune that is best heard at full volume, this points back to the works of Pavement and The Velvet Underground. Different, but honestly not that great. It is too loud and noisy to be truly appreciated, but all the same, it is good for what it is. It just isn’t great. Think of The Velvet Underground song Sister Ray, and you are there. Fortunately, this misstep is less than four minutes long. A bit of a disappointment, really.

3. Exterminator begins with some weird beats and textures and launches into another not-so-good tune. This album, so far, is difficult to get through. Sure, it is Primal Scream forging a new sound and style, but the music is fairly ordinary throughout. This is very discordant throughout, which normally does not mix well with EDM, especially given that this has some vocals on it. In any case, people who can sit through Industrial Music will enjoy this. Having said that, most will not. It is a sign of a lack of inspiration and effort by Primal Scream in general. Gone are the sunray and lighter textures of earlier efforts such as Screamadelica (1991). Instead, this is an excuse musically to muck around in a sonic sense. Even if this is seen as a good effort, it is a poor listening experience. All in all, this isn’t necessary or impressive to listen to. The earlier Primal Scream efforts are much, much better than this. This is the sound of a group that lacked direction by this point. Very difficult to get into, and certainly not well structured or thought out. Also, this goes on for nearly six minutes, not exactly easy to sit through in this style of music. A real drag towards the end, and this goes on and on. In any case, should you desire to skip ahead, you can do so. A very discordant and disappointing listen from start to finish. It fades out at the end.

4. Swatiska Eyes – Jagz Kooner Mix begins with some screeching electronics and launches right into a tune that sounds like a major improvement on what came before it. This is a seven-minute-long epic that continues the harsh and weird music nature of the album but sounds a lot more stripped-down and focused. In any case, Primal Scream delivers a good tune here, although not a great one. This is obviously not too far away from the Confederate Flag on the front cover of the 1994 album release Give Out But Don’t Give Up far right-wing flirtation. This sounds like a crossover tune between New Order, The Chemical Brothers and Primal Scream, of course. In any case, this is somewhat enjoyable, even on a disappointing album as such. A good listen, but by no means a really great listen throughout. This is more like an exercise in music textures that any EDM artist could make, rather than something truly wonderful and unique. Primal Scream seemingly lost their focus on what made them a great group on this album. Still, this is one of the better tracks and sounds like a rush of energy throughout. One can appreciate the effort, although it isn’t the greatest piece of EDM ever. This track sounds a lot more relevant today with its far-right anti-democratic ideals lyrically and its hard and fast Electronic sounds than it did back in the year 2000. No doubt that some of the more extremist political groups today would use this track as an unofficial anthem for their existence, so no, this is not a very good way to promote such a mentality musically. It’s good but not great, in any case. It finally wraps up just after seven minutes in length.

5. Pills begins with some warped and horror movie-styled sounds. Beats enter, along with dark gospel harmonies. This sounds disturbing. Bobby Gillespie sings angrily into a dark and disturbed trip, and this eventually launches into another okay song with plenty of odd beats and discordant sounds throughout. There is no real mention of drug use throughout, and it sounds just plain weird and fairly unenjoyable throughout. This is so far, a bad side of Primal Scream that only few can enjoy. Primal Scream had their better moments earlier on in their career, and this album is quite a large disappointment musically. Nothing worthwhile or listenable here, and the repeated use of the f-word throughout doesn’t help things at all. It wraps up gradually with a slow fade out with beats and textures, before finishing after four tedious minutes of listening. This is not good enough, to be fair.

6. Blood Money is seven minutes long and has drumming and textures matched with a heavy bass guitar part. This continues down the same uninspired and tiresome musical arena that this album is following in a formula. This is a bad attempt at Jazz by Primal Scream, complete with awful horns and Jazz-styled drumming. This tune is not great, once again. There is nothing overly memorable or enjoyable about the majority of this album. It is literally the sound of Primal Scream shooting themselves in the foot as such. No lyrics are present on this bad attempt at a Public Image Ltd. track, and it sounds like the sort of thing that a load of bad drug use can inspire. In any case, by this point, this album is quite a big mistake musically. Very few will be able to honestly sit through this album from start to finish. Why? It just doesn’t sound good. Miles Davis was a Jazz legend, and this sounds like a poor imitation of his innovative and original creations. By this point, hit stop, grab your album copy or streaming device and hurl it straight into the bin. This isn’t musically inspired. Even Industrial Music legends Throbbing Gristle made a far better bunch of songs than this album by Primal Scream. This is music that is so poor and lengthy that it shows Primal Scream on life support musically. The drums are really great on this instrumental, but that is about it. Enough to make one feel unnerved by Primal Scream, this finally reaches a conclusion after seven long and tedious minutes of listening. A failure from start to finish.

7. Keep Your Dreams begins with some clunky bass guitar and unusual Ambient textures. It quickly enters into a more simple tune that is not an instrumental. By this point, this album is done and you can bin it. The xylophone-styled sounds do not match the darker textures playing along with it. Bobby Gillespie sings well here, but this is not an album that flows with character, excellence or style. The music again sounds off, and it is clear that this is not the absolute best effort that Primal Scream has made to date. The instrumental breaks are okay, but this is far from perfect. In any case, this music is okay on this track, but again it can be done a lot better. Understandably, groups need to evolve their craft over time, but this is not the way to make an album that is memorable or worth listening to. Electronic-based music has had a much better experience elsewhere than this. Every moment is extremely tedious, just like getting your wisdom teeth removed at the dentist. This also goes on for far too long and is over five minutes when it should be around two to three minutes instead. Sorry guys, but this is simply not good enough to listen to. It finally fades out, and thank goodness for that.

8. Insect Royalty is fortunately a lot shorter. However, it has an awful introduction and is more of the same. EDM has been bettered by many other artists elsewhere. Bobby Gillespie’s voice is drowned out in the mix, and this rather naff tune is not the best, once again. By this point in time, this album is the worst of all worlds and is simply just poor. One can sort of understand the attempt to make a new type of music on this album, but it fails miserably for the most part. This sounds just like a bad LSD trip or PCP trip, it is ridiculously bad. Just no. Not good enough and a truly disappointing addition to an already bad album. Avoid this tune at all costs, this is not good at all. Pathetic.

9. MBV Arkestra (If They Move Kill ‘Em) is a weird track title. It begins with some Ambient sonic rushes and launches into loose beats. Very weird, and again keeping the unimaginative theme of this album ongoing. There are more Jazz-based horns present, which sound okay but do not follow a logical music method. This tune is a little bit better than the low standard of this album. Unfortunately, this album is almost done and so is its reputation. An instrumental of sorts, but a waste of good time to hear it all. In any case, the wah-wah textures are interesting, but this track is another hard slog to get through. Nothing special that is good or worth hearing. This track is barely okay. Yes, it is an improvement on earlier tracks but that is like eating food that is slightly past its use-by date, rather than being many weeks old. This also could be a lot shorter, too. By the second half, its welcome has been worn out and this is thoroughly unimpressive. Most listeners, aside from hardcore Primal Scream fans, should skip ahead. This, sadly, is just not at all good enough. Even Oasis’s 1997 album Be Here Now is less tedious to sit through than this. A poor example of a track, and the repetitive sounds are very annoying throughout. This is enough to make one go and put on Johnny Cash or some old Country Music instead. In any case, this finishes up after nearly seven minutes of mostly torturous listening. Ordinary.

10. Swastika Eyes – Chemical Brothers Mix is back, yet again. This begins with some rapid-fire beats and launches into an okay remix of a track that has already been on this album. It makes zero sense to include the track twice on this album. This is somewhat better as a listening experience as it is a good remake by The Chemical Brothers, and is actually fairly listenable as a result. Having said that, this is more of an effort on The Chemical Brothers part than Primal Scream’s part. This sounds like a rush of energy in a music form. This likely could have been trimmed down in a way, but all the same, it does sound rather adventurous. The flirtation with Nazism is not a crowd-pleaser, but a turn-off for a large part of the music community. The midsection is actually quite interesting, with some detailed and progressive mixed-in sounds. This track proves that the album needs a big rethink, as The Chemical Brothers are the unsung heroes at this point of the album. This has a Hard Techno feel to it all. A fast and layered tune, this is definitely a better listen, but not worth album sales over. In any case, this is an interesting listen from start to finish. Many EDM fans will dig this particular track, although the track itself is flawed. This gradually begins to wrap up after over six minutes. It’s not bad, but far from perfect.

11. Shoot Speed / Kill Light is the final track, at last. It begins with some awful cut-up Rock Music-styled sounds and is not at all listenable or impressive. This quickly falls apart upon listening to it all. Whatever these guys were taking, it wasn’t good and impacted the sound of the album negatively. In any case, this tune crawls along gradually and sounds like the ghost of what Primal Scream were originally applauded for in a music sense. This track is a drag and has no real lyrics to support it. This is further proof that this album just doesn’t cut it well with people who dig EDM or Primal Scream’s earlier works. Which is a real shame. It goes on and on, without purpose, vision or meaning. In any case, if you have sat through this trash long enough, you certainly have patience. This tune is extremely annoying sounding, worse than Crazy Frog ever was a few years later. That says a lot. It sort of sounds like Joy Division or New Order, but is far worse than anything that Ian Curtis or Bernard Sumner ever did. Eventually, this song and album draw to a gradual close. A really poor listen, and the album wraps up here. At last.

This is a poor effort by Primal Scream. After every single 1990s release by the group being wonderful, innovative and phenomenally great, the group killed their career on this album. The music is random, disorganised, discordant and poor. Sure, this album was intended to be a new project full of innovative sounds. Sadly, however, this falls flat and sounds very, very bad to this day. Should you listen to this album? No. Don’t bother with it unless you want a music-induced headache. If you actually like this album, deluxe editions with extra tracks are available to hear if you are interested in hearing more of it.

Awfully boring.

4/10