VHF Epsiode: 182 Raymond Watts / Pig

VHF-182 (Raymond Watts / PIG) is an exploration of London musician Raymond Watts and his project PIG. Industrial music from the late Eighties onward has morphed into various permutations of genre bending sounds. Ambient keyboard instrumental pieces butt up to very produced dance tracks. At 6’3” Raymond Watts has released most of his catalog in Japan where he is quite popular. So he is truly big in Japan. He has had much more success with his collaborations with German band KMFDM. PIG is less designed for the dance floor and more for the headphone. Occasionally lyrics can be of a violent or disturbing nature with recurring themes of government control and religious supplication. Nearly every album also has a song about heroin addiction. Indeed, there is a song on this episode called Junky in which Raymond repeatedly proclaims utter exasperation. The words seem true as he laments about his hopelessly strung out existence, struggling and navigating the agony of life with a very hungry monkey on one’s back. Alternative music legend Trent Reznor released an album of PIG material on his Nothing imprint and took Raymond out on tour opening for NIN. No doubt a very young Trent spent his teenage days getting wasted and listening to a band that inspired him to create his own music. That band is PIG. All caps, dig!