I Staggered Mentally

Mojo recently run a feature on the 50 best electronic records of all time. Most on the list were good stuff I have to admit, but there were a few blatant omissions I think. Not from the perspective of "importance" which I sometimes felt the Mojo list focused on, but from the perspective of overall goodness. One such album that I keep coming back to and that would definitely make my top 50 list is Portion Control first album proper: "I Staggered Mentally". It's quite timeless in all it's harsh minimalism and blunt rejection of traditional song structure. Because of this it has aged with style, feeling even more contemporary now than ever.

I can remember seeing the album sold for ridiculous amounts at record fair when I was a teen, when I couldn't afford it. Had I got hold of it then I probably wouldn't have been able to makes heads or tails out of it. When I first got hold of it on cd, in the Archive box set I didn't really understand it at first, but when I got it on vinyl in the Progress Report box set,it all finally made sense. It's probably the work by PC I most frequently return to (along with some of the other material on the vinyl box set). Portion Control should really be mentioned along other industrial electronic pioneers such Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire, along with "20 Jazz Funk Greats" and "The Voice of America" it is one of the defining moments of the genre.