"rev"

ROIR is proud to release Martin Rev’s self-titled solo debut album, originally released in 1979 on Charles Ball’s Lust/Unlust label, now with 5 bonus tracks (3 unreleased & exclusive). Rev is best known for his confrontational work with Alan Vega as Suicide; considered one of the most influential bands of the last 30 years. This record, somewhere between the harsh sound of Rev’s early work with Suicide and his more melodic, solo material ("See Me Ridin’"), is concrete evidence of how influential Rev’s dirty American-motorik music really was. All songs written & performed by Martin Rev. All compositions produced by Charles Ball & Martin Rev. Tracks 1-6 originally appeared on vinyl (Lust/Unlust Records 1980). Liner Notes by Steve Barker (The Wire UK).

Noted activist, theologian, author, documentary filmmaker, and musician, Reverend Osagyefo Sekou was born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in the rural Arkansas Delta. Rev. Sekou's music is an unique combination of North Mississippi Hill Country Music, Arkansas Delta Blues, Memphis Soul and Pentecostal steel guitar. In May 2017, he released "In Times Like These” produced the six-time Grammy nominated North Mississippi Allstars. AFROPUNK heralded the ”deep bone-marrow-level conviction” of his first album, “The Revolution Has Come”. The single, “We Comin'”–was named the new anthem for the modern Civil Rights movement by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A consummate entertainer, Paste Studio celebrated his barn-burning performance saying: "Rev. Sekou delivers the spiritual performance we need now."

REV is not a "reverse" button like the one on your DAW or sampler. It’s a world of sound design for producers, composers and musicians based on reverse elements. Packed into 4 powerful engines with over 14gb of content.

REV is not a "reverse" button like the one on your DAW or sampler. It’s a world of sound design for producers, composers and musicians based on reverse elements. Packed into 4 powerful engines with over 14gb of content.

Forgive me, I think I’m suffering from that same old reviewer’s sickness of expecting an older musician to produce work of an identical boilerplate to his former band’s glory days. When I think of Suicide, I think eerie, pulsing synths courtesy of mad scientist Martin Rev, and the droning, monotonous mutterings of his comrade Mr. Alan Vega. And while it’s difficult to listen to Suicide’s self-titled masterpiece of a debut in 2010 and not think of all the bands they’ve clearly influenced (Raveonettes, I’m all but glaring in your direction), it’s still fairly easy to see how the innovation and pure audacity of the music may have shocked folks in 1977. Suicide was a perfect fit for the blossoming ‘downtown’ scene of late seventies New York, and an obvious root system for the enigmatic tree of No Wave to soon blossom.

In this lesson Ernie Hawkins teaches three Rev. Davis arrangements that will challenge your fingers. Rev. Gary Davis’s tour de force in concert was his Soldiers March. This is a multipart instrumental played in the Key of F and C and is a showcase in demonstrating the genius of Rev. Davis’s playing and arranging skills.

In 1980, shortly after Suicide’s second full-length, Martin Rev released his first solo album. Uninhibited by the trappings of a collaborator, Rev was freed to explore his most experimental and pop leanings with dirty synths, dark melodies, and dreamlike textures, and produced a masterpiece of modern alienation that captures a uniquely New York landscape.