Alternative Tentacles has went about and gotten another great individual to go and record a spoken-world album in Greg Palast. While I was not personally familiar with Palast before this disc, Palast is factual as well as hard-hitting with eir’s facts. In this, Palast is a mixture of David Barsamian and Jello Biafra, but with a fury that can not be categorized in any certain term. While Palast does not directly quote sources on this disc, there are some wonderful sites in the liner notes that refer to some of the sources quoted. Even with all the facts that Greg throws out every few seconds, the delivery is so vibrant and personal that any individual will be able to get a gist of what exactly Palast is talking about. While this discussion is really topical for April and May of last year, and some of the information is a little bit old, the state of the United States is pretty much the same, the motions by Bush nearly the same, and really provide a background for exactly what is happening in the current period.
Some of the topics that are covered on this disc are topics in which many people will be uttely ignorant about – such as the work between Father Bush and Mulrooney to get the rights to a gold mine in Tanzania at the expense of a number of native deaths. The complicity of a number of organizations, including the in-coming Bush government, have made this matter into something that is silently being swept under the rug. While the beginning focus of the CD may be about the oft-talked about topic of the Bush presidency ordering insanely-priced weapons as well as the dirty work being done by the presidency.
Greg goes and hits some very specific issues about the Bush regime that are not being discussed in any major paper, any popular magazine, or any TV show. Palast is completely honest and down to earth, and genuinely cares about the nation in which ey lives. The disc is instrumental in creating another voice of dissent in the days of knee-jerk patriotism, the masses lead like puppets by the specters of 9-11 and the Project for a New American Century. This is not the un-informed ad hominum attacks of Barsamian, this is a very fair and balanced report on the octopus of the Bush regime, and this is probably the best spoken-word to come out in the last few years.
Rating: 8.8/10
Greg Palast – Weapon of Mass Instruction / 21 Tracks / 2003 Alternative Tentacles / http://www.gregpalast.com / http://www.alternativetentacles.com / Released 12 January 2004 / Reviewed 01 February 2004