Sidewalk Social Scientist 1989-1999: A Raw Sonic Journey by Sudden Infant
Sudden Infant’s Sidewalk Social Scientist 1989-1999 is a wild ride through the underbelly of electronic experimentation. Released in 2000 on Germany’s Tochnit Aleph label, this album feels like flipping through a scrapbook of noise and chaos—each track a snapshot of Joke Lanz’s unfiltered creativity. With photography and artwork handled by BlackJewishGays, the visual side matches the gritty, DIY ethos of the music perfectly.
The record dives headfirst into Noise and Experimental territory, but don’t expect anything polished or predictable here. It's messy, it's raw, and at times, it’s downright disorienting—but that’s exactly what makes it stick. Two tracks stood out to me for wildly different reasons.
First up, there’s “Untitled.” Yeah, no clever name to hide behind—just pure sound. This piece hits you with layers of distorted textures that feel like they’re crawling out of some abandoned warehouse. There’s something hypnotic about how the static hums and glitches swirl together, almost as if Lanz is daring you to find meaning in the chaos. Halfway through, I swear I heard what sounded like an old rotary phone ringing, which was either genius or just my brain playing tricks on me. Either way, it stuck.
Then there’s another untitled gem (seriously, naming stuff seems low on their priority list). This one starts off eerie and minimal, almost like someone whispering secrets into broken headphones. But around the two-minute mark, everything explodes into this wall of abrasive tones that could wake the dead. It’s not pleasant in the traditional sense, but damn if it doesn’t leave an impression. You can tell Joke Lanz wasn’t trying to make something "nice"—he wanted to make something real.
What makes Sidewalk Social Scientist so compelling isn’t just its sound—it’s the attitude behind it. This isn’t background music; it demands your attention, even when it frustrates you. Listening to it feels like being let in on a secret project from the late ‘90s underground scene, where rules didn’t matter and art came first.
Honestly, albums like this remind me why I fell in love with experimental music in the first place. It’s not always pretty, but it’s honest—and sometimes honesty comes wrapped in feedback loops and hissing synths. If you’re looking for easy listening, keep walking. But if you want something that challenges you, grabs you by the ears, and refuses to let go, give this one a shot.
Oh, and fun fact: apparently BlackJewishGays did both the photos and artwork? That alone deserves props because those visuals hit harder than most album covers these days. Guess when you’ve got talent like that, you wear all the hats—or maybe none at all. Who knows?
