Great industrial collaborations

I love a good collaboration. And I'm not talking the odd remix or extra production credit, I'm talking when two bands get together and bash out an album. Here are a few great collaborations that have rocked my world.

Xingu Hill and Squaremeter: This Anxious Space (Hymen Records, 2001). Squaremeter is one of the more interesting electronic artists around, who has done a few early albums on Hands (very sparse, abstract glitchy stuff), and some later albums on Ant-Zen (also glitchy but more dense and less sparse and abstract). Xingu Hill has released some pretty cool but not amazing electronica / IDM stuff on Nova Zembla and Hymen. They produced this quite cool album in 2001 which for me really combined their styles well. It has a subtle creepy and anxious mood to it, and would work really well as a soundtrack to a thriller / sci-fi movie set on an abandoned space station or similar. The recording credits suggest that Belgian madman C-Drik also played some part in this release. I used a track off this album in one of my "Reign of Steel" apocalyptic industrial mixes.

Azure Skies: Azure Skies (Ant-Zen, 2001). This is a killer collaboration and a very interesting release that was largely overlooked. Azure Skies is a project combining two Swedish dark ambient / death industrial bands, Mental Destruction and Sanctum... and they released a noise album on German label Ant-Zen! Crazy stuff. Why not on their Swedish home, Cold Meat Industry? Who knows, maybe CMI thought it was too noisy. Anyway it is a beautifully written and recorded album. The first two tracks especially are just staggering; noise at its finest. It doesn't really sound anything like either band, which makes it all the more interesting. I'm very sad that Azure Skies never did another release. Ant-Zen boss Stefan Alt's photography artwork is particularly good on this release also. The first track Crater off this album is one of the most astonishing and powerful pieces of noisy industrial you're likely to come across:


Black Lung and Xingu Hill: The Andronechron Incident (Ant-Zen, 1999). Here we have another appearance from Xingu Hill, this time teaming up with the excellent Australian dark electronic act Black Lung (who I'm a pretty big fan of). This album is a standout, not only because there is a whole bunch of great music here, but also because it was a quite successful and hilarious prank. The album was described when released as an alternative soundtrack these guys had worked on to an obscure cult Italian science fiction film from the 1960s. Which of course makes it sound really awesome, and it is. But after a while some people started researching this film (The Andronechron Incident) out of curiosity... and it didn't take too long for people to realise that it never existed! John Sellekaers and Dave Thrussel pulled a swift one on all of us. They made the whole thing up. Anyway, the album is cool, the idea is cool, the weird 1960s sci-fi artwork is cool, it's just a big bag of cool. Oh and random interesting trivia of the day: the guy behind Xingu Hill, John Sellekaers, worked for a long time as a mastering engineer called Metarc. He's recently retired, but until then, has mastered HEAPS and HEAPS of great industrial music. Like, almost everything released on Ant-Zen and Hymen since forever, plus stuff on other labels too.

Xenonics K-30: Automated (Ad Noiseam, 2002). This is truly a great collaboration and a landmark in industrial noise. It is also one of the heaviest slabs of aggressive unpleasantness ever recorded. It is a collaboration between the best power noise artist ever (Converter) and the best power electronics artist ever (Navicon Torture Technologies). How could this not turn out to be awesome? It couldn't. I put it at #9 in my top 10 power noise albums of all time, and it probably deserves to be higher. I love every single thing about this album. And since both projects have sadly retired, I'd say another Xenonics K-30 albums is drastically unlikely... but I'm allowed to dream, I suppose.

Yen Pox and Troum: Mnemonic Induction (Malignant Records, 2002). On my list of best dark ambient albums ever, I put this at #1, so I don't think I need to rave about it further here. I'll admit Troum is good but a bit too abstract and light for my likings, but when teamed up with the deep claustrophobic dark ambient of Yen Pox, it produced something incredible. Listening to excerpts or individual tracks is pointless; the album is basically one long track from beginning to end and needs to be heard as such.

Klinik and Vidna Obmana: Gluttony / Greed (Hands Productions, 2005 and 2006). Klinik are one of the most influential industrial bands of all time and need no introduction. Vidna Obmana is a more ambient and experimental act that I don't know much about at all (though discogs.com tells me his body of work is frighteningly large). Klinik (sans Dirk Ivens) teamed up with this act to produce a series of albums, each inspired by one of the seven deadly sins. I'll put it out there, I'm a mad sucker for wanky theme albums like this, and these two don't disappoint. Sadly, only Gluttony and Greed were completed and released. I'm pretty sure that there won't be any further releases in this series (Klinik are still kicking on, now including Dirk Ivens, but Vidna Obmana called it quits a few years ago). Nevertheless, these are cool albums full of dark, swirling electronics and sinister beats. I really wish we got to hear Wrath!

Camanecroszcope: Echoes of who lieth dead but Forever Dreameth, Echoes of a Beckoning Arcanum (Specture, 2003 and 2006). This is an amazing collaboration between Belgian tribal industrial legend Ah Cama Sotz (who I love) and Canadian power noise master Iszoloscope (who I love even more). They produced two albums of pure deep, dark ambient, and they are completely awesome. The second one is slightly better (and noisier) but both are essential. I used some of this in my Pure Dark Amibent mix.