Houston-based industrial nu-rock outfit The Hunger releases their reimagined version of “Vanishing Cream,” a track from their 1996 album, Devil Thumbs a Ride, on the Universal label. “Vanishing Cream” received massive airplay on rock stations around the country and reached No. 4 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock charts.
“Vanishing Cream (Nouveau)” is taken from The Hunger’s album, Bloodlines, which includes not only the remix of “Vanishing Cream” but also a reimagined rendition of Concrete Blonde’s “Bloodletting (The Vampire Song).”
Produced by Christopher Hall, Bloodlines encompasses 10 tracks, merging electronics with edgy melodies. Arriving via Wake Up! Music Rocks, the rock arm of Pepper Gomez’s Wake Up! Music Group, with which the band signed in 2023, Bloodlines sees The Hunger returning to their sonic roots.
Made up of two brothers – Jeff Wilson (vocals, keyboards) and Thomas Wilson (vocals, keyboards) – as well as Jeff Smith (guitar), and Alex Slay (drums), The Hunger began life as an industrial dance music band, releasing “Shock,” in 1991. The song topped the dance charts in the U.S. and Europe and was followed by “Cut the Skin” and “Shoot To Kill.”
Enter Universal Records, a relatively new label in the mid-nineties, that signed the band and released Devil Thumbs a Ride, which had already been recorded and mastered. Devil Thumbs a Ride was followed by 1998’s Cinematic Superthug, Spacemans Last Goodbye, Finding Who We Are, Grip, Leave Me Alone, Tonight/Shoot To Kill, and 2020’s self-titled album.
Compared to the dark industrial thrumming textures of “Vanishing Cream (Nouveau), the original version fused psychedelic-lite melodicism with almost delicate, trembling harmonics and dreamy vocals that assumed volatility on the chorus. Whereas on “Vanish Cream (Nouveau), the vocals exude a mysterious, palpable energy, at once intense and haunting, while the harmonics resonate with rumbling surfaces.
Tumescent with urgent, shadowy sensations, “Vanishing Cream (Nouveau)” magnifies the original tune, suffusing it with weighty assertive vitality.