Dasein's Blog

Defqon 1!

2011-09-18T17:56:00.002+10:00

Yesterday I had the privilege of DJing at Defqon 1 Sydney, which is the largest rave event in the Southern Hemisphere - I think there were about 30,000 people there. Of course these were scattered across a large number of stages, and we didn't have too many at our industrial stage (put on by the awesome Shallow Nation crew). But it was still a great day and a lot of fun and I was happy with my set. We had quite a few people who were "outside of the scene" (i.e. general raver / hardstyle people) poking around our stage and having a dance, and it was interesting to see their reactions to industrial music in various forms. Anyway, here is what I played. It was fun playing some really fast tracks (my set finished around 170 BPM) that I don't normally play out at clubs, since most industrial music is around 140 BPM.

Setlist: DJ Dasein - Defqon 1 White Stage
Reaper: Urnensand (SAM remix)
The Azoic: Conflict (Combichrist remix)
Soulless Affection & End: The DJ: MEIAN
Grendel: Dirty
Implant: Violence (MIZUH remix)
Modulate: Electronic Battle Weapon
Hocico: Final Resource (therapy version)
Memmaker: Death Audio Blow Your Brains
Combichrist: Lying sack of shit
Rosewater: NME
Feindflug: B66883
Dulce Liquido: Misanthropy
Converter / Asche / Morgenstern: Monster
Black Lung: Sinister Control Minority

In defense of record labels

2011-05-19T17:12:00.004+10:00

There have been some seismic shifts in the music industry in the last ten years; the rise of file-sharing networks, e-commerce and digital music services have seen a big move away from physical media for music distribution, the closing down of brick-and-mortar music retailers and a question being asked: is there still a place today for the record label? Or is it a relic of a forgotten age? I would like to write in defense of record labels. I think they serve an important function in music, irregardless of what media it comes on, and I hope they are around for as long as music is around.

For me, the record label represents two things: a commitment and an accreditation. First, the commitment part. Assuming a record label is going to pay for the physical production of a music release (whether on CD, vinyl, DVD, or some other more obscure form), then this represents a financial commitment on the part of the record label. They are essentially gambling part of their funds in the hope that this release does well. No label (assuming it is run as a business, rather than a bedroom label) would do this without a strong belief in the quality of the product, and even bedroom label managers are usually looking to at least recoup their costs. Thus, the fact that a label is prepared to take the financial risk of putting out a release is an indication that it is something they believe in, and therefore it has probably got something going for it. This to me, while certainly not a guarantee of quality (there are a lot of releases out there I don’t like), is still a more reliable sign of quality than the rising phenomenon of “here is sum music I made it on my komputer and put it on the suondclouod LOL!”.

Second, it is an accreditation, and by that I mean something that a person, or group of people, are proud to stand by and be associated with. The guys who run Malignant Records would probably make some very decent coin if they somehow landed the right to release Lady Gaga’s next few albums, but I’m sure they wouldn’t release it, because they wouldn’t want to be associated with something like that (not saying Lada Gaga is crap, just saying it’s not their kinda thing). So for me, if Malignant Records puts out a CD, that’s like having a sticker on it saying “approved by Jason Mantis of Malignant Records!”. Which means a lot to me, and probably to a bunch of other people too. And once you have found record labels that you like and trust, this accreditation can become very useful. Of course there is good music being made out there and not released, or self-released. But if something is put out on Ant-Zen, or Hands, or Hymen, or Tympanik, then there is already a really, really good chance I’ll like it, before I've even heard it. I’ll still probably do some research before I decide to get something new of course, but this accreditation factor counts for a lot, and is often a really good way of finding out what’s going on in your favourite music genre. Go to the wonderful discogs site, look at the release history for the record labels you like, and see what’s new.

My favourite labels are the labels that perform not only those functions, but also put a stamp on the final product: all of the Ant-Zen releases have amazing photography taken by the manager S.alt, with his own distinctive style, and it is some of the best music artwork you’ll find. All of the Hands releases come in a unique and baffling cardboard box contraption, almost resembling a puzzle more than a CD case, causing some to despair at the “Hands Scratchpack”; care must be taken by the novice to extract the CD without marking it. Every Malignant Records release comes with some kind of epic, brooding artwork, and with Phil Easter’s distinctive (and amazing) touch at mastering, giving it a recognisable style.

So for me, a record label performs more than a simple (and important) financial service, i.e. paying for the production of the release; they help shape and give birth to the final form of the artistic product, and represent a commitment by a person or people to whom one can potentially identify with. And that is a very valuable thing indeed.

Top five industrial bands to watch for in 2011

2011-05-17T16:29:00.002+10:00

OK here is my list of exciting bands to watch out for this year... obviously this was a tough list to narrow down to 5.

5. Formalin
I received Formalin’s debut (and still only) release, an album called Bodyminding, as a review copy from Out Of Line recently. I’d never heard of this band and I must say was very impressed. It’s mean, growly, German EBM, heavily incorporating the spirit of some of the more minimal pioneers like Klinik and Dive, but without being too derivative. It’s full of tough attitude and tight beats and I like it! Looking forward to more from Formalin!

4. Tzolk’in
I’ve mentioned before how much I completely love Tribal Industrial, despite the fact that the number of bands in the world making it you can count on one hand. Well Tzolk’in is one of those very few, and they are completely fantastic. Both albums Tonatiuh and Haab rock my socks off with their grim but uplifting Mayan-inspired tribal beats (but if I had to pick one, Haab is slightly better). Note that there is currently no actual evidence that Tzolk'in are working on a new album, so this is largely wishful thinking... But have a listen to their amazing track Kumk'U in the meantime:

3. Hecq
After a couple of early underwhelming releases, Hecq suddenly started putting out some of the best IDM influenced industrial around, taking a couple of leaves out of Kattoo’s books but including a whole bunch of unique creativity. He put out a spurt of amazing releases from 2007 to 2009, but since then has fallen a bit quiet, only releasing a split 12inch with someone called Exillon (??). Hecq’s website simply says “Coming back soon!”. Not soon enough!

2. The Panic Lift
I recently described Panic Lift as one of the very few bands who can rescue aggrotech from the pit of mediocrity into which it is rapidly sliding. This thoroughly inspiring band has recently put a new track on their Myspace, and left some pretty clear indications in their blog of a forthcoming release. The big question is however, which label will pick them up? Tympanik Audio have largely filled the void left by Hive Records, but it remains to be seen if something like Panic Lift, with feet planted more in the “club” side of industrial than most Tympanik releases, can find a home there. If not, maybe the bigger labels like Out of Line can wake up and see how much talent this group has?

1. Totakeke
OK I’ll be straight up: Totakeke is the single most creative and brilliant artist producing electronic music in the world right now. I like this band more and more every day and all the albums I have of his are completely inspiring. To anyone who claims that industrial music is dead or boring, bash a Totakeke CD over their head until they shut it. So what if the band name sucks, the music is simply jawdropping in its intelligence, emotion and production. If you don't believe me, have a listen to Permanent Note:

And with three studio albums released in the last three years, the man is showing no signs of slowing down. Go Totakeke!

Why all the hate?

2011-05-10T17:08:00.003+10:00

OK so in an earlier post, I described what I believed to be the most overrated artifacts of industrial music, albums or artists which have received love and adoration that I feel they do not at all deserve. Now I’m going to take the opposite tack: defend those that have been unfairly attacked. Those unfortunate souls who have unwittingly invoked the wrath of enough industrial scenesters to bring down torrents of unjustified abuse.

Front Line Assembly: Implode
This album came out in 1999, and underwhelmed a lot of people. The miserable hacks on rec.music.industrial were particularly savaging in their appraisal of it. I’m not entirely sure why; its’ certainly not one of FLA’s best works, but it’s far from the worst (Civilization takes that prize in my books), and has a couple of great tracks, such as Synthetic Forms. I think the reason this album put people offside was that it signalled the shift of FLA’s sound away from their guitar-heavy days of Millenium and Hardwired (which they of course received lots of criticism for), towards their highly-produced electronic sound that dominated their next few albums (which they also received criticism for, from the same people who criticised leaving their earlier electronic sound for guitars). I guess sometimes you just can’t win, huh.

Decoded Feedback
This band has been a perennial favourite for bashing on rec.music.industrial and other forums. And I’ll admit they’re not the greatest or most original band in the world; they play fairly bog-standard 90s EBM, with the occasional splash of guitars or trance-influenced beats. But they’ve got some perfectly decent songs, and their album Combustion from a few years ago actually had some real smashers. They won’t go down in the annals of all-time industrial greats, but they really don’t deserve all the hate they’ve received.

Velvet Acid Christ
Ahh good old Velvet Acid Christ. Probably no band in the history of industrial music has attracted more criticism. The man behind the project, Bryan Erickson, certainly hasn’t helped his cause any. Bryan has jumped into every shitfight and flamewar concerning VAC, bit at every morsel of trollbait dangled before him, and argued himself into more corners than I can care to remember. He’s put huge numbers of people offside with his aggressive rants about animal rights, politics, or whatever crusade he’s currently obsessed with. And like all good internet villains, every year or so he declares he’s 'finished with all you losers' and deletes his blog or newsgroup account or whatever his most recent method of getting flamed was, and then a few months later he emerges from the swamps and the whole process begins again. But what about the music?
Velvet Acid Christ is actually really kickarse stuff. I know saying this will instantly reduce my 'industrial scene cred' to zero, or negative, or whatever, but I don’t care, I like it. OK so he had some crap releases like Hex Angel, and Church of Acid has some of the worst overuses of sampling in industrial music, but there is some real classic stuff there. I recently dusted off my copy of Calling ov the Dead, and it still stands as an absolute cracker of an album, and made a huge impact on me when I first heard it. Twisted Thought Generator also goes in that basket, and was one of my favourite EBM albums for a while. Neuralblastoma had some genuinely creepy and powerful tracks on it, even if the second half is mainly filler. But the recent album Lust for Blood is the best thing he’s ever done; almost every track on it is fantastic, from the Pornography-era Cure influenced Crushed to the amazing retro-futuristic synths of Ghost in the Circuit and Ghost Regen.

Velvet Acid Christ is one of the classic examples of why you should always separate the music from the person; Bryan is a deranged, judgemental dick, but writes some really good music, which should b e judged on its own merit, and with some rare exceptions, it rocks.

Is there a future for aggrotech?

2011-03-30T14:51:00.010+11:00

I’ve been wondering lately if there is a future for the sub-genre of industrial music known as aggrotech, or if it will gradually fade away to near-invisibility, like power noise almost has. For those who aren’t familiar with it, aggrotech (also known by some even sillier names, such as "Butcher EBM" or "Hellektro", urgh) is a split-off of EBM that begun really with Suicide Commando’s 2000 album Mindstrip. It’s a form of EBM that keeps the traditional EBM synth sounds but adds distinctly aggressive overtones through heavy distortions of vocals and often drums. I believe Suicide Commando's "Hellraiser" probably exhibits aggrotech in its most pure and traditional form:

I will admit, I really have a soft spot for this stuff. It tickles my fancy and puts me in a good mood. Why? Who on earth can say. But I really feel that the genre is stagnating.

About five years ago, it had become arguably the most popular and dominant form of industrial music worldwide; Mexico’s Hocico were putting out stunning albums, Suicide Commando was packing out festivals in Europe and releasing live DVDs and commemorative CD releases all over the place, and a legion of “clone” bands were infecting compilations and DJ playlists around the world. Tactical Sekt in 2006 released one of the definitive classics of the genre, Syncope, which thoroughly kicked my arse and the arse of anyone who listened to it (it even eclipsed their strong Burn Process EP).

However, nothing much of interest is happening in the genre. Suicide Commando is regularly putting out albums that are slightly worse than the one before; let’s hope he stops before he paints himself into a corner of irrelevance. Hocico are still putting out solid releases which are very listenable, but almost identical to the last couple. The innumerable clone bands are rapidly becoming tiresome and pointless. Tactical Sekt have sadly become completely inactive.

So who are the potential saviours who can resurrect this flagging style, like Mind.in.a.box did for EBM in 2005 and SKET did for power noise in 2006? I see two possibilities, two young bands that have recently produced genuinely interesting aggrotech music (especially the latter).

Distorted Memory: This one-man project has only put out one release, a debut album on Noitekk in 2006. While the album as a whole is inconsistent in quality, when it hits its stride and delivers (God’s Wrath, Burning Heaven), it is some of the best music this genre has ever produced.

Things unfortunately seem very quiet on the Distorted Memory front; let’s hope Jeremy Pillipow is working away under the covers and will have something new to show us soon.

The Panic Lift: This New Jersey act released a truly outstanding album (Witness to our Collapse) on the excellent Hive Records in 2008, just before they sadly departed this world (RIP Hive). It is an uncompromising, intelligent and intensely emotional work that pushed the boundaries of aggrotech as far as they probably can go… or can they possibly raise the bar higher? A new album is due this year and this could be the one that places them at the top of this genre (or perhaps in a genre of their own).

Essential aggrotech albums: Suicide Commando’s Mindstripor Axis of Evil, Hocico’s Sangre Hirviente or Tempos de Furia (or basically anything except Wrack and Ruin), Tactical Sekt’s Syncope, Distorted Memory’s Burning Heaven, Panic Lift’s Witness to our Collapse.

Top 10 Power Noise albums of all time

2011-01-06T17:10:00.003+11:00

This list was very difficult to choose; more so than my top 10 EBM albums of all time, which is odd since there is 10 times more EBM than there is power noise. The challenge was the top 5, which are all incredibly close. I could put them in a different order on a different day. Power noise has a lot of bad and boring artists, but those at the top are truly at the top and there is very little separating them.
10. Tarmvred: Subfusc
This oddly-named album by an oddly-named act from Sweden caught people by surprise when it emerged on French label Ad Noiseam in 2001. Tarmvred gradually builds up big layers of noise, occasionally inter-mixing them with retro video-game bleebs or crashing drum and bass inspired percussion. He uses genuinely original and interesting sounds and techniques to produce his music, and sadly doesn’t seem to be doing much of anything anymore. Bring back Tarmvred I say!
9. Xenonics K-30: Automated
This was a one-off collaboration between the best power noise artist in the world (Converter) and the best power electronics artist in the world (Navicon Torture Technologies). Was it any surprise it was brutally heavy and completely awesome? This album is a relentless, seething slab of industrial mayhem that crushes your spine, fries your brain, and dismembers your corpse. Jason Mantis of Malignant Records reckons track 3 of this album is one of the most perfect pieces of industrial noise ever made, and I think he’s right.

8. 5F-X: 5F_55 is Reflected to 5F-X
This is definitely the strangest album on the list. An odd band called 5F_55 put out two odd albums of glitch noisy music on Hands, with tracknames composed of ASCII computer code. Then they renamed themselves 5F-X and put out this great album. It’s not only cool because it never takes itself too seriously, but it is also extremely good music, from beginning to end. With some nods to German techno and Hymen-style IDM / electronica, this is also probably the most fun and accessible album on this list.
7. Converter: Shock Front
This album, the first by legendary Scott Sturgis aka Converter, hit the power noise scene like a bombshell when Ant-Zen released it in 1999. It was menacing, dirty, heavy as a tank and pulverised listeners. While it doesn’t have the diversity and production quality of the follow-up Blast Furnace, I actually rate Shock Front higher. It’s a much more focused and effective album, and stands up extremely strong today as one of the classics of the genre.
6. Synapscape: So What
This album for me summarises a time; the glory days of German label Ant-Zen, and the peak of power noise (late 90s / early noughties). While Synapscape are still going strong and putting out good albums, this album for me is what defined their sound. It’s not complex, it’s not subtle, it’s just big, thundering, crunchy, smashing power noise. It’s a sledgehammer of an album that knocks down walls and kicks your arse and the arse of anyone else in the way. The fact that it comes with a second cd of more downtempo / experimental music is gravy. They don’t quite make ‘em like this anymore.
5. Winterkaelte: Drum and Noise
I’ll never forget the first time I heard this album (and this band); I popped the new cd into my player on a seedy hungover Saturday morning, and was immediately swept up in a barrage of noise, a lightning storm of deep fried bits and zeroes, swept away amongst sparking power cables and malfunctioning power generators. Winterkaelte are undeniably the most noisy and “pure” band in this genre. There really is no melody or harmony to be found here folks, it’s just layers of intricately constructed harshness. And it’s absolutely fantastic. The predecessor Structures of Destruction is very strong also; recent works not so much.
4. Iszoloscope: Au Seuil du Neant
It’s surprising that not everybody rates this album as young Canadian talent Iszoloscope’s best. For me there’s not much competition; this album really helped revive the flagging power noise genre in 2003, when it was under threat from lack of innovation and untalented clones. This album is a staggering work of cold bleak noise from an artist at the top of his game, that drifts effortlessly from broken noisy beats (Skotophobique) to crushing chilling distorted techno (-28c And Falling) to monstrously brooding dark ambient (Iszoloscope Tomes Deux). A classic in every sense of the word. If you don’t believe me, listen for yourself.

3. Imminent Starvation: Nord
Not putting this album at #1, or even #2, was very hard for me. Imminent Starvation’s 1999 album Nord defined this genre, and the set the bar for every other act in the world. It is a perfectly constructed album, from the scraping and jarring intro, to the relentless battle-machine that is Tentack (still crushing industrial dancefloors to this very day), through to the baffling glitchy constructs around the middle of the album, to the long moody masterpiece that is Ire, to the last track, a crackly voice pleading over and over, “Please contact us, we are your friends”. This album changed my life.
2. SKET: Baikonur
I must admit that by 2006 I had basically given up on power noise. Converter was finished, Imminent and smashed up his mixing desk and had lost his way, and the only things coming out on Ant-Zen were either ambient (i.e. Ab Ovo) or terrible (anything by Hypnoskull and his ilk). Then along came SKET. This German act produces some of the most intelligent and interesting music in the world today. Perhaps it isn’t even power noise; they may have pushed the genre so far that they’ve broken its boundaries. Whatever it is, it’s absolutely brilliant, and yes, even better than Nord.
1. Converter: Exit Ritual
Exit Ritual? Not Shock Front or Blast Furnace? No, this is the best thing Converter has ever produced, Ant-Zen has ever released, and power noise has ever given birth to. It’s a very dark album, occasionally creeping up to the precipice of dark ambient or death industrial, but never slipping over the edge. It plays with your emotions, starting off atmospheric and meditative (DroneRitual), becoming fairly aggressive (Nightmare Machine), moving into a relaxing, tribal space (Gateway Rite), then grabs you and drags you into a pit of madness (Night Swallows Day). Sturgis was apparently taking a LOT of drugs when he made this, and it shows. Not in a pretentious psychedelic way, but in a more schizophrenic and chilling way. I first listened to this album while suffering heavy sleep deprivation on a train through crumbling East German towns, and it seriously wrecked my head, which few albums can do. This is as good as it gets.

Shameless Self-promotion

2010-02-28T12:16:00.003+11:00

OK forgive me some quick shameless self-promotion.
Firstly, my nightclub Berserk is on March 20th at the Burdekin; the special theme is horror, so dust off those vampire fangs or serial killer masks and start practicing your scary face / voice.
Secondly, things are progressing with my solo music project, Scalar. I've uploaded a couple of new songs to the myspace: Nebulaic (will not be on the forthcoming album) and Isolation Space (will be on the forthcoming album). I've also arranged for mastering, so the album is on its way to production and should be coming out in the next few months! Exciting stuff. Go have a listen and see what you think. Influences would include Black Lung, Architect, S:Cage, Converter, all that Hymen / Ant-Zen kind of stuff.

Should industrial DJs beatmix?

2010-02-21T04:41:00.002+11:00

OK I'm returning to this blog in 2010 with what I think / hope will be a controversial topic: should industrial DJs beatmix? I'll start off by making my viewpoint clear, then come up with some justifications.

I think that industrial DJs don't have to beatmix, but it is a good thing if they do, and they don't have much of an excuse if they don't / can't.

When I decided I was going to be an industrial DJ, I bought a pair of decks and a mixer (off a friend, for a good price I'll admit), and taught myself how to beatmix. For those who don't know what it is, beatmixing is a standard technique of DJing where a DJ playing a song mixes the next song in at the same speed and on the beat so there is a seamless transition between songs. Pretty much any DJ in any style of electronic dance music will know what this is and know how to do it. Yet many industrial DJs do not and do not know how to do it. Why? And is this ok?

I generally beatmix my songs. Sometimes I don't. If I have a song I want to play at a point in a mix and it just doesn't fit in the BPM spectrum (it's impossible to beatmix a song that is more than 10% or so BPM faster or slower than the song you're currently playing), then I won't. If I am finishing a set on a song that I just want to go and dance to, rather than fit in with a set / mix, then I often won't. But generally I beatmix. Why? Two reasons.
First: It makes sets sound better. It just does. People like the sound of songs in a mix flowing together. It works and helps make the set sound like a mix of great music, rather than a random mp3 jukebox.
Second: It helps you introduce new music to a crowd. Really? Yes. If I play random song X by random band Y that nobody has heard before, it might not go down well and people might drift off and get drinks etc and never give the song a go. If I play well-known club hit Z and beatmix into random song X by random band Y, then people who are dancing to well-known song Z will, in fact will be forced to, dance to song X, because you are playing them both at the same time. This is something I've noticed many times. Nobody likes to leave the floor while their favourite song is still playing, and if you are playing two tracks at the same time, then they have to dance to the random unheard one, and they may well continue dancing to the new random one since they are already there and have been dancing to it (kind of against their will) for the last 30 seconds.

So it seems like it can be a good thing to do. Is it hard? No.
DJing is not that hard. Even beatmixing is not that hard. It's not as hard as learning to play an instrument, or learning how to play a sport or a dance style or a trade. It's really not that difficult. You need to be able to count, to have a basic sense of rhythm, and to understand (at a basic level) phrasing. Anyone can count and can be quickly taught to understand phrasing and with a bit of practice get a sense of rhythm and timing.

Can I play some good industrial music without beatmixing? Of course. Many people have done so and will do. But seeing as it is such a trivially easy skill to learn (I taught myself in a couple of months, and could have done so much more quickly if I'd put more time into it), I can't see much excuse for not being able to do so, especially when it can really help a set work and give the dancers / punters a better time.

Thoughts?

Listen to your elders

2009-11-15T02:19:00.006+11:00

Sometimes it pays to listen to your elders when it comes to music.

Tonight at a social gathering I bumped into a gentleman by the name of Bones, someone I've known for a long time who also happens to be the singer of the Australian EBM band Novakill. Bones is older than I and has heard and seen a ridiculously large number of bands. He and I spent much of the night talking music, which is always great. He's like me; full of passion, industrial music is his life (but not his work), and believes that everybody else is wrong about everything. We often have good music talks. We had a really good one tonight. He'd mentioned previously that his favourite industrial album of all time is Nail by Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel (that is one of the very many names that the band Foetus has gone by over the years). I have that album on vinyl, and it's a really really good album. If I had a vinyl player in my room I'd listen to it a lot more. I also only happen to own this album because Bones mentioned to me years ago how this was his favourite industrial album ever.
Anyway tonight, after discussing my recent Top 10 EBM albums EVAR blog post (he strongly agreed with the last five but didn't know or like the top five; what can I say, he's old school) he told me that his number one album (but not industrial album!) is actually Systems of Romance by Ultravox. What the fuck? Ultravox? Systems of Romance? This album is better than Nail? Better than Solitary Confinement? Better than... dare I say it... Revelations 23? Better even than the musical bombshell that is Non-Recycleable? Or Dreamweb? Is this even possible?

Maybe. I of course may have a very different opinion of it to his. However I am definitely going to check out Systems of Romance by Ultravox. (Some of you may remember them as the band that had the odd orchestral-styled 80s hit "Vienna").

The fact is, Bones was going to industrial gigs when I was pissfarting around with Transformers and watching the Goodies at 5:30pm on the ABC. We don't have to agree on everything. In fact there are many thing we don't agree on, and that's fine. But he is an elder statesman of industrial music and I respect his opinions, even if I don't agree with them.

Sometimes we need to take time out from our schedules and listen to an opinion from an elder. We can learn much from them. In fact it was a very fateful day in 1995 when I walked into Sector 7, a Sydney music and fashion store staffed by Bones, and he recommended a CD purchase that changed my life more than any other: the Colours of Zoth Ommog compilation. That CD not only introduced me to industrial music, and Zero Defects, but another band, one that would shatter everything I thought I knew of and believed about music. More of them soon. In the meantime, here is one of the songs off Nail by Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel. What can I say? It fucking rocks. It doesn't sound like any other industrial song or band I can think of, but it's brilliant.

Top five industrial bands to watch out for in 2010

2009-11-11T16:49:00.005+11:00

5 – Uberbyte
Uberbyte are a British “techno body music” band, currently signed to the very busy US label Crunch Pod. The track “Industrial Bitch” off their recently released second album Dos is currently tearing up dancefloors all over the world.

It might not be the most clever music around, but it’s pretty fun and a hell of a lot better than the pile of poo Combichrist recently released. They are apparently working full-time on their next album and I’m eagerly awaiting it.

4 – Inflatable Voodoo Dolls
These guys are a bunch of twisted people from my hometown of Sydney. Their last album, The Samurai of Stanmore, was a damn fine piece of work: catchy hooks, nice synths, and hilarious samples. If they don’t put out a new album soon, I will personally kick them in the throat!

3 – Memmaker
This is a side project (or only remaining project?) of Canadian power noise legend Iszoloscope, with some other guy. Their first album How to Enlist in a Robot Uprising was released in 2008 on (sadly defunct) US label Hive Records, and was an incinerating blast of fresh air in the power noise genre (which was in danger of fading away altogether). Definitely watch out for these guys, especially if you like your industrial music hard, loud and noisy.

2 – Mind.In.A.Box
If you read my top 10 EBM albums post, you’ll know how much I like these guys. They are my favourite (active) band in the world, and it’s been an agonising wait since their last release in 2007 (Crossroads). The only thing we’ve been given is a tantalising clip on their website.

If you have any interest in electronic music, you’ll want to start following this group.

1 – Shiv-R
This is a collaboration project between Pete Crane (from the criminally underrated acts Plague Sequence and The Crystalline Effect) and Kong (formerly of Stark and Neon Womb). Their only release so far has been a teaser EP, Parasite, which was insanely good (it’s now sold out), and quite frankly embarrassed most of the bland aggrotech and EBM / TBM bands I listened to this year. They are now signed to the respected German label Infacted Records and have a new album due in 2010. Cannot wait!

Five genres of industrial you may not know about

2009-10-29T12:09:00.021+11:00

OK here I’m going to talk about five little-known cousins of the big happy family of industrial music.

1 - Found Sounds
Now some snotty-nosed industrial purists might insist that Found Sounds (aka Field Recordings) is in fact a sub-genre of ambient music, or experimental. But we know what I think of industrial purists. Anyway, Found Sounds is music constructed entirely from sounds recorded in the surrounding environment, as opposed to made on a synthesizer, guitar or whatever. These people usually then distort, effect, and re-sample the material until it sounds totally unlike the original source, but they'll be fanatical about not introducing any other “artificial” sounds into the mix. It’s a philosophical thing I guess. They can thus produce albums sounding dark and creepy, harsh and noisy, or something in between, but generally it just sounds kinda weird (and often quite good).
Notable albums: Notime’s “Living Planet” and “Dying Planet” (side project of power noise legend Converter!), Wilt’s “Radio 1940” (good double cd of music made from broken radio sounds), Sleep Research Facility’s “Dead Weather Machine” (made entirely from the sounds of a broken air conditioner).

2 - Breakcore
Another genre that will be claimed by people from other camps (mainly techno and drum’n’bass), breakcore is techno or power noise having an epileptic fit. Forget four to the floor, in fact forget structures, bars, time signatures, or having some clue where the next beat is going to fall, this music is all over the place. You can’t even give it a BPM (at least I certainly can’t). Some call it random button mashing on a drum machine, some call it high art, some just like to take drugs and dance around in a crazy fashion to it. Personally, it doesn’t do a whole lot for me, and smacks of elitism and being cool for its own sake; nevertheless, there are some interesting or fun moments to be found here. Surprisingly, quite a few of the respected breakcore artists are from Australia, though it doesn’t have much of a following (I think some of their shows have as many punters as performers). Breakcore had a very brief moment in the spotlight when a video of someone jumping around to Venetian Snare’s “Dance like you’re selling nails” went somewhat viral.

Notable albums: Venetian Snares’ “Meathole” (this guy is considered the best in show), Xanopticon’s “Luminal Space” (or is this glitchcore? Bah who knows or cares), anything by Enduser (he’s not bad).

3 - Power Electronics
OK this is truly crazy stuff. Out of all the forms of music humans have made through the ages, Power Electronics is bested only by Japanoise in its outright insanity, abrasiveness and aggression. The formula is pretty simple; one very angry man (it’s always a man), screaming about terrorists, murder, or murdering terrorists, through about 12 distortion and delay pedals, over a blistering, grinding wall of noise. Fun stuff! There was a point around 2002 - 03 when there were some genuinely good people doing this music, but it quickly became overpopulated with feeble imitators and stupid fat serial-killer fetishists. There was a point in my life when this music made sense to me. I’m since a happier and more well-adjusted person so it doesn’t do much for me anymore, but I dust off my NTT or Propergol albums every now and then.
Notable albums: Strom.Ec’s “Neural Architect” (very good and underrated, excellent production!), Propergol’s “United States”, “Renegade” or “Program Vengeance” (legendary French act, still going strong), Navicon Torture Technologies’ “Church of Dead Girls” (mind-shattering, relentless, the final word in power electronics; nothing will probably ever beat this).

4 - Death Industrial
If Power Electronics is the torture chamber of industrial music, Death Industrial is the dungeon underneath where they throw the bodies after they’re finished with them. This music comes almost exclusively from Sweden, is released almost exclusively on the cult Swedish label Cold Meat Industry, and is a dark pit of despair. Sonically, it is a combination of the abrasiveness of power electronics with the grim atmosphere of dark ambient. There are rarely vocals or samples used however, and pretty much everything is drenched in reverb for that genuine catacomb feel. There are very few people making this music anymore (its brief heyday, if it could be said to have one, was in the late nineties / early noughties); even the undisputed king of death industrial, Brighter Death Now (aka Roger Karmanik, who runs Cold Meat Industry) now produces music that is basically power electronics.
Notable albums: Brighter Death Now’s “Necrose Evangelicum”, “The Slaughterhouse”, “Pain in Progress” (all classics), Archon Satani’s “Of Gospels Lost and Forsaken” (double cd of this pioneering group), Megaptera’s “Curse of the Scarecrow” (awesome).

5 - Tribal Industrial
The new and not very popular style is one of the most interesting and enjoyable things happening in music at the moment; the unlikely wedding of industrial with tribal beats. The cult Belgian artist Ah Cama Sotz had been toying with this stuff for years, but things really took off when fellow Belgian loon This Morn Omina released “Seven Years of Famine” on Ant-Zen, including its unlikely club hit, One Eyed Man.

Both of these artists have continued to put out excellent releases, but very few have followed in their footsteps. Maybe that’s a good thing? Power Electronics got swamped by shitty unoriginal bands trying to be the next Slogun or Propergol and failing miserably. It’s probably for the best that the number of bands doing this style you can count on one or two hands, because they’re all awesome.
Notable albums: This Morn Omina’s “Seven Years of Famine” (or pretty much anything else; this guy is the man), Ah Cama Sotz’s “La Procesion de la Sangre” (or just about anything else), Tzolk'in’s “Haab”.

Top 10 EBM albums of all time

2009-10-21T13:10:00.001+11:00

Here is my list of the top 10 EBM albums ever. Well, up until October 2009, at least. Putting together this list wasn’t easy. There were a lot of good bands who got left off (Haujobb, S.I.T.D., Klinik, Cesium 137). There were a lot of really good albums who didn’t squeeze in because they didn’t fit a (fairly strict) definition of EBM, like Mentallo and the Fixer’s “Revelations 23” or NCC’s “Seven Steps of Nervousness”. Anyway here it is.

10. Front 242: Front by Front (1988)
This classic is worthy for inclusion just by virtue of having “Headhunter” on the tracklisting, probably the most famous and popular industrial song ever recorded. The album starts off a little slow with “Unto Death Do Us Part” but ramps up the energy and doesn’t stop. This is pure, simple and dynamic EBM by the people who invented the genre and the term. The 1992 reissue includes some solid bonus tracks, especially the awesome “Never Stop”.
9. Nitzer Ebb: That Total Age (1987)
This British group certainly attracted attention with this debut. They produced EBM that was stripped down to bare essentials, with a startling aggression, speed and youthful energy. Join in the Chant may be their best known song, but there are plenty of other solid tracks here. Nitzer Ebb are still touring and astonishingly have lost none of their energy.
8. Front Line Assembly: Caustic Grip (1990)
What? Not Tactical Neural Implant? No! This album demolishes it’s much better known younger brother. This is Bill Leeb’s most direct and aggressive work, and the one most closely matching the style of the EBM pioneers Front 242, Nitzer Ebb and the Klinik. There may have been only half a dozen drum samples used on the whole record, but who cares when it sounds so good? Highlights are Provision and Iceolate.
7. Leather Strip: Solitary Confinement (1992)
An enormously influential album, this disc went on to spawn entire genres of music. When this came out it hit the industrial music scene like a bombshell; nobody had heard anything as dark and angry as this. The production quality and composition surpassed any of Claus Larsen’s previous works (and subsequent, many would say). A true milestone.
6. Seabound: Double-Crosser (2006)
Picking one Seabound album was extremely difficult. They have put out three and they are all excellent. The first however was probably more on the synthpop side of the fence rather than EBM (it can be a fine line). Beyond Flatline was a little darker, and Double Crosser more so. Seabound craft very clever and emotional songs like few people on the planet can, and their production skills are second to none. Domination stands out, but the closer Breathe is just jawdropping.
5. Mind.In.A.Box: Crossroads (2007)
As someone who tries their hand at music production, listening to this Austrian duo would be demoralising and frustrating, if it wasn’t the best music being made in the world today, since their skill embarrasses just about everybody else around. Crossroads doesn’t quite have the consistency of Dreamweb, but it has some standout tracks that are about the best thing in this style ever recorded, including the opening intro, which has to be heard to be believed.
4. Neuroticfish: Les Chanson de Neurotiques (2002)
Some may think of this band as a bit cheesy who had a few catchy club hits like Velocity. This is however a genuinely excellent album, solid from start to finish, with great vocals and lyrics, brilliant songwriting and a wide range of emotional content. The only downside is following what should have been a brilliant album closer, Need, with a feeble and misplaced remix of Velocity. Apart from that, this is a flawless album and essential listening.
3. Covenant: Sequencer (1996)
Many may be surprised not to see this album even higher, given its critical reception and cult status. And it is a classic; the opening track, Feedback, hits the listener like a blast of icy wind, with snarling synths and frozen commanding vocals. The whole album clocks in at only eight tracks (though varying depending on which of the many reprints you might have), but is just superb. The only downside is the predictable “club / dancefloor” track Stalker. The rest is solid gold.
2. Zero Defects: Non-Recyclable (1994)
Everyone (or at least all of the crusty old industrial fans, like me) know this band only for their 90s club hit, Duracell. Yes, the cool one with the Duracell battery ad samples. But this album has 10 tracks, all absolutely killer, every single one. This is EBM at its very best; cold, yet emotional; precise, yet human; dark, yet uplifting. I’ve listened to this album literally hundreds of times, and not only am I not sick of it, it gets better every time I hear it.
1. Mind.In.A.Box: Dreamweb (2005)
Two entries in the top 10 (top 5 even) gives you an idea how good this band is. Not only is every track perfect, but they all fit together into a seamless whole, an unfolding story. Synths, vocals, even occasionally guitars weave in and out of each other effortlessly. Emotions from hope, fear, love, despair and everything in between are traversed. The production quality isn’t quite as good as on Crossroads, and there may not be many “club tracks” here, but who cares? It’s EBM in my books and the best thing anyone’s ever done, and maybe ever will do.

Sacred Cows

2009-08-25T20:50:00.003+10:00

I often find when I'm exploring genres of music that they have "sacred cows"; albums that are discussed in hushed whispers of solemn reverence, albums that nobody would dare criticise, and whose influence and power must go unquestioned. Industrial music certainly has a few of them. Some, like Leather Strip's "Solitary Confinement" or Godflesh's "Streetcleaner', I can definitely understand, and consider them classics. A few though, I am completely baffled by.

Front Line Assembly: Tactical Neural Implant

Ah 1992. Good times. I was still in high school, Paul Keating was Prime Minister, and nobody knew what a carbon trading emission scheme was. FLA put out Tactical Neural Implant, almost universally considered to be their finest work. A quick scan of reviews on music sites will confirm this. But was it really that good? Not at all, say I!
FLA basically had three stages. Their first stage was minimal, angry EBM. The second phase (very brief, only two albums) they went all industrial-rock. Third phase they went to a very polished, futuristic sounding electro / EBM, with some trance influences thrown in. Tactical Neural Implant was their last album before their second phase began, but oddly enough it foreshadows their later phase. That’s because it had lost almost all of the darkness and aggression of their earlier works (especially odd since the album before it, Caustic Grip, is the most aggressive FLA album, and it absolutely rocks). It also unfortunately doesn’t have anywhere near the production quality that FLA demonstrated on their later works like Implode and Epitaph, so you end up with the worst of both worlds. They lost the hard edge of the early albums, but hadn’t yet got the skills and gear to make their new sound work. It’s certainly not a bad album, but both singles (Mindphaser and The Blade) are very ordinary (especially The Blade), and while there isn’t any filler, the album is very short and without any really punchy tracks. I can name half a dozen FLA albums I prefer to this one, yet it seems nobody else on the planet would agree with me.

Skinny Puppy: Too Dark Park

Much like their Canadian brethren FLA, Skinny Puppy have had a long and strange career, lurching from one sound to another, bringing in guitars (The Process), throwing them out (Greater Wrong of the Right), changing lineup, and the other things that bands do. The one constant however is their universally loved opus, Too Dark Park.
What the fuck? This album is much worse than Tactical Neural Implant. It took me about 30 listenings to admit there might be a couple of good tracks on it: Spasmolytic and Nature’s Revenge. And yes, they are very good tracks. But the rest ranges from the average (Convulsion) to the laughably bad (T.F.W.O.). My favourite Skinny Puppy album is Last Rights, and I can certainly understand it might not be everyone’s cup of tea. It is a long, bleak, confronting and disturbing album, full of schizophrenia and melancholy. But Too Dark Park sits well within the same style of albums such as Vivisect and Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse; they’re just much, much better than Too Dark Park. In fact I believe Mind: TPI to be easily their best album after Last Rights. The last track on that album, Deep Down Trauma Hounds, completely shits on ANYTHING you’ll find on this overrated, sloppy mess. So why did Too Dark Park get all the buzz and Mind: TPI get chucked in a corner? Who knows, people are weird.

Nine Inch Nails: Pretty Hate Machine

Some may think that dragging up this weak creature for punishment is just shadow boxing, beating a muppet around the head who has no real capability to defend itself. Surely nobody listens to this tiresome album anymore? Well people do, and many of them still swear by it. How it managed to impress them in the first place, I'll never know. "But I was 19 when I heard this! It was awesome!" they say. I was 19 too when I heard it; my girlfriend at the time had it on high rotation, and I still thought it was crap. Pretty Hate Machine is a collection of juvenile electro-angst, barely meeting any sensible definition of industrial (see my previous blog post for some thoughts on that matter), and hardly possessing any songs worth listening to. Terrible Lie and Sanctified are actually passable efforts, Sin and Ringfinger can be a bit of retro fun if I'm really drunk, but the rest is either disposable trash or, in the case of tracks 1 and 3, unmitigated shit. Head like a Hole has to be one of the worst songs to ever get regular play in a goth club; nothing about the songwriting, lyrics, production or composition possesses any merit. If Def Leppard had put it out as a B-side none of their fans would have blinked, and Nine Inch Nails fans would have poured scorn on its feeble corpse had they ever encountered it. Yet Trent put his name to it, and thus people bop around to its terminally boring chorus every weekend all around the world. Down In It, however, is far worse; a musical travesty I'm surprised anyone was prepared to release. Listening to Trent Reznor try to do some kind of 80s hip hop number, with electronic cowbells, fake vinyl scratching and spoken word gibberish, is certainly something to be experienced, but once only. In case you never have, look upon Trent's works, ye mighty, and despair: Down In Shit
The really scary thing is that I've met people who particularly like not just this crappy album, but that uber-crappy song. Baffling.

"But they were here first!"

2009-08-10T10:56:00.004+10:00

One of the strange ideas I see circulated in discussions about music is what I guess you could call the "they were here first" myth (I haven't yet thought of a better name for it, feel free to suggest one). This is the idea that if someone (a musical artist or group) was the first to perform music of a certain genre, then they are automatically accorded supreme elite status, and considered the one and only true performers of that style. This idea I find to be particularly common in the industrial music scene. I also believe it to be completely untrue.

The first people to perform and record what is known as industrial music were Throbbing Gristle. There isn't much debate about this. There is a debate however about the progression of industrial music from there.
You generally find amongst the snobby "industrial purists" or elitists out there an attitude that Throbbing Gristle and their immediate descendants (Einsturzende Neubauten, Coil, Cabaret Voltaire, SPK) are the only actual industrial bands. Everyone else is either a feeble imitator (the various experimental or "noise art" groups since those acts were around), or playing a completely different genre altogether (i.e.any EBM band, any industrial rock / metal band, any dark ambient or death industrial band, any japanoise band, any aggrotech band, any power noise / power electronics band, basically any and every band that is called "industrial" by 99.99% of the people who know anything about those bands). According to the industrial purist (generally a rather vile specimen of human being), all those bands are in fact "post-industrial".

What the hell? Post-industrial? Why not industrial? "Because it's different!" the purist screams. "It doesn't sound like Throbbing Gristle. It doesn't sound anything like it!". Right. So a style can't change? AC / DC doesn't sound anything like Chuck Berry. So should we stop calling AC / DC a rock band and call them "post-rock"? Herbie Hancock doesn't sound much at all like early Dixieland Jazz. So is it "post-jazz"? Of course not.

Industrial purists seem horrified that people who have twisted and distorted the "original spirit" of Throbbing Gristle should inherit their name and mantle. Which is a bit lame, because twisting and distorting things was one of the original and fundamental tenets of industrial music. They also seem to follow this myth I mentioned earlier, that if you're the first person to do something, then that automatically means you did it in the best and most pure way. Throbbing Gristle must have by default captured the essence of industrial music, because they did it first.

I think it's perfectly possible, if not probably, that the first people to do something did not really capture or understand it. They were just scratching the surface, discovering bits and pieces, beginning to clear away the dust and cobwebs that surround the true ideas of the genre. Sometimes it requires other perspectives and ideas from other people, working with the initial discoveries, to really push the boundaries further.

Now am I here claiming that KMFDM or Nitzer Ebb captured the "pure truth" of industrial music? Absolutely not. But if you ask me, I’d say that the most “industrial” sounding album you’re ever likely to find, is Xenonics K-30’s “Automated”. This is an album of noise music released in a rare collaboration by power electronics artist Navicon Torture Technologies, and power noise artist Converter. It is a brutal, bludgeoning, smashing cacophony of steel, madness and destruction, and I love it. It was also released in the year 2002, decades after Gristle were fucking around with tape loops. And the really ironic thing? I’d say 90% of the snobby “industrial purists” out there have never even heard of it.

Quit while you’re ahead

2009-07-10T11:19:00.001+10:00

I recently got my hands on a promo copy of the new album by VNV Nation, “Of Faith, Power and Glory”. I listened to it, and I must say it is one of the most pompous, turgid and boring piles of uninspired rubbish I’ve ever heard. This was difficult for me to deal with, because long ago, VNV Nation were a band I really, really liked. I got into them via a compilation (as I have for many bands, compilations are an excellent way to discover new music) which featured the track “Solitary”. The track really impressed me, and I got the album “Praise the Fallen”, which blew me away. Their first, Advance and Follow, I got (as a reissue) a little later, and was also excellent. By the time they put out their third, Empires, they had hit superstardom status (well, to the extent that you can in the goth/industrial music scene), with some extremely catchy songs and dancefloor fillers like Darkangel. I felt the music had lost a little of its edge however, and was becoming a little soppy and self-indulgent.

A fair few years later came Futureperfect, which had a couple of strong tracks like Epicentre and Electronaut, but some real sloppy filler. Their lyrics and album artwork were becoming more and more pompous and self-important also, never a good sign. They were also around this time being ridiculed in the infamous “Afraid of SWORDS!” video (look it up, pretty funny). Not too long after that came Matter and Form, which really was a very poor album. Their “hit single”, Chrome, is one of the most boring and insipid tracks to get regular play in goth clubs since forever, and the slower ballad-y tracks were just terrible. There was no longer any hint of the anger or intensity that had driven such powerhouses as “Afterfire” or “Joy”, or any of the honest heartfelt passion that had driven such moving tracks as “Solitary” or “Forsaken”. Yet again, the subtext in the artwork, song names and lyrics suggested that this was drastically important stuff. By this stage I had well given up on the band I once loved. Yet more disappointments were to come.

A couple of years ago, Ronan inflicted Judgement upon an unsuspecting public. This was worse yet than Matter and Form, by quite a long way. The basslines and drum parts were all straight 8^th beats, with no interesting rhythms or accents. The synth lines were all soft and meek, with no hard sounds to catch the listener’s attention. Half or more of the songs were slow, self-indulgent ballads. I was disgusted with where this band had gone.

So now we’ve ended up with “Of Faith, Power and Glory”. Again, the title and artwork suggest this is a drastically important work. The PR junk that came with my review copy heralded it as a profoundly dramatic triumph of modern culture that reinvents their sound for a new era blah blah blah. And it’s a pile of utter shit. It reaches new depths of banality that I wouldn’t have conceived possible. I would in fact say that they have become the Matchbox 20 of industrial music.

To make sure this was still the same band I once loved, I dusted off my old copy of Advance and Follow and gave it a listen. It rocked! Sure a couple of the tracks were weak, but overall it had a power and intensity that’s hard to top.

Does this happen to all of us? Do we all get rich, fat and happy, and lose our passion? Lose our muse, lose the fire that burns in us and inspires us to create music that inspires other people? While believing that these terrible albums are actually the best thing we’ve ever done? I really hope not. And I don’t think it happens to all of us.

The single greatest concert I’ve ever seen in my life was Front 242 live at Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig 2007. Jean-luc de Meyer is into his 50s (!!), and has more energy than just about any performer I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen Front Line Assembly, but they’re in a similar age category and apparently put on brutal live shows. These people give us hope that we will not all end up like that sad little man Ronan Harris, full of pompous self-importance and utterly drained of inspiration and talent.

What happened to power noise?

2009-05-08T12:27:00.006+10:00

OK here's the 'rise and fall' of the niche cult sub-genre of industrial known as power noise. This stuff arose in the early nineties when a young German label Ant-Zen started putting out some very distorted and aggressive electronic music. People started really taking notice of it when they issued a double CD compilation "Ant-Hology" on their 5 year anniversary. Here was a collection of great music which really put Ant-Zen on the map, especially with the incredible live recording of "Tentack" by Imminent Starvation. Tentack is a brutal, beautiful, musical juggernaut, that steamrollers anyone foolish to stand in its way, and defined the style perfectly.

Several other acts (almost all German or Belgian) made impressions on this compilation, like Synapscape, Hypnoskull, PAL, and Morgenstern. These acts would all go on to put out numerous releases on Ant-Zen.
Also around this time, another German label called Hands started putting out power noise CDs in bizarre cardboard contraptions that made it difficult (especially for newcomers) to get the cd out without damaging it (hence the nickname 'Hands scratch-pack'). If anything, the music put out on Hands was even more harsh and abrasive than that put out by Ant-Zen, spearheaded by the rumored mastermind behind the mysterious label, Winterkaelte. Their sound was bordering on white noise, but it was about as good as noise got, and they quickly established a cult following.

However the genre really emerged onto the industrial scene with the rise of a quiet, unassuming American, Scott Sturgis, and his project Converter. Here was power noise at its most shocking, brutal and brilliant, and he redefined the landscape of this sound. Converter started getting played at goth/industrial clubs, he was remixing and appearing on compilations, and headlining festivals in Germany like Maschinenfest. He was quickly joined by another brilliant young talent from Canada, Iszoloscope, who jumped ship from small Belgian label Spectre to join the Ant-Zen wrecking crew.

Suddenly it seemed everyone was wearing a black hoodie with a small ant and some japanese characters on it. There were Ant-Zen bags, Ant-Zen t-shirts, Ant-Zen mugs, you name it. Deleted Hypnoskull cds started selling for ridiculous amounts on Ebay. Converter's "Death Time" would get played at every club you went to. Iszoloscope's "Au Seuil du Neant" was hailed as the new masterpiece of the genre. The new power noise cultists started attacking EBM and its fans as "soft" and "weak", and were of course all starting up their own home-made power noise projects on their PCs in Fruity Loops. But the bubble had expanded too quickly. Imminent Starvation declared he was sick of "repetitive power noise" music, smashed his mixer into a thousand pieces, and started making strange incomprehensible glitch music. The glut of new power noise bands started getting bad reviews on industrial websites, since many of them were, quite frankly, terrible. The endless barrages of noise released on Hands were becoming tiresome. Ant-Zen put out some cds which were of questionable quality (the recent Hypnoskull albums are in fact some of the worst rubbish I've ever heard.) Was there anything left in power noise? Is there a limit to what you can do with distorted kick drums and abrasive noise? In 2003 Converter put out a very slow, dark album, Exit Ritual, which many power noise purists attacked but I actually think was his best work, since he was taking it somewhere different. Hands has found some new form in the last few years, especially with the excellent 5FX project, and Synapscape and Morgenstern continue to plod along, putting out good but not great releases every couple of years. Winterkaelte popped their head up recently to put out another album which had nothing wrong with it, but featured nothing really new or interesting.

Power noise isn't dead, but it's not the force it used to be. I don't play it much at clubs anymore. It has largely been replaced by the new twin forces of Aggrotech (e.g. Suicide Commando, Hocico) and what I guess you could call Techno Body Music (Modulate, Nachtmahr, Noisuf-X). Which is of course fine; those genres have some good artists and tracks too. I'm pretty sure the Converter project is dead and buried, which is sad, since he really was the best there ever was.

So why did it fall? I think it can be partly explained by the whole bubble thing, i.e. growing too big too quickly, resulting in a glut of sub-ordinary imitators. The unfriendliness of the sound didn't help any either. But the self-righteous attitude of the die-hard fans was I think a major factor. Power noise "cultists" display many of the very worst attributes of music snobs, spending more on t-shirts and hoodies than they did on albums to show off how cool they are, and aggressively deriding any other music styles than their own (sadly enough, other industrial styles came in for especially venemous attacks; as Max Weber showed 100 years ago, the two groups that hate each other the most are the ones closest together). Hmm, maybe I've been a little guilty of that from time to time. Hopefully I'm becoming less cynical and more accomodating in my old age :) Anyway, as I listen to my dusty old Ant-Hology cd to relive the old times, here's to you, power noise, old friend. Maybe the world just wasn't quite ready for you yet :)

Classic power noise albums you should hear / own:
Imminent Starvation's "Nord". Converter's "Blast Furnace" or "Exit Ritual". Iszoloscope's "Au Seuil du Neant". Winterkaelte's "Drum and Noise".

The three best EBM bands of the past decade

2009-05-05T14:05:00.003+10:00

When most people think of EBM (Electronic Body Music, the staple style played at many goth / industrial clubs these days), they think of the old stalwarts of the genre such as Front 242 and Leather Strip. Or they may have been swept up in the "futurepop" craze that came later when bands like VNV Nation, Covenant and Assemblage 23 dominated dancefloors. However there are a few bands that've proudly carried the EBM flag and produced some awesome music over the last ten years.

Neuroticfish
I wasn't very impressed with Neuroticfish's debut No Instruments when it came out in 1999. However the Velocity single follow-up was pretty damn catchy and I decided to give them another chance when they put out Le Chansons de Neurotique in 2002. It turned out to be one of the best EBM albums ever made. If you are even a bit interested in electro-industrial music, you simply must have this album. It features a fairly stripped down sound, great vocals, and some very catchy songs including the classic single Prostitute. In 2005 they released Gelb, which was a good album but not as good as their previous work. Neuroticfish have sadly announced the project is closed, marked by "A Greater Good" 2cd retrospective.
Signature songs: M.F.A.P.L, Velocity, Prostitute
Defining album: Le Chansons de Neurotique

Seabound
This German band grabbed a lot of attention in 2001 with their strangely named album "No Sleep Demon", released on the powerhouse German label Dependent Records. Striding a fine line between classic German EBM and some very catchy synthpop, it remains a solid album and a very impressive debut. In 2004 they put out Beyond Flatline, which showed a definite maturity. The sound quality was better, the lyrics more serious, and a few songs were showing a darker, harder edge. I still love this album and listen to it regularly. 2006 saw the release of Double Crosser. This is a continuation of the sound on Beyond Flatline, but the album is possibly even darker; it even included the beautifully venemous song Traitor (previously buried as a b-side on the Poisonous Friend single). Recently they put out When Black Beats Blue, a collection of rarities and remixes, which is simply stunning.
Signature songs: Hooked, Poisonous Friend, Domination
Defining album: Beyond Flatline

Mind.In.A.Box
A friend whose music opinion I respect urged me a few years ago to listen to a band I'd never heard of, Mind.In.A.Box and their album "Dreamweb". So I did. It took me a few listenings to realise it, but it turns out I had come across the best EBM album ever made. This masterpiece both revives and redefines the genre. It combines old and new, soft and hard, simple and complex. Dreamweb was their second work; I quickly bought their first album Lost Alone, and it was fantastic (though not as good as Dreamweb). Recently they put out Crossroads, which is an amazing album and almost as good as Dreamweb (the opening track has to be heard to be believed). This humble and little-known Austrian duo with their roots in Amiga computer game music are putting out some of the best electronic music on the planet at the moment. They may not have many "club hits", but they write music that puts their peers to shame.
Signature songs: Lost Alone 2, Machine Run, Into the Light.
Defining album: Dreamweb

First post: great local bands

2009-04-30T22:23:00.006+10:00

Well this is the first post of my blog. One of the things I plan to rant about a lot here is some of the great local industrial bands that we have in Australia, especially since they are often overlooked or unknown. Here are three of my current favourites:
The Crystalline Effect
This is a great project from Pete Crane and Elenor Rayner. It's really hard to put them in a genre, but I guess you could call it downtempo electronica. Pete does all the music and Elenor writes the lyrics and does vocals. She's an amazing singer and they are one of the very few industrial acts that actually have good lyrics. This is great music for a relaxing Sunday afternoon with friends, or a lonely introspective night.
Shiv-R
This mean project is the bastard child of Pete Crane (from Crystalline Effect, above) and Kong (formely of the projects Stark and Neon Womb). They only have one EP out so far, Parasite, but it is a brutal and intense slab of dancefloor industrial that must be heard to be believed! This is definitely an act to watch out for, especially if you like say Combichrist or Reaper.
Inflatable Voodoo Dolls
This is a really fun project from Sydney that put out catchy and humorous electronica music. They use some of the best and funniest samples you're ever likely to hear, plus they have a nice retro-analog sound and nice hooks. If you're in Sydney you can sometimes catch them performing live shows. Their most recent album, The Samurai of Stanmore, is really impressive, highly recommended.

Anyway that is a small selection of some of the excellent Australian electro-industrial acts out there, all well worth a listen. I might write a post later about some of the many others, such as Process Void, Tenth Stage or nOnplus.