Rumour has it the gents who make up Revolting Cocks came upon the name by their usual debauchery. Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen was out for a hard night of drinking with some friends, so hard that the bartender threw them out, declaring them a bunch of revolting cocks. The name was first applied to one of Jourgensen's many side projects in 1985, when he partnered with Luc Van Acker and Front 242's Richard 23 to bring art and the dancefloor closer together. As recordings progressed, things went in a different direction and the chaotic, snide, and sleazy sounds that were taking over had Richard 23 making an exit over creative differences. He departed in 1986, right as the band's debut, Big Sexy Land, was being released by the seminal industrial label Wax Trax! The album featured the Blade Runner homage and club hit "Attack Ships on Fire," while the artwork introduced "the Three Guys," anonymous faces from an old photograph that would represent the band on album covers for years to come.
Helping to establish the Midwestern tradition of prolific industrial cross-pollination, Chicago industrial-dance supergroup Revolting Cocks released their debut Big Sexy Land appropriately enough on Wax Trax! in 1986. Featuring Ministry's Al Jourgensen and Chris Connelly (Fini Tribe/KMFDM) among others, the group produced an electronic grind that fans of Wax Trax! artists from this era will find very familiar. Plenty of slap bass and contorted samples abound on highlight cuts like "We Shall Cleanse the World," "No Devotions," and the most house-influenced track, "TV Mind." Fine dance music with plenty of cool synth and sample trickery, Big Sexy Land is a distinguished debut from a "side project" that occasionally surpasses the day-job work that its members became famous for.