''Hot Dogma'' is the second studio album by the Australian

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

band

TISM TISM (an acronym of This Is Serious Mum) are a seven-piece anonymous alternative rock band, formed in Melbourne, Australia on 30 December 1982 by vocalist/drummer Humphrey B. Flaubert, bassist/vocalist Jock Cheese and keyboardist/vocalist Eug ...

. It was released on 1 October 1990 and peaked at number 86 on the

ARIA Charts The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offic ...

. The title comes from a joining of the two phrases

hot dog A hot dog (uncommonly spelled hotdog) is a food consisting of a grilled or steamed sausage served in the slit of a partially sliced bun. The term hot dog can refer to the sausage itself. The sausage used is a wiener ( Vienna sausage) or a f ...

, a food, and

dogma Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Isla ...

, a specific religious belief. An additional disc, ''Hot Dogma - The Interview Disc'' was added to initial sales copies and contains live responses by TISM to an unheard DJ’s questions.

Reception

In a review of TISM’s sixth studio album '' The White Albun'', Anton S Trees of ''FasterLouder'' compared it to ''Hot Dogma'', where the latter is "filled with moments of introspection and reflection on the nature of self, existence and mortality – TISM examine the value of life. Most prominent amongst the examinations of mortality and the cyclical nature of existence is 'Life Kills'." Steve Bell of ''theMusic.com.au'' website noticed it "quickly became a fan favourite but didn't set the world on fire commercially nor bother the charts, so TISM were soon unceremoniously dumped by Phonogram during 1991 and found themselves homeless."

Cover and liner notes

The cover of the album features what appear to be Chinese

Red Guards Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard lead ...

carrying a large banner with “TISM” written across it and carrying what, on first look, appears to be

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

's ''

Little Red Book ''Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung'' () is a book of statements from speeches and writings by Mao Zedong (formerly romanized as Mao Tse-tung), the former Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, published from 1964 to about 1976 and widel ...

'', but is on closer inspection '' The TISM Guide To Little Aesthetics''. The artwork closely resembled posters of the time of Mao's reign. The Chinese on the cover translates into "The unification of the proletariat under the banner of TISM". The back cover of the album has the track lists in Chinese, however the Asian division of Polygram released a version with the track titles in English. The titles are listed in English in the liner notes.

Track listings

LP version

CD and cassette versions

The unlisted segue and "Life Kills" are indexed as one 5:52-long track on the iTunes and Spotify releases.

''Hot Dogma - The Interview Disc''

LP copies of ''Hot Dogma'' were bundled with a pack-in 7" single, containing a humorous open-ended interview with TISM and blank spaces for a DJ to insert the questions. Both sides contain the same interview.

Questions

* "Your new album is on PolyGram, will you change now that you're signed to a major label?" * "How did you guys come to be in a band?" * "Why don't you ever show your face?" * "Your live shows have a reputation for being pretty wild affairs. Do you deliberately set out to work up your audience?" * "What kind of people come to your shows?" * "Your new album ''Hot Dogma'' is pretty amazing - over an hour of music, all kinds of different styles; what can you tell us about it?" * "OK, so you obviously prefer not to give much away in interviews. Why is that?" * "I am a self-respecting DJ..." * "I do think I have a feel for what's going down..." * "I do have a certain duty towards my audience..." * "YES!" The last four tracks on the disc are questions from TISM to the DJ.

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 1990 albums TISM albums