''At Action Park'' is the first full-length record by

Shellac Shellac () is a resin secreted by the female lac bug on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes and dissolved in alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and ...

, released in 1994.

Packaging

The release came in a folded and hand-pressed sleeve which is referred as ''uni-pak style album jacket''. The inner sleeve shows artwork with four microphones, the record sleeve shows an illustration of the fictional Action Park on one side, and a lengthy medical text ''Resuscitation from apparent death by electric shock'' on the other side (the text was found in an old electronics textbook of Weston's). The Vinyl had inscriptions in the run-out groove of both sides, reading: "Smoking is as natural as breathing. They've been doing it since before I was born... ... which is a shame, because I could have invented it. - Todd Stanford Trainer 1994"

Reception

The album received highly positive reviews on release.

Greg Kot Greg Kot (born March 3, 1957) is an American music journalist and author. From 1990 until 2020, Kot was the rock music critic at the ''Chicago Tribune'', where he covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and busines ...

wrote that the "music is still punishing in the extreme, with melody subservient to groove and dynamics, and the human voice just another instrument in a maelstrom", going on to write that "Albini uses his guitar more for color and texture rather than as a lead instrument, while bassist Bob Weston and drummer Todd Trainer create a vicious spin-cycle groove, punctuated by thrilling ebbs and leaps in volume and tempo" and called the engineering "extraordinary". Retrospectively,

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

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wrote that despite Albini's continued obsession with "sex, violence, and anti-social behavior" from his Big Black days and while "the hard, metallic guitar figures of "Pull the Cup" and "Song of the Minerals" were as uncompromisingly abrasive as ever", the album revealed "a band more musically intelligent and imaginative" than his former band. Sputnikmusic called the album "abrasive, arty, nasty, noisy, innovative and unique" going on to call Shellac "proof that there is still massive scope for experimentation and carving out new sounds with a standard guitar, bass, drums lineup in the

indie-rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produce ...

format. In 2012, '' Fact'' ranked it the 18th best album of the 1990s, calling it "brilliantly angular ..Combining Minutemen-esque grooves that feel like they could last forever with spit-riddled, sneering vocals and a storming rhythm section, there are few albums that sound as simultaneously doomed and driven as ''At Action Park''."

Legacy

Christian Lemach of

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called ''At Action Park'' his favorite

noise rock Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, artists indulge in extre ...

album of all time. Mike Sullivan of

Russian Circles Russian Circles is an American instrumental band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was originally formed by childhood friends Mike Sullivan and Dave Turncrantz after their previous musical projects dissolved. After parting ways with their ori ...

cited this album, alongside Fugazi's ''

Red Medicine ''Red Medicine'' is the fourth studio album by the American post-hardcore band Fugazi, released on June 12, 1995, by Dischord Records. It is the band's most commercially successful album, peaking at number 126 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 and ...

'', as major influences on his guitar-playing, noting that they "literally changed the way elooked at music". Electronic producer

Clark Clark is an English language surname, ultimately derived from the Latin with historical links to England, Scotland, and Ireland ''clericus'' meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educate ...

included the album among his favorites, noting that "there's almost a

techno Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...

element to it, it feels blocky, like it's made out of angles rather than anything circular, but still the production's quite warm, it just draws you in."

Track listing

Credits

Personnel: *

Steve Albini Steve Albini (pronounced ; born July 22, 1962) is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal ...

– velocity (guitar/vocals) * Robert S. Weston IV – mass (bass/vocals) *

Todd Trainer Todd Trainer is the drummer for the band Shellac. He also performs as a solo artist under the name Brick Layer Cake. He previously played drums for the bands Breaking Circus and Rifle Sport, and he played drums with Scout Niblett in 2005. Pers ...

– time (drums) Staff: * John Loder – driver *

Iain Burgess Iain Burgess (24 November 1953 – 11 February 2010) was an English record producer and audio engineer. He helped define the sound of the Chicago post-punk music scene in the 1980s and early 1990s. Burgess worked with a number of key underground ...

– chef *Peter Diemel – coffee *

Corey Rusk Necros was an early American hardcore punk band from Maumee, Ohio, although they are usually identified with the Detroit music scene. They were the first band to record for Touch and Go Records. History Necros was formed in mid-1975 by then- ...

– pyrotechnics

References

{{Authority control Shellac (band) albums 1994 debut albums Touch and Go Records albums Albums produced by Steve Albini