Taint Pluribus Taint Unum is the debut studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by Minneapolis-based noise rock

Noise rock

Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...

 band Cows

Cows (band)

Cows are a post-hardcore/punk blues band from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The band formed in 1987 and disbanded in 1998. They were known for a unique mixture of punk rock and blues played with large amounts of noise and surreal humour; their music is often considered noise rock...

, released in 1987 through Treehouse Records.

Music

The first track on the album, "Koyaanisqatsi", is a cover of the intro piece from the 1982

1982 in film

-Events:* March 26 = I Ought to Be in Pictures, starring Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret and Dinah Manoff is released. Manoff would not appear in another movie until 1987's Backfire.* June = PG-rated film E.T...

 film of the same name.

Release and reception

The record was released for a limited time on vinyl

Gramophone record

A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 and has since gone out of print. Unlike its predecessors no songs from Taint Pluribus Taint Unum appeared in the Old Gold 1989-1991 compilation.

Allmusic staff writer John Dougan gave the album four and a half out of five stars, calling it a "The Cows at their most impenetrable and noisy" and that "fans of Japanese noise acts like The Boredoms and some of John Zorn's

John Zorn

John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...

 more extreme jazzcore outfits might think this is pretty cool."

Track listing

1. "Koyaanisqatsi" (Philip Glass
   Philip Glass
   Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
   
   ) - 2:53
2. "Cow Jazz/Car Chase" - 3:40
3. "Sieve" - 2:15
4. "On Plasma Pond" - 2:17
5. "Yellowbelly" - 3:45
6. "Redhouse" - 2:35
7. "Carnival Ride" - 2:36
8. "The Pictorial" - 2:24
9. "Tourist" - 3:06
10. "Summertime Bone" - 2:16
11. "Mother (I Love That Bitch)" - 1:43
12. "Weird Kitchen" - 6:00

Personnel

Cows

• Thor Eisentrager
  Thor Eisentrager
  Thor Eisentrager is a founding member and former guitarist for the Minneapolis-based Noise rock outfit Cows. After the release of the Cows's ninth album, Sorry in Pig Minor, Thor announced that he had grown tired of touring and left the band. The remaining members disbanded shortly thereafter...
  
   – guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  
• Sandris Rutmanis – drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  
• Kevin Rutmanis
  Kevin Rutmanis
  Kevin Rutmanis is an American bass guitarist. He is of Latvian descent. In late 1985, along with his younger brother Sandris Rutmanis, Thor Eisentrager, and then Jayhawks drummer Norm Rogers started the band The Cows. After the dissolution of The Cows, Rutmanis was the bass guitar player for The...
  
   – bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Shannon Selberg
  Shannon Selberg
  Shannon Selberg is a noise/punk rock musician known for his unusual antics on stage. Formerly the frontman for the Minneapolis-based group The Cows, Selberg provided lead vocals, trumpet, bugle and hardcore guitar...
  
   – vocals
  Singing
  Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
  
  , bugle
  Bugle
  Bugle is a brass musical instrument.Bugle may also refer to:* Contrabass bugle, lowest-pitched instrument in the drum and bugle corps hornline* Bugle , common names of flowering plant genus Ajuga...
  
  

Additional musicians and production

• Steve Björklund – production
  Record producer
  A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
  
  , assistant engineering
  Audio engineering
  An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
  
  
• Brian Paulson – production, engineering