By Jonny Bakes
Well, considering I’ve already covered one Mondo Generator reissue this week, I might as well dive straight into another one! That’s right, not only has the debut album ‘Cocaine Rodeo’ been released to celebrate the 20th anniversary, but we also have a reissue of the 2007 album ‘Dead Planet’.
‘Dead Planet’ already has a bit of a strange history with two versions of the album being released in 2006 and 2007 respectively, with the former being released in Australia and a completely different version being released in the US the following year. The initial release was exactly as the album was intended under the name ‘Dead Planet: SonicSlowMotionTrails’ but when it hit the US market, the name was cut to just ‘Dead Planet’, the album artwork was changed, the track listing shuffled around and to top it off, tracks from the earlier EP ‘III the EP’ were added to the mix (against the wishes of Nick Oliveri). And as if that wasn’t enough, the US release was subject to a heavily compressed remaster that removed a lot of the character.
Which flavour of ‘Dead Planet’ do we get on the re-release though? Well it’s almost entirely true to the original issue with one exception. One of the tracks from ‘III the EP’ has managed to work it’s way into the re-release to be nestled somewhere in the middle of the original running order. If you had the US release of this album originally (which is still available on Spotify) then you will probably already be familiar with the punchy ‘There She Goes Again’ but it’s likely that you won’t have heard it quite like this before. Instead of the dull, muted version on the 2007 release, you get the full power of the song in its original form. It’s as fuzzy as a 70s pornstar, and that’s just what you want from this!
If you’re an avid Mondo Generator fan then you’ll have probably managed to get hold of the original release album, in which case this release won’t have a huge amount to offer, other than the lonely additional track. But if you’re used to listening to the 2007 release then I suggest you just put it down and listen to this instead so that you can finally appreciate the album properly. Did you ever find yourself thinking “Man, I like Mondo Generator, but ‘Dead Planet’ was pretty weak”? Well not anymore!
If you’d already picked up ‘Cocaine Rodeo’ on the back of my last review. then picking up ‘Dead Planet’ too would be the Catholic thing to do wouldn’t it really? Obviously, this is something for fans of Nick Oliveri’s other bands – Kyuss and QOTSA (among others). It’s still great psych-influenced stoner rock that’ll leave you with a fuzzy feeling once you’ve listened to it. New listeners or old fans alike are all likely to get some serious enjoyment out of this reissue of ‘Dead Planet’.
- ‘Dead Planet’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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