The Perlich Post: Another unissued album from Suicide's Alan Vega appears, new biography on the way

Friday, May 31, 2024

Another unissued album from Suicide's Alan Vega appears, new biography on the way

Alan Vega's Insurrection album is out now via In The Red and the Infinite Dreams biography will be published June 18th.

Here's the scoop...

A new, previously-unreleased album from Alan Vega entitled Insurrection, produced and mixed by Jared Artaud and Liz Lamere has just been released by In The Red Records (you can get it right here). Vega’s name is synonymous with uncompromising creativity, from the late 1950s, through his years playing in Suicide, and all the way up until his death in 2016, Vega was constantly creating. This process inevitably led to a wealth of material that didn’t see the light of day immediately when it was recorded, which came to be known as the Vega Vault. Insurrection is the second in a series of archival releases from the Vault that follows 2021’s lost album, Mutator (Sacred Bones). Insurrection was recorded with his longtime collaborator and wife Liz Lamere and discovered in the Vault in 2022 by both Lamere and Vega’s close friend, producer and confidante Jared Artaud (The Vacant Lots). Soon after they mixed and produced the songs into the visionary album that was lurking within the archival ADAT tapes.

Co-producer and mixer of Insurrection, Jared Artaud says: “There is a vast amount of material in the Alan Vega Vault, and continuing to discover new unreleased songs in the archives with Liz Lamere is both shocking and surreal. Half the time I feel like a producer and the other I feel like some kind of archeologist. It was an incredible experience working on Insurrection and continuing to produce, mix, and curate Vega’s music as well as his artwork. Mutator and Insurrection both required a lot of time to dig through the tracks, arrange, and finish them all. There are a number of artistic decisions that go into putting these albums together and my objective with Vega’s material is always to curate and finish the work in a way that Alan would have been proud of. When Alan told me that “I am ending, you’re beginning, I’m passing down the torch to you” I took that very seriously. We made a pact before he died and I am living up to that to this day with maximum loyalty.”

On the new album, Vega's longtime creative ally and Insurrection co-producer Liz Lamere adds: "Insurrection was created circa 1997/98, after Mutator, and prior to Vega’s release of “2007” in 1999. It captures the intense energy of NYC in the 90s rife with crime, killing, hate, fascism, racism, and moral bankruptcy. You can hear the tortured souls floating through this album. Post-Gulf War angst and premonitions of terrorist attacks in our homeland enveloped Alan. The upcoming birth of his son raised further awareness of the state of our world. All these emotions are mirrored in the sounds he magnetized. Yet, true to Vega form, there remains hope and empowerment coursing through the tracks. In the nearly three decades in the studio with Vega, we recorded significantly more material than the seven albums released. Vega’s intention was to experiment with sound which would become the canvas for the poetry that reflected his vision of the universe. Often full sessions would be spent creating a single sound. Because the goal wasn’t to make albums, he had no timeline or constraints and would freely follow new paths uncovered along the way.”

The visual artist, musician, and poet Alan Vega was born in Brooklyn in 1938. He co-founded the massively influential avant-garde band Suicide with Martin Rev in 1970, with whom he performed off and on throughout his life. Suicide’s groundbreaking debut album was included among Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and it was a formative work in the invention of synth-punk, post-punk, art rock, industrial music and is considered one of the most influential albums of all time.

Vega would go on to have a prolific career as a solo artist. His hit song “Jukebox Babe” led to a contract with Elektra Records, who released two albums including the cult classic Saturn Strip, produced by Ric Ocasek. From there, rejecting the commercial machine, he went back to his roots, doing a deep dive into experimenting with sound in the studio. This era resulted in new solo records coming out consistently throughout the next several decades; starting with Deuce Avenue, continuing through Dujang Prang (on Henry Rollins' 2.13.61 imprint), and culminating with his masterpiece It. Vega considered the albums from this period the audio counterpoint to his visual art that reflected the world around him while simultaneously delving into universal themes. It makes his work as relevant today as it was then.

It was during this period that he began working with Liz Lamere, who became his wife and the most crucial collaborator of his solo career. Lamere, along with fellow Vega collaborator Jared Artaud discovered in 2019 the lost Vega album, Mutator, which they co- produced and mixed. The 11 songs on Insurrection showcase the unparalleled vision and uncompromising force from one of the most influential artists of all time.

Lamere and Artaud spearhead the Vega Vault project, which aims to bring rare, unreleased and back catalog work spanning Alan Vega and Suicide’s career to the public for the first time. Lamere says. “After Alan and I worked on the split 10" single for Alan Vega's "Nike Soldier" and The Vacant Lots’ ("Mad Mary Jones" Alternate Mix) followed by the remix of The Vacant Lots "6 AM" track, Alan spent many hours with Jared discussing music, art, philosophy. Knowing there was so much more recorded material in the Vault, Vega believed Jared and I would make a great team producing this music and building his legacy.”

Recently, Jared Artaud co-produced alongside Hedi Slimane the exclusive soundtrack - an extended mix of Suicide's "Girl" - for Celine's Le Palace FW23 runway show, released The Vacant Lots fifth full-length album Interiors, and is currently co-curating a new Alan Vega art exhibition, Cesspool Saints, on view through July 27, 2024 in Paris at Laurent Godin Gallery.

A new biography "Infinite Dreams - The Life of Alan Vega,” co-written by Liz Lamere and Laura Davis-Chanin, with a foreword by Bruce Springsteen, will be published on June 18 by Backbeat Books. Pre-order it right here. and Lamere will be releasing her second solo album, “One Never Knows”, on June 14 via In The Red Records. Watch the video for "Mercy" shot by Douglas Hart along with an audio clip of "Cyanide Soul" following the track listing below.