''Premonition'' is the second studio album by

Vampire Rodents Vampire Rodents was a sound collage and experimental music ensemble based out of Phoenix, Arizona, although its core members originally came from Canada. The creative nucleus of the project comprised vocalist and composer Daniel Vahnke and keybo ...

, released on May 19, 1992 by V.R. Productions. The album represented a musical shift for the band with the introduction of string instruments and further influence of classical music in the compositions. The album contains the most writing credits for composer

Victor Wulf Victor Wulf is a Canadian keyboard player and composer. He is recognized for his solo ambient music project Dilate and as a founding member of sound collage band Vampire Rodents. Biography Victor Wulf was involved in composing music for televisi ...

, who composed the music for five out of its twenty-one tracks.

Music

The album features a heavy use of sound samples in many songs, which was a very prevalent trend in industrial music at the time. Samples used includes assorted

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series '' Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation. ...

voice clips, dialogue from the

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apo ...

The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitt ...

as well as narration from H.G. Wells'

War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by ''Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appearance in hardcover was in ...

. The album is roughly half compositions containing vocals and half not. It was at this point in Vampire Rodents existence that

Daniel Vahnke Daniel Vahnke (born April 2, 1965), sometimes credited as Anton Rathausen, is a Canadian composer and lyricist. He is best known as a co-founding member of Vampire Rodents, a band that integrated elements of classical, ambient, and industrial mus ...

expressed that the vocals were the weakest part of their compositions and that he desired the contributions of more vocalists. The drum loop on "Babelchop" is taken from "Music to Save the World By", the 1981

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

track by Alan Burnham. The second track, "

Babyface Babyface or Baby Face can refer to: Nicknames * Lester Joseph Gillis a.k.a. Baby Face Nelson, an infamous 1930s bank robber * Roosevelt "Baby Face" Willette (1933–1971), an American hard bop and soul-jazz musician * "Baby Face", Jimmy McLarnin ...

", is a reimagining of Little Richard's song of the same name with altered lyrics.

Release

''Premonition'' was originally produced in truncated form on

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in th ...

with a runtime of approximately thirty minutes. The album was self-released by V.R. Productions and mailed from

for a limited time. The CD gathered the band enough attention for them to be noticed by and signed to

Re-Constriction Records Re-Constriction Records was a division of Cargo Music based in California. The label was founded in 1992 and headed by Chase, who was previously the Music Director at KCR, a student radio station on the campus of San Diego State University. They ...

. The album's

coda Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...

, "

Colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

", later appeared on Victor Wulf's debut solo album ''

Cyclos Cyclos is online banking software for microfinance institutions, local banks (in developing countries) and complementary currency systems like LETS, TD4W Credits, Barter networks and time banks. Cyclos has the following functionality: * ...

'', which was released under the name

Dilate Dilation (or dilatation) may refer to: Physiology or medicine * Cervical dilation, the widening of the cervix in childbirth, miscarriage etc. * Coronary dilation, or coronary reflex * Dilation and curettage, the opening of the cervix and surgic ...

. After Vampire Rodents disbanded plans were made to re-issue the album packaged with their studio debut '' War Music'' and an expanded track listing, including the unreleased songs " Lizardman", "

Blind Acceleration ''Fascist Communist Revolutionaries'' is a various artists compilation album released on September 24, 1996 by Fifth Colvmn Records. It was the second Fifth Colvmn Records compilation and was released to celebrate the three year anniversary of the ...

", "

Smartass ''Smartass'' is a 2017 American crime drama film directed by Jena Serbu and starring Joey King. It was released on September 12, 2017. Cast * Joey King as Freddie * Luke Pasqualino as Donny * Ronen Rubinstein as Nick * Marc Menchaca as Rod * ...

", "Harelip", and "Annexation II". ''Premonition'' was instead released on

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

in 2019 with "Lizardman", originally released on the ''Masked Beauty in a Sea of Sadness'' various artists compilation, and alternate mastered versions of the songs "

" and "

Burial at Sea Burial at sea is the disposal of human remains in the ocean, normally from a ship or boat. It is regularly performed by navies, and is done by private citizens in many countries. Burial-at-sea services are conducted at many different locations ...

Reception

The music magazine Industrialnation praised the dark atmosphere of ''Premonition'' and said "

sound like the soundtrack to Clive Barker's most unimaginable sadomasochistic Cenobite." The magazine went on to praise the compositions' use of cartoon samples, noting "Ovulation" as an example, and the vocal delivery of the lyrics. ''Technology Works'' also commended the band's use of samples, especially

Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Mer ...

, and described the album as a "well-produced, abrasive-yet-accessible audio nightmare." ''For Crying Out Loud'' called the album "an unearthly awe-inspiring series of tunes" and a "true conjuring of industrial with elements of classical along with other unique brands of style." ''Option'' pointed to the "jittery collage-styled music" as being the praise-worthy aspect of the album." The magazine ''Skin Trade'' moderately criticized Vampire Rodent's over-depended on sampling and indicated that compositions like "Annexation" better utilize their talents.

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from the ''Premonition'' liner notes. Vampire Rodents *

(as Anton Rathausen) –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

, sampler, keyboards,

orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", or ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

(5, 8, 9, 11, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21) *

– keyboards, vocals (12) Additional musicians * Andrea Akastia –

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

* Mark Edwards –

(19) * Jing Laoshu –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Release history

References

External links

''Premonition''
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

(list of releases)
''Premonition''
at

''Premonition''
at iTunes {{DEFAULTSORT:Premonition (Vampire Rodents album) 1992 albums Vampire Rodents albums