Review: Klamm is the new label dedicated to the artistic output of Saele Valese. After "Ivic", a collection of old and new materials published on Alva Noto's label (NOTON) at the beginning of the year, Saele Valese releases now his first real album "A White, White Day". Written and recorded between 2018 and 2021 the material of this work was sliced, glued and recreated several times, just like a filmmaker in the editing process, before finding its final form. Inspired indeed by the most poetic cinema, 'A White, White Day' represents, in the form of a non-linear and enigmatic narrative, a personal and psychological reflection on time, memory and dreams. Mastered by Rashad Becker.
Review: There's likely no better documented era of drug-induced depravity, lunacy and debauchery from the Marilyn Manson camp than on the infamous 1996 Dead To The World Tour, undertaken in promotion for the seminal industrial-metal classic Antichrist Superstar. This was the moment Manson ballooned from outsider freak to the Alice Cooper on crack of a new generation, scaring parents with fascistic imagery, promoting hardcore narcotic abuse and even drenching bibles in whiskey on stage before ripping the sopping pages to shreds. Boasting audio extracted and remastered from the original video tape of the same name, apart from 'Dried Up, Tied & Dead To The World', which comes from the Remix & Repent EP, this pressing comes on blood red marbled vinyl and is limited to 299 copies, all housed in a unique artbook/sleeve hybrid, visually cataloguing some of the on-tour mayhem of that time. While the set is naturally rife with deep cuts from the iconic Antichrist Superstar LP, there's also space for the twisted Portrait Of An American Family lead single 'Lunchbox', as well as the chart-topping Eurythmics cover of 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)'.
Friday Afternoons, Op. 7: A New Year Carol (part 2) (3:00)
Challengers: Match Point (3:21)
Compress/Repress (2:25)
Review: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, known for their remarkable work with Nine Inch Nails and film scores like The Social Network, deliver a techno-charged soundtrack for Luca Guadagnino's tennis-themed love triangle drama Challengers. The score is a pulsating mix of electroclash, synth-pop, and driving techno, expertly weaving traditional instruments with electronic beats. Reznor and Ross take Guadagnino's vision to heart, crafting a soundtrack that not only drives the narrative but also challenges expectations with its bold, rhythmic energy. Tracks like 'Compress/Repress', co-written with Guadagnino and featuring Reznor's vocals, showcase their ability to blend artistic expression with the film's themes of control and power. Overall, this is a excellent soundtrack that works well to support the visual or just listening to it without having seen the movie.
Review: This reissue unearths a hidden gem from the Smegma archives, a Christmas album recorded in 1973 and finally seeing the light of day 50 years later. Originally captured in a San Diego garage, the album showcases the band's early sound, a wild and experimental blend of original songs and - it is Christmas, after all - an Elvis Presley cover. 'Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me)' and 'Auto Suk' feature the captivating vocals of Ju Suk Reet Meate, while Amy's flute solos on 'Whatever (for now)' and 'Beans In My Eye' add a touch of psychedelic flair. The album also includes the quirky 'Christmas Trees Are Free' and the improvisational 'The Cheez Stands Alone', showcasing the band's eclectic and unpredictable nature.
Review: As a core member of industrial titans Ministry, Paul Barker earned his stripes in the crossover between hard rock and electronics. More than most, his work with Al Jourgensen brought out the fiercest potential from crossing these swords in a process akin to alchemy, which is precisely what informs his solo project Lead Into Gold. It's been five years since the last album, and now Barker returns with an inspired new demonstration of his nerve-shredding skill as a producer and songwriter. There's no way to separate this from the legacy of Ministry's best work and it goes to show how vital Barker was to that band's sound, but here he's free to indulge his own creative vision. If you love golden era Ministry, you're going to be more than satisfied with this knockout record from a true legend of industrial music.
Review: It's pretty hard not to fall in love with Macadam Mambo at first contact. The French label represents the cream of Lyon's underground, a city that has for some time now been a quiet powerhouse of electronic and dance music, developing a reputation for strange, leftfield floor-filling sounds spanning slow burn chug, experimental tropicalism, Balearic and cosmic house.
Enter Axel Larson to prove our point with real precision. L'Ete Noir is an incredible EP, packing a generous six tracks on its wax, all of which are awesome. From the knife-edge atmosphere of poised and percussive rumbler 'Hygiene Du Squelette', to the downtempo joy of a track that feels like it's built largely on the sounds of dripping water and reversed rave keys ('Le Pyromane Du Chateau Rouge'), there are so many layers here you'll be busy for days.
Review: If you like dense, challenging and austere industrial noise then read on: French sound curator and in situ artist Jerome Noetinger is a master of that who has proven himself over more than 30 albums. Sur Quelques Mondes Etranges is another one of his avant guard outings with electroacoustic designs at its core. The album is divided up into two sides of shorter tracks, then one 18-minute piece that takes up a whole side, and then one side of 21-second locked grooves for you to mix up however you see fit. The whole record was made in three days in a Hamburg studio and is a fine showcase of his ability to make palpable metal texture and real-world dirt out of sound waves.
Goli, Uniformirani, Mrtvi / Naked, Uniformed, Dead (5:03)
U Crnom / In Black (3:54)
A.P.R. (5:28)
Pasto Nudo / Naked Lunch (3:58)
I Forgot (3:58)
Review: Slovenia multimedia, electronic and rock group Borghesia formed back in 1982 from members of an underground theatre group that was known as FV-112/15. They also ran their own alternative club and had an illicit, illegal aesthetic based around anything taboo, banned or prohibited in the country at the time, much like the likes of Front 242 and Nitizer Ebb. Rugged City was an album first released in 1988 and only in Yugoslavia. It collects the best tunes from previous albums Escorts And Models and No Hope No Fear and is a perfect overview of their powerful mutant sound.
Review: Shanghai-based, Malaysian-born artist Tzusing offers us a future-facing and experimental techno record that also serves as a meditation on "China's complicated history of patriarchal heteronormativity, and how these archaic double standards continue to dominate the culture in pervasive, often invisible ways." It is packed with dancefloor highlights after a deep-thinking cultural monologue to start with. Hard and funky drums, twisted sonics, manic uptempo bangers and wheezing voices and downtempo rhythms all combine into something utterly unique.
Review: Gesaffelstein's fourth album, GAMMA, marks a departure from his previous work, embracing camp over cool. With influences ranging from seventies electro-punk to synth-pop, the album is a riot of overdriven synth-pop and vintage rock'n'roll. Singer Yan Wagner's oily baritone adds depth, channeling Dave Gahan's toughness with a humorous twist. The album's eccentricity shines through in Wagner's deranged lyrics and unpredictable delivery, injecting humor and unpredictability into the mix. Tracks like 'The Urge' and 'Hysteria' showcase Gesaffelstein's knack for crafting sharp hooks and infectious grooves. Clocking in at concise lengths, each track contributes to the album's charm, focusing on thrusting hips and sharpened hooks rather than lofty concepts. GAMMA is a refreshing departure from Gesaffelstein's previous sound and a exciting new direction.
Review: This superb new record from AnD embarks on a conceptual journey inspired by the fusion of granular synthesis, innovative sound design, and rhythmic explorationd within polyphony. It delves into the cosmic phenomenon of star collisions as the artists leverage their background in engineering and explore mathematical intricacies surrounding the timing and impact of stellar collisions. Through a sonic landscape echoing the vastness of space, this record incorporates elements of white noise, fragmented breaks and minimalist synth arrangements that are said to mirror the mental experiences of the listener.
Review: Formed in Belgium in 1990 by Dirk Ivens - known to some from Absolute Body Control Clinic, Blok 57, and Sonar - Dive have never been known for taking prisoners. Read anything about the band online and you'll likely stumble upon at least one or two references to their 'audio trademark', namely "abused drums", and this certainly sets the tone for what's in store once you press play on anything that has come from the project over the past 34 years. Misleadingly Dive's second album, First Album is actually the self-titled debut, which landed in 1990, and some bonus materials added to complete the aural image. Distortion, vocal strain, the sound of machinery searching for human survivors in a post-apocalyptic battleground, walls of white noise and the sound of atoms deconstructing, alongside darker, more sinister and tense moods, it's as uncompromising now as it was then.
Review: Returning with his first full-length since 2020's David Bowie-indebted We Are Chaos, while more notably marking the industrial metal goth icon's return to the spotlight following a series of troubling allegations that seemingly appear to now hang in limbo, One Assassination Under God: Chapter 1 shall serve as the 12th full-length studio endeavour from Marilyn Manson. Co-produced with frequent Chelsea Wolfe collaborator and film scorer Tyler Bates, the material boasts some of the most synth-laden, new wave winking and direct metallic rock bangers the mercurial yet questionable figure has dropped in almost two decades, making for a sonic victory lap of sorts as Manson attempts to rebuild his brand and aesthetic.
Review: It's been a delight to see Oliver Ho's Broken English Club project develop artistically over recent times, with some fine records for Jealous God and Veronica Vasicka's Cititrax label along the way. Suburban Hunting sees Ho deliver his debut Broken English Club album, featuring some 11 tracks of primitive electronics and cinematic pseudo techno cuts. Tunes like "Vacant", "Derelict", or "Scum" all share a loose techno framework, but the real aesthetic is much vaster than that, verging on remnants of post-punk, industrial and all that goodness and hybrid class that came out of the late 1980's. It's another fine addition to the sublime Cititrax discography, and we recommended it just as much as the previous numbers.
Review: There's a delightfully celebratory feel about this debut volume of Cititrax Tracks, a new 12" series from Minimal Wave offshoot Cititrax. As beautifully presented as we've come to expect, Tracks Volume 1 boasts a quartet of dancefloor-ready smashers from a blend of new faces and label stalwarts. Amato (aka The Hacker) kicks things off with the glistening EBM funk of "Physique" - all restless synth refrains and pounding bottom end - before LIES affiliate Tsuzing go all dark, psychedelic and twisted on the thrillingly intense, acid-flecked "King of System". An-I go all DAF (with a touch of Front 242) on the fuzzy and dystopian stomper "Mutter", before Cititrax regulars Broken English Club delivers a storming chunk of industrial-tinged analogue funk ("Glass"). Bravo!
The Sixteen Steps - "Signals From The South" (6:28)
The Sixteen Steps - "Promises On The Run" (7:17)
Review: Rampant and 'up for it' as usual, the Cititrax label is back with a new set of wayward technoid experiments for the more trained ears on the dancefloors. This time it's Romania's Borusiade and newcomer The Sixteen Steps who share two sides of a wax plate and, of course, proceed to annihilate any idea of a quiet night in. The former sets off with the mechanical acid bumps of "Infatuation", guided by an eerie set of vocal blurs, and that's followed by the comparatively more beat-centric techno of the apocalyptic "Confutation". On the flip, The Sixteen Steps first lands on "Signals From The South", a house banger with noxious levels of mutant bass at its core, followed by the single-minded industrialism and sheer techno brutality of "Promises On The Run". WOWZAH!
Review: Techno troubadour Yan Cook has a fine discography on some of the most respected labels out there. Now he heads to Ukraine's Cooked, a young but perfectly formed imprint, and kicks off his EP with 'Blades,' which is all melon twisted synths and driving techno kicks. 'Whistleblower' then slips into a deeply atmospheric groove with gurgling bass and watery effects and 'Grom' is all about the swing in the drums. Gritty textures and insistent claps add to the thrill of it all and 'Skyhigh' is a more frosty dub techno cut that leaves out breathless.
Review: There have always been two distinct threads to Richard H Kirk's work as Cabaret Voltaire, with or without his former collaborators Chris Watson and Stephen Mallinder. There's the clanking, moody industrial funk that marked out the band's work in the 1980s - brilliantly resurrected on last year's Kirk-only set Shadow of Fear - and even more clandestine, beat-free releases that explore the more paranoid end of the ambient and experimental electronica spectrum. BN9Drone, Kirk's second Cabs LP of 2021, swims in these murky waters, with the veteran Sheffield producer layering up dark, foreboding chords, gravelly electronic textures, droning noise and Robin Rimbaud style snippets of overheard telephone conversations and police radio chatter. It's unsettling at times but also utterly captivating, as if you're listening to a distant disaster unfold in real time.
Bonnie Mercer - "Linda Goodman's Love Signs" (3:49)
Bonnie Mercer - "The Latest Disappointment" (5:14)
YLP - "The Image Of 36" (5:13)
YLP - "Foreign Sands 04:58" (5:01)
YLP - "The Way We Came" (9:31)
YLP - "Amen" (9:16)
Review: Downwards' latest release shines a light on Melbourne's famed experimental music scene by bringing together tracks from two of the city's most interesting artists. On side A there's a chance to savour all four tracks from Bonnie Mercer's previously cassette-only release Old Moon, New Moon, with the experienced artist combining elements of desert rock (fractured, discombobulated, fuzz-toned guitar textures) with droning tones, reverb-laden samples and gentle washes of ambient colour. Over on the flip YLP - the duo of Joshua Wells and Harry Schwind- take over, delivering a suite of suitably cosmic tracks heavily influenced by Spacemen 3, Suicide and Sun City Girls.
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