Inner Ear Infection

new ground

2008-11-06T13:58:00.000-08:00

The musical interests and spirit of IEI lives on, with a slight shift
in contributors, over at our new blog, Def In June.
Thanks for reading.

Through the wire screen, the eyes of those standing outside looked in

2008-07-08T12:46:00.000-07:00

I headed into the video store rather aimlessly – restless, humid summer night. On the new releases shelf, there’s “Control” and beside it the disarmingly simply titled “Joy Division” doc. Done. “Control” hadn’t screened anywhere near me and I didn’t know it was even out. Like listening to JD in general, going on a mission to hunt the thing down seemed wrong – it would crop up at the right time and this was definitely it.

“Control” tells a painful story we’ve all read, seen and rewritten dozens of times. We go in asking how particular moments will be handled, how’ll they do the Pistols show, will there be Manc cameos, and what’s this about these actors actually playing the tracks live? That latter point is handled quite, quite well. These guys never really sound like the dozens of live JD gigs we’ve accumulated, but they do sound as though they’re coming to their presentation of the material organically, never sounding as though they’ve aborted a more natural approach in order to present a more “authentic” version, and in a way that’s much more difficult (see “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote”). Samantha Morton as Deborah and Toby Kebbell as Gretton nearly steal the show at every turn, but the film devotes itself entirely to live gigs and Ian’s life, so there are countless unexplored avenues (Hannett and the recording of the music in particular get short shrift) as we trundle towards “The Idiot” and “Stroszek”. By the end we’re a bit exhausted at the implacability of everything, which is likely as it should be.

Grant Gee’s doc ropes in just about everyone involved with the story and not only gives newcomers an excellent primer on the what, when and why, but uncovers a plethora of new info for obsessives like myself. Saville hadn’t heard “Unknown Pleasures” when he did the design for it. Morris used to huff solvents. There’s a complete botching of Derrida, even, crediting him with coining the term “ontology”. Brief snippets of Hannett are a treat. The Annik footage is quiet, respectful, and not nearly as relevatory as some ambulance chasers might hope. Audio footage of Barney hypnotizing Ian after his unsuccessful OD foots that bill, but ends up aimlessly eerie rather than informative. Gretton appears via shots of his manic scribble in recording and gigging-related notebooks. We get what’s likely the last footage of Wilson speaking on the subject. Hooky is Hooky and Morley is Morley. The bits that hit the gut the hardest surprisingly come from laddish pre-Gretton manager and roadie Terry Mason, who still gets tripped up by questions and guilt. Men don’t talk he says, but could I have done something?

Both films stress two points in Curtis’ life that have been underplayed in every other account of his life and band that I’ve read: the role that his epilepsy medication (the side effects of which were amplified by alcohol and relentless gigging) played in exacerbating his depression, and the role that his work finding job placements for the disabled played in his lyrics. We’ve all heard about the girl who inspired “She’s Lost Control”, but both Deborah and Barney argue that Ian’s work was marked by a broader compassion for the marginalized. This, as they say, is something to ponder.

There we are: two Joy Division films, one a keen paring down, the other an encyclopaedic explosion. You likely already know if these are for you, and hopefully you’ll know when to watch them.

F Kinetik - Day 1.

2008-05-26T15:19:00.000-07:00

While Alex and Bruce were off in Montreal drinking boxed wine in open parking lots and stuffing themselves with real poutine, I held down the fort here in Vancouver. Keeping it real.

There was recently a bloggy rant posted about how people need to stop complaining about how modern industrial sucks. And then a bunch of other people were like "Yeah! You're all haters!"

In the interest of journalistic integrity, I say that you're all hypocrites! And not in the awesome Peter Tagtgren way.

First of all, before we call the kettle neon black, let me first say that the entire IEI enjoys talking trash. Even Bruce. That's right. The guy that pretends to walk some kind of path of righteousness, yet if you mention Unter Null he kicks his mother in the face. Then spills beer on her. Again. Alex and I are no better. There's no shortage of bands we've spoken poorly of.

The crux of the matter is that it's not because we think it's the elite thing to do. Afterall, at the last get together we had we started singing "Careless Whisper" and R Kelly's modern masterpiece "Real Talk." That's right. We weren't singing Front 242, we were talk-singing an argument with Kells' lady friend.

That said, we would never say that the entire genre sucks. Even if we don't have many industrial records primed for our top 10 this year.

I think most people are in the same boat. No matter how supportive they want to say they are, I've heard pretty much all of them talk trash about a plethora of bands. So hopefully being the biggest battery cage supporter doesn't become the new "thing" because that's just as fake as saying the only CDs you own are Whitehouse albums.

Can anyone honestly tell me that the entire Alfa Matrix roster is awesome?

And at the same time, can you honestly say that Interlace, Run Level Zero, Celldweller, Keef Baker, Combichrist, Snog and Spectra Paris ALL SUCK?

In a perfect world, people would go up to a DJ request sheet and write down what they ACTUALLY want to hear. Not what will feed their facade. Not something as awesome and helpful as "Play something good."

A Perfect world where if you do play some old goth music, someone would actually dance to it.

Or where Alex is eating a Whopper in the back of a limo while R Kelly sings his order into a Burger King drive-thru box with his shirt off.

A Perfect World. And That's Real Talk.

Kinetik: Day Two

2008-05-25T08:03:00.000-07:00

Headscan
Catching only the last two tracks of their set, we don’t necessarily feel qualified to pass judgment on the Canadian duo. We will however note that what we did hear was more or less what we expected, if maybe a touch less techno oriented. Perfectly serviceable atmospherics and beat oriented with hissed vocals.

Memmaker
Thus far, the unquestioned show stealers. An enthused hometown crowd were validated by a performance that would’ve quickly won over even the most staid and unfamiliar audience. The high-tempo, breakneck tracks guaranteed instant dancefloor mayhem, but also delivered plenty of rhythmic complexity for those with a yen for chin-stroking restraint. Much of their material uses classic techno song structures, but with a punishing, all-enveloping wash of noise indicative of Yann Faussurier and Guillaume Nadon’s pedigree. Copies of their debut LP “How To Enlist In A Robot Uprising” (Replete with BPM listings on the back cover! Old school!) were flying off merch tables afterwards, and hearing multiple cuts from this beast at the club this year is an absolute certainty. Get your ass to Mars.

Rabia Sorda
Balancing electro and acoustic elements is always difficult in a live context, and in Rabia Sorda’s case the keyboards were unfortunately buried in the mix, making it difficult to follow each song’s progression. In spite of that, the band delivered an energetic set, largely fuelled by live drums which lent the proceedings a more traditionally “rock” sound.

Funker Vogt
A metric fuckton of Funker shirts could be spotted over the course of Kinetik, and the reception the long-standing German band received spoke to their evident popularity. We’ll assume from the cheers that those stoked on seeing Funker got exactly what they were hoping for, but in our humble estimation that’s little more than the uninspired rehash of a single, relatively vapid and fluffy formula over, over, and over again. “This is German electronic body music!” declared lead singer Jens Kästel as the band started in on their set. If that’s the case, we can lay EBM to rest alongside the Weimar Republic and other long since deceased teutonic cultural movements. An improvised game of being able to sing the lyrics to “Tragic Hero” overtop of each song that was tossed out soon ceased to be a joke. We’d conservatively guess that two-thirds of their set follows roughly same chord progressions and general song structure, not to mention never straying from a range of four or five BPM.

Outside of the overarching modern military conflict theme, Funker’s ethos is a slightly muddled one. On one hand there’s the traditionally distorted vocals, on the other there’s the cheesiness of the horn voices that carry their song’s melodies. This schizophrenia carried over to their stage show and costuming. One dude thinks he’s in Covenant, another thinks he’s the DJ for Scooter, and another’s under the delusion that he’s playing paintball. We just don't get what's hip with the kids these days.

Kiew
Oh Jesus. Following a band as popular as Funker and going onstage at 1 am’s an unenviable task (we’d guess that a full half of the crowd left as soon as the final beat of “Tragic Hero” was played), and Kiew were also the first band who had to deal with substantive technical problems. Neither of these factors provide enough cover to excuse what was not only hands down the worst set of Kinetik, but the worst set by an electronic band of any repute either of us had seen in years.

Acceptable glitchy shit out of frontman Thedi's rig, but his repeated yelling of inane slogans drowned out anything interesting that might've been going on. Factor in a guitarist and bassist apparently jamming out in an entirely random fashion and you've four elements heading out in entirely different directions and getting absolutely nowhere. We've no idea if Kiew takes an improv approach to live performance, but we've seen enough excellent improvised electronic sets and more than enough mediocre ones to know the difference. Any audience member could've been on stage wanging on a theremin for the duration of the set and it would neither have added nor subtracted a thing from this shoddy and embarrassing wankfest. Kiew have a sizeable following (having been active since 1990), but given that this was our first exposure to them, we certainly can't count ourselves amongst it (sorry, Richard).

Noisuf-X
Acceptable noise-EBM hybrid that got feet moving (no small feat this late in the evening) but didn't leave much of an impression. Good workrate. In all honesty, we were too tired by this point (not to mention zombified by Kiew) to really digest anything remotely complex or challenging, so this was a bit of a relief.

"Oh, it was gorgeosity and yummy yum yum."

2008-05-22T20:11:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to loads of Rome over the past few days (which is fantastic and will likely be getting some coverage here soon), and I've been driven nearly bonkers trying to figure out whose voice Rome main man Jerome Reuter reminds me of. While making some late night tea, it finally struck me: Gavin Friday. The same earthen, leathery tone that some might mistake for world-weariness, but more likely simply comes from a lifetime of fine scotch appreciation. Fossil-goth Virgin Prunes fans should definitely seek out any of his three solo records if they haven't already done so.

Speaking of Gavin, I could've sworn I posted his recent oddball cover of "Singin' In The Rain" on IEI, but some quick scanning suggests otherwise. So: Gavin was contracted by Lemon, a fancy-pants design and culture mag, to record a cover of the standard in conjunction with a special issue dedicated to the work of Stanley Kubrick (on the million to one chance that there's anyone reading an industrial blog who hasn't seen "A Clockwork Orange", the song's used in a particularly harrowing scene in that film). Lemon released the song on, of all things, a flexidisc in the Kubrick issue. If I wasn't already plunking down $9 for the cover with Leelee Sobieski holding an axe, the sheer weirdness of a Gavin Friday flexi sold me on the mag. A copy once hosted on Lemon's site has since disappeared, but Your Humble Narrator retained and offers it now.

Gavin turns in a quirky version that places his voice front and center amidst softly cooed oohs and aahs, which somehow manages to quell menacing images of Alex DeLarge amidst the cooling spring drizzle. Pop a couple vellocets and enjoy.

Gavin Friday, "Singin' In The Rain"

Kinetik: Day One

2008-05-22T07:48:00.000-07:00

Kinetik has come and gone. We've left Montreal with beer in our guts, CDs in our bags, and plenty of noise buzzing in our ears. We'll be offering a general write-up of the organization, mood and presentation of the festival as a whole, but first let's get run down the bands, day by day. First up, Phase One: Electro.

The Horrorist
Suprisingly more stark EBM than we would have expected. Aside from well worn hardcore classics like "One Night in NYC", most of the tracks featured a traditional, Belgian EBM sound, exemplified by his straight-forward cover of "Body to Body". Aside from adding occasional Atari Teenage Riot style vocals, The Horrorist’s assistant manned the backing tracks on an iBook (the official computer of, well, everyone at Kinetik), leaving Chessler free to roam the stage and crowd with a handheld halogen lamp and distract from the limitations of what was essentially a laptop set. Bonus points for playing "I Am A Sex Machine", as seen being demo'd by Chessler in the "where are they now" portion of Depeche Mode’s classic concert film "101". Even more bonus points for rocking a hairstyle so memorable, iconic and ridiculous in that film that someone in the crowd felt moved to sport it in tribute twenty years later.

Ascii.Disko
Not a disappointment, but certainly not a pleasant surprise either. One man behind a laptop, one track flowing into the next with no change in BPM doesn’t make for as much of a live experience as it does a DJ set. Fine, workmanlike electro that lacked the synthpop flourishes of his recorded output. The crowd seemed to enjoy it, but we could’ve used more vocals to break up the repetition.

Nitzer Ebb
Kicking off with "Getting Closer", Nitzer Ebb justified their status not only as the biggest name at Kinetik by far, but also one of the two quintessential EBM bands of all time. McCarthy was in fine form (and remarkably well-preserved to boot), bouncing back forth for the duration of the set, barking, goose-stepping and tanzing der Mussolini. No effort was made to retrofit their songs as some of their late 80s/early 90s contemporaries have done in recent years. The vitality of the material transcended its age and still sounded as brash, bombastic and relentless as the day it was released. Were an uninitiated party to take in their set, there’d be no indication that the bulk of these tracks dated back to the Thatcher administration. And yes, we joined in the chant and shouted golden shouts.

Ek = A Buttload Of Angry Germans With Laptops

2008-05-12T17:12:00.001-07:00

Two thirds of the IEI team will be forming like Voltron (albeit a heavily amputated Voltron) this week in Montreal for the much touted three night Kinetik festival. The line-up's been the talk of "this thing of ours" for months: Fiendflug, This Morn Omina, Displacer, Kiew, Xotox, Mono No Aware, Headscan, Terrorfakt... But let's face it: like the majority of the folks there, despite whichever obscure Finnish powernoise act we make like we're really excited to see, for us it's all about Nitzer Ebb. And, by Fulber's beard, the merch tables! Between Ant Zen, Industrial Shirts and Storming the Base all bringing swag to the shows, I fully expect to be reduced to a Wonderbread n' Kool-Aid diet for the subsequent couple of months.

This trip's been in the works for months, and we're both crazy stoked to be checking out what's sure to be a landmark event for live dark electronic shows in North America. Montreal's a city that promotes revelry, and by the end of the second night Alex and I plan to be three sheets to the wind and heckling Funker Vogt (who are, let's face it, Very Silly) and demanding that they play "Shaven" (to the unfamiliar: Google the lyrics at yr own risk).

Watch this space for our personal Kinetik highlights, lowlights and preferred fashion "don'ts" from the Unix Sysadmin Rivet Runway, featuring the gorgeous (and pasty) models of the Side-Line forums.

"A Painful Beauty"

2008-05-11T13:23:00.000-07:00

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, "Dazzle Ships"
When Alex told me that the reissue of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's fourth LP, "Dazzle Ships", was earning rave reviews from the likes of Popmatters and Pitchfork, I felt that odd mix of vindication and being usurped that comes when a cherished and coveted favourite record gets a public vetting. On one hand, the modern indie cognoscenti haven't had much time for OMD or much other classic synthpop, except to namecheck them while telling us why Ladytron are doing it so much better than any of the original innovators. On the other hand, "Dazzle Ships" was always OMD's forgotten masterpiece, derided mercilessly as indulgent experimentalism upon release, and it makes sense that it should be rediscovered by modern ears.

80s record authority Ned Ragget called "Dazzle Ships" "a 'Kid A' of it's time": a confounding and obtuse experiment released in the wake of a great band's defining album - the solemn and majestic "Architecture and Morality" in OMD's case. Listeners weren't sure what to do with a barrage of radio samples and discordant military sirens after the perkiness of "Enola Gay" or the lush, chart-friendly chiming of "Souvenir". While OMD had always been writing music about technology, "Dazzle Ships" pushed that agenda so far to the fore that it was impossible to listen to the record without dealing with that theme head-on. Furthermore, as the liner notes in this re-release argue, not dealing with political issues at the peak of the Cold War seemed impossible for a band obsessed with technology and culture. The end result? This is a record about globalization's affect on our psyches and technologies that came out a year before Fredric Jameson first published on "The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism", and a decade before Bill Clinton made globalization a household term on the campaign trail. Reaction to it was marked by same confusion and disorientation that its titular vessels sought to provoke.

"Dazzle Ships" remains as oblique, shimmering and inspired today as it did upon release. True, the bricolage of radio broadcasts and technoculture prophecy doesn't sound nearly as revolutionary as it did upon release - sampling and the acceptance of it by the general listening public have come a long way in twenty-five years. But what does still have an impact is the juxtaposition of the cacophony of the zeitgeist with the two modes of songwriting that OMD had perfected in their previous releases: chirpy, bubbling synthpop odes to technology, and epic, mournful ballads. By adding the Cold War/communications tech motif of "Dazzle Ships" to their palette, OMD managed to blend the personal and the political, the emotive and the austere until the subject of the song detaches from itself. Metaphor becomes a two-way street.

What's more, Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys brought some of their best compositions to the "Dazzle Ship" sessions, regardless of presentation or context. All of the three up-tempo synthpop numbers are crackers, but only "Radio Waves" ever gives itself over fully to the ecstasy of melody and the power of technology. The others, "Genetic Engineering" and "Telegraph" temper their joyous everything-and-the-kitchen-sink instrumentation with McClusky's wary lyrics. "Genetic Engineering" is particularly unsettling - a facile melody is accompanied by a Speak n' Spell voice intoning an eerie litany: "Babies, mother, hospital, scissors, creature, judgment, butcher, engineer". The instumental tracks, composed almost entirely of samples, help to frame the more developed tracks within "Dazzle Ships"' ethos - while you might not ever go out of your way to listen to "ABC Auto-Industry" or "Time Zones" on their own, they're essential to the album's overall effect. As for the ballads, they pack a punch. The processional, almost nautical heartache of "Joan Of Arc" is revisited in "The Romance of the Telescope" and "International", the former of which has been pointed to by McClusky and Humphreys as a band favourite. The record closes with "Of All The Things We've Made", a plaintive, mechanical farewell that sounds as though it's a hair's-width away from collapsing at any moment, while McClusky croons about the failure of our creations (Technology? Love? As always, there is no distinction.) - "Everything we've made/All the things we've said/They've always worked before today".

As for the merits of this particular re-release, this listener could detect little to no distinction between the sound of the record with this "new" digital remaster and the original CD release, but given how many classic electronic 80s records have become victims of the loudness war, mayhaps I should be thankful. So, lets turn to the bonus tracks to see what this reissue offers to longtime OMD fans. The melodic elements of the 1981 version of "Telegraph" are more or less the same as the original, but a slightly slower and heavier beat and a more unhinged vocal performance by Andy McClusky makes the desperate tone of the song sound positively menacing. The "312mm" version of "Genetic Engineering" is simply an extended mix which, along with the "Telegraph" extended mix, doesn't bring anything new to the table. "4-Neu" and "66 And Fading" already had a recent outing on the B-sides compilation "Navigation" (which, in my humble opinion, is the most crucial OMD release to obtain after the first four LPs), but they're both gorgeous, cinematic bits of melancholy (think Vangelis' "Blade Runner" work) that show just how adept McCluskey and Humphreys were at crafting ambient soundscapes as well as pure pop. That leaves intended album closer "Swiss Radio International", which was initially meant as a counterpart to the "opening radio call sign" function that "Radio Prague" serves. According to OMD's website, Swiss Radio felt that allowing their call sign to appear on an album which heavily sampled communist radio broadcast would violate Switzerland's policy of cultural neutrality! Anyhow, it's a nice little lullaby, and I'm seriously considering appending it to the end of the original LP for future listens. The long and the short: if you've already got "Dazzle Ships" and "Navigation", there isn't a lot of revelatory new material here. But, if you're halfway as obsessed with OMD's music or Peter Saville's design as most of their fans are, the "gotta have it" factor will likely win out (as it did with me).

Speaking of Peter Saville, he intriguingly created three different designs for each of the formats "Dazzle Ships" was initially released on: vinyl, cassette and CD. Each of these designs seemed focused on presenting Saville's take on the dazzle ship camouflage (and vorticist Edward Wadsworth's painting, "Dazzle-ships In Drydock at Liverpool", shown here) within the frame that each format provided. So, instead of having to live with a rich composition that was meant to be shown at LP-size shrunk down to tape or CD size, we got individual cover art tailor-made for those smaller canvases (and more pieces for us Saville fan-boys to collect). The original LP sleeve used punched-out hole in the front (like Saville's magnum opus, "Blue Monday") in concert with the art on the slipcase in order to create a representation of travel and movement through time zones, one of the record's key images. Unfortunately, the reissue does just what Saville sought to avoid: shrinking the LP art to CD size, with none of the cool pull-out design. That being said, the (uncredited) essay in the liner notes is well-written and nicely situates the record in both the context of OMD's career and the pop climate of the time.

In the liner notes, McClusky recalls "Dazzle Ships" as "the lowest selling album that we ever released and yet I am inordinately proud of it. Maybe we did something that was commercial suicide, but we did that album for the right reasons. It has a painful beauty." McClusky didn't need the critical vindication the album's received in recent years in order to produce, release and stand by such a bizarre and unprecedented album (although whether it prompted OMD to retreat back into safe and pleasant territory with next year's "Junk Culture" is another story), but if recent hosannas prompt contemporary listeners to explore the depth and breadth of OMD's work which lies beyond well-worn radio fare like "If You Leave" and "So In Love", then this re-release will have served admirably.

Dessau - "Isolation"

2008-05-02T16:25:00.000-07:00

Finding info on WaxTrax! affiliates Dessau proved difficult - maybe it's no coincidence that one of their few releases was titled "Details Sketchy". Their abandoned website's got a terminal case of webrot (Fortunecity's servers are still running?) and I can't find anything else resembling an official presence. In any event, the Nashville group intermittently released sludgy industrial rock between 1985 and 1995 that nicely anticipated coldwave. Throughout it all, their signature tune remained an inspired cover of Joy Division's "Isolation". Slowed down, the song's bassline remains as unnerving as ever, and Al Jourgensen's percussion and programming turns Ian Curtis' skittering panic attack into a pounding anthem of self-reckoning.

Dessau - "Isolation"

...And hey presto! There's a nicely dated late 80's video, replete with strobe light and VJ intro.

Another Exit

2008-04-27T14:42:00.000-07:00

Absolute Body Control, "Wind(Re)Wind", "Never Seen"
Claus Larsen's announcement that he was reissuing Leather Strip's back catalog with bonus discs of re-recordings of the original albums may have started something of a trend. EBM legend Dirk Ivens of Dive, Sonar, and, oh yeah, just a little band known as Klinik, is turning his attention to one of his first projects, Absolute Body Control. ABC released just a handful of cassettes and singles in the early 80s before the project morphed into the nascent stages of Klinik. Ivens and fellow controller Eric Van Wonterghem recently reunited and have just issued two releases detailing their past and future.

I'll confess my ignorance of the original Absolute Body Control recordings (having missed out on the hella limited "Lost/Found" retrospective a few years back), so I can't say how the "best of re-recorded" tracks that appear on "Wind(Re)Wind" measure up to their earlier forms. That being said, these are stellar cuts that walk a very fine line between the epochs and genres of electronic music and sound great in doing so. Some ("Figures") play at pure synthpop sparkle, others ("Love At First Sight") evoke the tension and awkward weirdness of Fad Gadget (a pretty accurate point of reference for much of this release, actually), while later tracks ("Touch Your Skin") anticipate the menace and commanding tone of Klinik. Ivens and Von Wonterghem have wisely avoided the impulse to wildly contemporize the material via overproduction or excessively "now" instrumentation, and instead have opted for a sleek and polished yet minimal sound that keeps "Wind(Re)Wind" from ever sounding like it's indebted to a particular era.

The EP of new Absolute Body Control material, "Never Seen", has a more uniformly dark mood, but never forsakes the clean and clear sound of their earlier work. The band's impact on pure, dark electro is readily apparent here - opting for a remix by The Horrorist was likely no accident. The two remixes included don't do too much of note with the originals, but the emusic release of "Never Seen" appends the brand new and impossibly limited live from WGT EP, which contains versions of classic material done in "Wind(Re)Wind" style.

There's lots to like in these two releases - here's hoping they portend an LP of all new material which continues to straddle the boundaries of dark electronic.

Absolute Body Control @ Myspace

The Remix: Cleaner - The Voice (And One Re-Interpretation)

2008-04-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

So, it looks like the logic board on my computer is blown, which means that it's generally about as reliable as the narrator in a Gene Wolf novel. I bring this up for two reasons, firstly to explain the lack of updates and second to bring up a semi-obscure science fiction reference as a segue into today's particular remix selection. Cleaner was originally called Cleen, and was comprised of two dudes, Thorsten Meier and Daniel Myer of haujobb fame. They produced a classic EP (Designed Memories) and a pretty good album (Second Path), both in a atmospheric EBM style. Around 2000 Meier left the group, leaving the other phonetically identical but differently spelled Myer as the sole concern in the group. It should probably be noted that Myer had about 50 projects on the go at the time, but rather than doing the sensible thing and just letting it go, Daniel changed the name of the project to Cleaner and recorded Solaris for Accession records, which was ostensibly a tribute to the classic EBM of the eighties and his favorite science fiction novels and films. It was, uh, largely not all that interesting. I daresay someone at Metropolis felt the same way, because when the album came out in North America it had two club remixes of The Voice (a song previously released as single) tagged on to the end. The first mix by Beborn Beton was alright, but it's the "Re-Interpretation" by And One that's most memorable. Much like they did with their classic take on Project Pitchfork's Timekiller, And One basically jettisoned most of the original track and re-recorded it, including having their vocalist sing the lyrics. It features a nice arpegiated bassline reminiscent of FLA's Caustic Grip era, appropriate considering Myer namedrops that album in particular in Solaris' liner notes. Oddly enough said bassline is the only moment when you listen to the CD that stands out as being particularly in the style of classic EBM/Electro-Industrial which as you'll recall was kind of supposed to be the musical theme of the record. At any rate, Myer would go on to rename the band yet again as Clear Vision, would release a pretty good album (Deception) and then quietly retire the project.

Cleaner - The Voice (And One Re-Interpretation)

ae-sthetics

2008-04-08T18:40:00.000-07:00

Goin' to check out IDM patron saints Autechre tonight, which is exciting. Last time I saw them (in 2005 I think) they put on a mammoth show, distinct from everything I've ever seen in their deliberate lack of any kind of stage presence. Seriously, they don't even have lights on, they walk out on stage and start fucking around with their gear bathed in the soft glow of lcd screens. It's a tacit admission that more often than not electronic music is not performed in the same fashion as other musics, and throws into sharp contrast the band's lack of concession to the traditional expectations for a concert. Whereas contemporaries like Aphex Twin and Squarepusher will make a point of slyly winking at and deconstructing those traditions, Autechre have always seemed more intent on ignoring them altogether. It's something you can see reflected in their obtuse song titles, their abstract visual aesthetics and best of all in their live sonic representation. The band doesn't perform tracks from their albums, moreso they build whole sets of live music using the same sorts of algorhythms and happy accidents that define their studio works. I don't expect to hear any of the "songs" from their recent (and very enjoyable) Quaristice, I expect to hear some variations and inversions of it's sonic motifs. And while it may not give me much to look at, it sure as hell promises to give me something to sink my teeth into and ultimately digest. And in a world of self-conscious rock antics and earnest but incredibly boring soul bearing, it'll be nice to hear something meant to be taken on a purely cerebral level. Intelligent Dance Music indeed.

Autechre - Inhake 2 (Peel Session '95)

Autechre - Second Bad Vibel

The Record Swap and the Things I Got There

2008-04-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

So, hungover and severely underslept I managed to drag my sorry carcass out of bed and down to Vancouver's Annual Record Swap. I think the term "swap" is largely traditional at this point, as in my experience the only thing being swapped for records is cash money. I'm normally not to good at these things, mostly because I'm not a collector. The moment a dude starts talking about japanese reissues and rare pressings my eyes glaze over and I start mentally recounting the plots of old Doom Patrol comics. That, and the fact that despite having a voracious appetite for music I don't really buy a lot of vinyl, and these sorts of things are geared towards people who fetishize the stuff. I mean to say, I was born in the seventies, I grew up with LPs but shit dude, if it comes down to it I don't really care about format all that much. I like to have a physical object rather than just a file (if only so I have a backup in case of hard drive failure) and CDs are more convenient for me in that regard. In any case, I halfheartedly leafed through a few crates of stuff labeled "eighties and nineties", was tempted to purchase a nice copy of Momus' Tender Pervert (which I really should write about at some point) but generally came up empty. Eventually whilst clawing through a crate marked "80s Indie" I found a copy of Coil's Anal Staircase 12" which has a version of the track on it I'm not sure has appeared on CD ever. It was a decent price so I went for it. Plus, the cover art (pictured above) was kind of cool. Much less cool was another seller who was trying to hawk a copy of the bands debut album Scatology for $80, which is overpriced even if it were in good shape, which it wasn't.

I eventually found my way over to a table where a dude was selling mass quantities of CDs for $5 a pop. A lot of garbage, but a few treasures. Firstly a copy of Celebration's debut LP which Bruce has always had nice things to say about. Secondly, one of Off Beat's ol' Tyranny Off the Beat comps, which are great fun if you're a fan of forgotten mid-nineties EBM and Electro. This particular volume has a neat version of Velvet Acid Christ's Star Trek sampling Futile, a track which he would later update for his Fun With Knives album. But the real find was an original Wax Trax pressing of KMFDM's Naïve. For those that don't know, the album was deleted in the early nineties due to an uncleared sample of Orf's Carmina Burana (you know, that one bit that is the basis for Apotheosis' O Fortuna, a song I could happily never hear again) on the track Liebeslied. The album was reissued eventually with the offending samples removed, but the original pressing has gone on to become something of a collector's item, fetching high prices on ebay. So yeah, a productive and worthwhile trip to the record swap, although I didn't get to have my picture taken with Chad Allan of the Guess Who. More's the pity.

KMFDM - Liebesleid

Velvet Acid Christ - Futile (LSD mix)

And The Radio Is In The Hands Of Such A Lot Of Fools Tryin' To Anesthetize The Way That You Feel

2008-04-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

My brother works and writes for Canada's leading classical music publication, La Scena Musicale. A recent editorial of his (found on page 11 of this pdf) brought to my attention a proposed set of changes currently being enacted on the programming of CBC Radio Two, which would effectively strip the station of its longstanding classical music mandate and replace it with "more light contemporary like Diana Krall and Joni Mitchell" in the words of the CBC's blog. Also shuffled away from daytime programming is DJ and bon vivant Jurgen Gothe, whose pithy banter has delighted audiences for decades. Globe & Mail columnist Russell Smith (hands-down the best writer at the Globe, just barely eking out Carl Wilson, their savvy pop writer) has been covering this story well and his latest editorial includes lots of contact and petition info for those upset by the changes.

Why am I writing about classical music on IEI? Well, let's ignore the well-documented links between contemporary classical music (or "art music" as its often called nowadays) and our end of the pool for the moment and look at this more structurally. Unfortunately, fans of industrial and experimental music have just been down this road with the CBC. When Brave New Waves was cancelled just over a year ago, the main impetus for myself and many other listeners to tune in to the CBC was lost. Brave New Waves helped to introduce thousands of listeners to a dizzying array of artists and genres that we'd have otherwise never encountered. DJ Patti Schmidt featured and interviewed countless groundbreaking acts past and present: Coil, Michael Gira, Diamanda Galas, Wolf Eyes, El-P. CanCon wasn't just a formality on Brave New Waves, and the show raised the profile of Canadian acts from Skinny Puppy to Venetian Snares. When Brave New Waves was axed, CBC forsook a devoted, built-in listenership to compete for commercial radio's listeners. By stripping Radio Two of its classical music identity, they're doing the same thing.

I tend to loathe nationalism in all of its forms, but the two major institutions that make me proud to be Canadian, the CBC and Medicare, are contingent upon their being held to a higher standard than privatized industries, and the notion that they are able to provide services that their private counterparts simply do not deem profitable (non-mainstream programming and health care for those unable to afford it). Their power and effectiveness, therefore, lies in their unique nature. Once a public institution begins to measure itself by and adopt the policies of their private counterpart, its raison d'etre ceases to exist.

"Forget Me Not, Or I'll Forget Myself"

2008-04-01T21:54:00.000-07:00

April Fool's joking aside, it's ten years to the day that Rozz Williams checked out.

I interviewed Faith And The Muse a few years back and asked them if they felt that the romantic image of Rozz was in danger of eclipsing the man and the work lying beneath it. William was confident that the body of work Rozz left behind would continue to match up to whatever myths evolved over time. I think he's right. Here's a fragment of that corpus.

MP3s
-Christian Death, "Down In The Park" live, from "The Iron Mask"
-Christian Death, "When I Was Bed" from "Ashes"
-Faith & The Muse, "Romeo's Distress" live, from "Vera Causa"

Videos
-Christian Death interview circa "Catastrophe Ballet"
-Christian Death, "Romeo's Distress" live (1990?)
-Rozz Williams & Gitane Demone, "Flowers"

Rozz Williams: 1963-1998

Joy Division - From The Vaults

2008-04-01T11:50:00.000-07:00

While hunting around in his personal archives for material for the recent Joy Division reissues, Bernard Sumner came across something rather astonishing: a Super-8 reel of the lads, three sheets to the wind, running through a very sloppy version of ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down" during the recording sessions for "Closer" at Brittania Row studio in March of 1980. Even more astonishing? Handling vocals on this boozy cover version is none other than visionary producer (and notorious cough syrup abuser) Martin Hannett.

On the video's Youtube description, Barney had this to say: "Marty had us running through 'Atrocity Exhibition' for eight hours straight. The whole time he kept humming that stupid song, and by 3 am taking a stab at it made sense. It worked out well for Ian, Marty wasn't able to give him shit about his vocals for the rest of the recording."

It's easy to get wrapped up in the gloomy, romantic myth of Joy Division, but any serious fan knows that the band had their laddish, goofy side. Here's more proof that, even while recording one of the darkest albums ever put to tape, these Manc boys maintained a sense of humour.

Joy Division, "Don't Bring Me Down"

Another Shiver Down My Spine

2008-03-31T18:40:00.000-07:00

I figured what with a new Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds record on the horizon, It'd be appropriate to break out a classic by an early incarnation of Cave's pre-Bad Seeds group The Birthday Party. Before moving to London in the early eighties, the group played and recorded in their native Australia as The Boys Next Door in fact many of the early Birthday Party records like Hee Haw were originally released under the name. Oddly enough Shivers is much more in line with the Bad Seeds's late eighties dirges than anything the Birthday Party would ever record. Great track, the first time I heard it was as a recurring motif in Aussie flick Dogs in Space, a great movie mostly known for starring Michael Hutchence.

And hey, a cursory search of youtube yields a video even!

How To Weep The Weepy-Weep Way

2008-03-31T11:55:00.000-07:00

Like all well-cultured folk, I'm eagerly anticipating the imminent third season of The Venture Bros. So, learning about a new musical project by Veebs co-creator (and owner of the sultry voice of Dr. Girlfriend) Doc Hammer isn't just topical, it's an impressive testament to the man's ability to simultaneously keep his fingers in multiple pies.

Via the recommended post-punk blog Systems of Romance (and by way of the always informative gothmusicshare LJ community) I obtained an EP of demo material from Doc's in-the-works outfit, Weep. Weep retains all of the melodic lushness of his most recognized band, Mors Syphilitica, but bootstraps it with tightly wound, instantly memorable post-punk hooks. Doc also opts to handle the vocals himself this time around, and his trademark rasp gives a nice, earthy counterpoint to the sheer reaching gorgeousness of some songs ("The Weep" and "The Hole", in particular). If these are demos, I can't wait to hear an album proper.

Doc's given permission for the Weep demo to be passed about, so have at it!

-Weep - "Never Ever" demo

Edit: Doc's given this crop of tunes, along with a couple of others, an official release. It's a great disc, and crazy cheap. Go buy it!

The Remix: The Presets - This Boy's In Love (Lifelike Remix)

2008-03-28T18:23:00.000-07:00

Y'know, normally I wouldn't bother posting a track that is burning up the Hype Machine (which you all check for music daily, don't deny it), but fuck it. The death rattle of my credibility as a music blogger will be drowned out by this amazing Presets remix by Lifelike. A track from the band's eagerly anticipated sophmore album Apocalypso, This Boy's in Love is a sweet track in a kinda synthpop electro style. But something about the way Lifelike leaves the vocals kind of naked and at the forefront on this version just gets me, the track ends up sounding like the lovechild of DMX Krew's 17 Ways to Break my Heart and Camouflage's The Great Commandment, which is to say fucking great. Enjoy. Apocalypso is out April12 in their native Australia, May 13th in North America, I am anticipating it gleefully.

"Damn it, it wasn’t quite fresh enough!"

2008-03-28T14:22:00.000-07:00

What's that, you say? You loved the Eurovision-nominated cheese masterpiece that was DJ Bobo's "Vampires Are Alive", but you're much more into HP Lovecraft than Anne Rice? Dr. Re-Animator has the prescription for your eldritch blues: neon green re-agent.

Apparently this was a promotional bit for the third Re-Animator flick from 2003 and is on the "Beyond Re-Animator" DVD. As a nerd for any and all Lovecraft kitsch, I'm disappointed that I didn't come across this sooner. On a related note, I highly recommend checking out the recently extended, restored and re-released version of Stuart Gordon's "From Beyond", also very loosely based on a Lovecraft story. The body horror element of the film is finally brought to the fore with Gordon's trademark humour and sense for gore. While HPL certainly wouldn't approve of the S&M theme (and I shudder to think of how he'd react to that one scene in the first "Re-Animator" - you know the one), the fact his work still inspires explorations into the corruptible and abject aspects of the human body shows how adept he was at locating the source of so much deep-seated fear and anxiety.

V for Victory not Vendetta

2008-03-27T18:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the efforts of the good folks at my preferred online music retailer, I've now got the EP of music recorded by David J of Bauhaus and Love & Rockets fame for Alan Moore and David Lloyd's V for Vendetta. Those of you who have read the comic may remember the chapter told in song (with musical notation) This Vicious Cabaret, provided for your listening pleasure below. It's funny, when I saw the V movie a few years back I remember thinking it was mediocre but not awful. I think in the time since I've kind of grown to hate it. For one thing it strips away any of the real questions and complexities of the story and leaves you the kind of message that only Hollywood could consider political, essentially that "Fascism is bad". Yeah, way to take a stand there guys. At any rate, Alan Moore said it best : "[The movie] has been "turned into a Bush-era parable by people too timid to set a political satire in their own country… It's a thwarted and frustrated and largely impotent American liberal fantasy of someone with American liberal values standing up against a state run by neoconservatives—which is not what the comic V for Vendetta was about. It was about fascism, it was about anarchy, it was about England."

All that aside, this is a really cool little track. I always forget that David had some neat solo material, maybe sometime I'll post one of his oddball spoken word/ambient pieces, if and when I find the cd in my damn collection.

David J - This Vicious Cabaret

Dr. Pepper Democracy

2008-03-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

Well, this is interesting. Dr. Pepper (yes, the soda) is calling out Axl Rose.

Tired of a world in which Americans idolize wannabe singers and musicals about high schoolers pass as rock 'n roll music, Dr Pepper is encouraging (OK, begging) Axl Rose to finally release his 17-year-in-the-making belabored masterpiece, "Chinese Democracy", in 2008.

In an unprecedented show of solidarity with Axl, everyone in America, except former GN'R guitarists Slash and Buckethead, will receive a free can of Dr Pepper if the album ships some time — anytime! — in 2008. Dr Pepper supports Axl, and fully understands that sometimes you have to make it through the jungle before you get it right.

"It took a little patience to perfect Dr Pepper's special mix of 23 ingredients, which our fans have come to know and love," said Jaxie Alt, director of marketing for Dr Pepper. "So we completely understand and empathize with Axl's quest for perfection — for something more than the average album. We know once it's released, people will refer to it as "Dr Pepper for the ears" because it will be such a refreshing blend of rich, bold sounds — an instant classic."

Commented Axl Rose in a statement: "We are surprised and very happy to have the support of Dr. Pepper with our album, 'Chinese Democracy', as for us this came totally out of the blue. If there is any involvement with this promotion by our record company or others, we are unaware of such at this time. And as some of Buckethead's performances are on our album, I'll share my Dr Pepper with him."

So they plan to give away 300 Million Cans of Dr. Pepper? Wow.
At least Axl is nice enough to share his with Buckethead. Slash, however, is left out in the cold.

Taking the wind out of your piss soaked sails

2008-03-27T07:57:00.000-07:00

So today is the day Crystal Castles drops their new CD.
For those who don't know, Crystal Castles are the "newest thing" and well on their way to being the most overhyped band since THE KNIFE. Rest assured, there will be a steel cage handicap match featuring myself against Alex and Bruce over that comment.
Seriously though, do people even listen to music anymore, or just add "Favourite Bands" to their facebook profile based on what's hip with the hipsters?
Watch, right now, as I unveil the secret to composing "Untrust Us"
1.) Download ringtone of a New Order Song. The crappy old ringtones that sound like the tinny ass Midi files people used to put on their Geocities pages.
2.) Turn it into a high bitrate Mp3
3.) Play said MP3 on an old 386 computer that doesn't have the processing power to play an mp3, so it skips and irritates you.

There you have it. The colonel's 13 herbs and spices have been exposed.
Perhaps you expected more from Bif Naked's little sister, and the guy who pumped my gas last week?
I didn't write this post with the specific intent of calling the band's music credentials into question, but more to use it as a red carpet for the bigger point:
Crystal Castles are thieves.
That image of Madonna looking like she just called Chuck Liddell a fag that's on their T-shirts and was going to be on their album cover is by an artist named Trevor Brown. Like any band with integrity, they took the image, made thousands of shirts, and gave no cash or credit to the artist. Not only do the two C's in CC stand for Crystal Castles, but they also both stand for Class. Pure Class.
Not only that, but they straight up jacked Chanel's logo too.
Stealing some artist's art for your shirts is one thing, but trying to steal the logo of one of the world's largest fashion labels? Don't be surprised if their next single is called "Forced Anal"

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

2008-03-25T13:22:00.000-07:00

Building on Cyril's bitch-slap on Crystal Castles and their tacky art theft...

To be honest, I'd managed to avoid hearing anything by Crystal Castles (I've somehow worked myself into a strict diet of Jesu, Current 93 and Dr. Octagon) until now. I'll give it a "meh". Would definitely work in a club full of girls with brown bobs, knee-length olive dresses and those unfortunate wide belts. Not offensive, but certainly not deserving of any serious comparisons to The Knife, as will be proven in the aforementioned cage match. Yeah, you heard me right Cyril - this Sunday the Unnatural Boy Alex Kennedy and The Devastatin' Deconstructionist are comin' for you!

...Anyway, Cyril's more than bang-on about the cheesy art theft - read all the recent bloody details here. A clusterfuck all 'round to be sure, but the apparent lack of common courtesy is depressing. As Alex said, "Way to go indie scene, way to act worse than the fucking majors". The whole snafu calls to mind the infamous "This Is Not A Fugazi Shirt" shirt that was ubiquitous in the 90s. The legend goes that since the band had (and still has) a strict no-merch policy, Ian MacKaye regularly contacted those making bootleg Fugazi shirts, asking them to cease and desist. After receiving such a call, one particularly enterprising fellow came up with the "This Is Not" design. Impressed by the sheer cheek of the act, MacKaye came to an agreement with the printer wherein the portion of proceeds from the shirts that would normally go to the band were instead diverted to a women's shelter. See? Channels of communication are opened in good faith, and DIY ethic and entrepreneurial wiseacre coexist peacefully. Had common courtesy prevailed, maybe the Crystal Castles debacle could've ended similarly. This, of course, wasn't the last time that Ian MacKaye would garner ink fighting to keep his legacy free of crass commercialization - this bloke has a nice run-down on the great Minor Threat/Nike dust-up of ought five. Let's not even get into Converse's tasteless hijacking of dead rockers who never even wore Chucks in the first place.

Seeing the Fugazi shirt without knowing the back story confounded me. As an aspiring devotee of the band shirt (I'm now hard-pressed to think of five preferred tops that aren't band shirts, much to my mother's chagrin), I needed to know - was it a Fugazi shirt or not? Some have cannily noted that this recalls Magritte's "this is not a pipe" dilemma. The response made by Nirvana (or at least whoever was designing their merch around the "In Utero" period) seemed to argue that it wasn't. A shirt was produced which was covered with seahorses, with no indication that the shirt was "about" anything other than seahorses. On the back was a lengthy essay about the behavior and life cycle of the seahorse, which ended with the words "by the way, this is a Nirvana shirt". Those with a linguistic or philosophical bent might want to gloss JL Austin's "How To Do Things With Words" and his notion of performative utterances.

I'm not aware of any similar merch hubbubs ever erupting around any goth/industrial or related bands, be they license-based (Crystal Castles) or ontological (Fugazi), although I'd love to hear of any people might be aware of. This might have something to do with the oft-cited criticism that there's a profoundly consumption-oriented ethic at work in the bedrock of goth. I finally picked up that recent collection of academic essays on goth, which seems to set itself up as a reaction to Hebdige's book on punk in much the same way that goth was a reaction to punk, so watch this space for more on the commercialization of subculture. All that being said, I still want a pair of those fresh Joy Division kicks.

The endtimes aren't what they used to be

2008-03-23T16:25:00.000-07:00

:wumpscut:, Schädling
Crikey, this one's a stinker. "Schädling" sits on the mellow end of the :w: spectrum, with none of the classic club-oriented endzeit crunch, but the latest from the non-papal Ratzinger also utterly lacks the evocative ambience of "Cannibal Anthem". After that record and the equally respectable "Body Census", we're squarely back to a "Bone Peeler" level of craptitude. Embarrassing vocals drown out any subtle flourishes that Rudy might have crafted into the tracks, but nothing here could go half a round with any halfway memorable :w: cut you'd care to mention. The only bright spot is the instrumental "Hard To Bear", which deftly constructs a traditional, non-EBM electro groove with surprising flair and panache. That there isn't any other real experimentation on this album is another mark against it - had Rudy tried to broaden his horizons and fallen flat on his face (*coughskyshaper*), it'd be slightly more forgivable than releasing what sounds like a hastily assembled collection of sub-standard leftovers from the previous two albums. By the time album-closer "Nest" ends with what (I presume) is meant to sound like the buzz of a swarm of insects ("schädling" appropriately translates to "pest", according to Google), you'd be forgiven for mistaking it for the final flatulence of a slowly dying, decrepit old horse, and being thankful that the sad thing's finally given up the ghost.

Rudy claimed a while back that "Schädling" would be more uptempo than recent releases, and that he was returning to "Music For A Slaughtering Tribe"-style aggression with all tracks weighing in at 135 BPM or more. He might be technically right about the latter claim (this couldn't be "MFAST" part II even in bizarro world), but when the beats can't even evoke a single foot tap or head nod out of yr highly over-caffeinated writer (again, with the exception of "Hard To Bear"), hawking a record on the specs of its BPM isn't just moot, it's comically pathetic. Rudy recently flooded the market with a glut of reissues and remasterings of far stronger classic material, so if you've got a hankering to drop some cash on :w: produkt in '08, you've got loads of options beyond the limp and uninspired "Schädling". Strong recommendation to avoid.

It's the economy, stupid.

2008-03-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

Long-running UK Industrial/Electro retailer Music Non Stop just closed its doors (no puns about the name, please). Interestingly, the statement on their site cites "current exchange rates of the Euro and the dollar against the pound", "the lack of consistent ‘big name’ releases in this scene" as well as the "increase in distributor and day to day running costs" before pulling out the ubiquitous spectre of file sharing, which they couch within the broader descriptor of "other methods now available of obtaining new music" (ie, all manner of paid, legal models of mp3 distribution are taking a bite out as well). At a personal level, while I was always staggered by MNS' catalog (I have fond memories of grabbing a particularly limited Welle: Erdball vinyl box set from them), their shipping prices, not to mention the aforementioned exchange rate always made buying from them a special case, rather than the rule.

It's interesting (as well as depressing) when basic global economics takes down a scene staple, rather than "personal issues" or piracy. This hasn't stopped the Side-Line thread on the subject from devolving into the usual poo-flinging about who is and isn't "supporting the scene", of course. Whether the recession (dammit, US media, you've been asking if yr in one for over a year now - just admit it) will put the squeeze on retailers/distributors who rely on domestic sales remains to be seen, but in the meantime the prices that COP/DDT are posting right now look rather tasty to this Canadian vulture.

...but what is this world about, anyway?

2008-03-12T09:12:00.000-07:00

Here's a bit of an oddity. Those weirdos in Xiu Xiu opted to do a cover of the ubiquitous Queen/Bowie collab "Under Pressure" on their new album...and brought Michael Gira along for the ride, who takes Bowie's vocal parts while free-jazz cacophony nicely accompanies Jamie Stewart's caterwauling Freddie Mercury impersonation. As a long-time devotee of just about all of Gira's output, there's something profoundly odd about hearing one of the granddaddies of noise and misanthropy gamely croon his way though karaoke-worn lines like "Love's such an old-fashioned word and love dares you..." Check it out:

Xiu Xiu - Under Pressure (feat. Michael Gira)

Wipeouts at the End of Scenesterism

2008-03-11T00:12:00.000-07:00

Between the recent glut of abominable beardo folk and the triumph of by-the-numbers hipster disco, it's easy to forget that there was a time when the indie rock establishment actively championed bands that weren't only aggressive, but passionately and evocatively dark.

I'm certainly not the first to cite the following bands as fascinating and rewarding mid-points between the lumbering, schizophrenically-scarfed monster that is indie rock and darker genres like noise and goth, but given that all three have atomized and reformed in various guises countless times, giving their family trees confoundedly fractal structures, I felt it was worth pointing to three touchstones from the past.

The VSS
Hailing from Colorado, these guys would record one LP and a smattering of singles before spinning off into Slaves, the thoroughly excellent Pleasure Forever, and even the now sadly defunct Gold Standard Labs label, amongst other projects. That one LP, "Nervous Circuits", would prove to be a landmark of post-hardcore wipeouts thundering through a death-pocked synthesizer vacuum. The riffs snap bones, the synths make your teeth hum in their sockets.

Out of print for most of the ten years since its release, "Nervous Circuits" is finally getting the deluxe reissue treatment it so rightly deserves this May.

The VSS - "Death Scene"
The VSS - "Lunar Weight"

Camera Obscura
No, not those fey Scottish pea-coat wearers. A San Diego-based quartet that fused a hardcore template with the dirges and plateaus of shoegaze. One LP ("To Change The Shape Of An Envelope") and one single's all we got. Last I heard, various members are now performing as Champagne Kiss, about whom I know absolutely bupkis.

Camera Obscura - "Cinematheque"
Camera Obscura - "Twenty Five Diamonds"

Love Life
After dissolving the ridiculous yet compelling Jaks (spazzy howling with fake blood), Katrina Ford and Sean Antanaitis spent two albums ("The Rose He Lied By", "Here Is Night, Brothers, Here The Birds Burn") grinding glass into concrete with big black boots as Love Life. As slow and devoid of light as early Swans, as bleak and desperate as Birthday Party records slowed to 22RPM. Throughout it all, Katrina's vocals reach gutteral basements Danzig didn't know existed. Seriously, kids, don't listen to too much of this in one sitting. Katrina and Sean now kick it much more uptempo and high-profile in the 4AD vetted, Creatures influenced, TV On The Radio produced Celebration.

Love Life - "Joy"
Love Life - "Good For Nothing"

hopeful ghosts

2008-03-05T21:41:00.000-08:00

By now you've likely chosen one of the various formats in which the new NIN material has been released. Looks as though the uber-1337 with-vinyl-and-Trent's-sinal-fluid-sample box sold out in about a day - one IEI writer saw fit to shell out for it, but I'm not telling which of us it was. Whether or not this sort of model can succeed is one question - whether it's a viable option for any artist smaller than the Radioheads and NINs of the world is another matter entirely. For now, I'll leave that to Wired bloggers and BoingBoing regulars (I'd also like to hear my buddy Jean at Clicknoise weigh in if he's got a minute to spare between Phd comps and daddy duty).

Me, I'm more interested in how this sort of distribution model affects albums as aesthetic experiences and, in the case of those of us still interested records qua records, as physical objects. What happens when an impromptu jam session at NIN headquarters (caveat: I'm aware that if yr "jam sessions" involve Adrian Belew and Alan Moulder, you aren't using the term in the same way that the Jack Johnson-listening frat douches down the hall are) doesn't just net as-yet incalculable amounts of cash or hammer another nail in the record industry's coffin, but actually affects the way we think of and listen to the actual music of an act as established and iconic as NIN?

Talk to any science fiction writer who's dealing with issues like posthumanism and the singularity, and they'll talk about how the psychological normalization of technology relies in part on that technology becoming fast enough to accomplish its purpose without speed being a noticeable factor in that technology's perceived efficiency by the average user - technology sufficiently speedy to operate without yielding enough time to allow the user to notice the operation in the first place. To use a couple of commonplace recent examples, internet connections with enough bandwidth to offer halfway decent streaming video, torrents that can deliver mp3s of a CD I own faster than I could by going over to the shelf, hunting the CD out and ripping and encoding it. In brief - technology that operates at the speed of human thought, or (trust me, I'm bringing this back to "Ghosts I-IV") in the case of online music, distribution that matches the speed of production.

As revolutionary as the business model of "Ghosts I-IV" might prove to be, it's the fact that the commonplace nature of file-sharing has, in this case, taken down the notion of the "rock album" as a cohesive, planned and grandiose object in time that seems the most revolutionary aspect of it to me. Consider the psychological and cultural weight of "The Fragile", both in how Reznor talked about its pained production, and how we, the public, chewed over every snippet of sound or news that trickled out while waiting for its release, years before premature Internet leaks. The album took on an iconic status before any of us had actually heard it, expectations were correspondingly (ten miles) high, and after its release we spent untold hours nitpicking song orders, and trying to edit the thing down to a single disc. The concept behind "Ghosts I-IV" - muck about, record some stuff, release it and allow people to more or less pay in accordance with how much value they place upon the fetishistic aspects of albums (vinyl, gatefolds, signed prints) - turns the cultural logic of the rock album, exemplified by "The Fragile", on its head.

In "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", Walter Benjamin talks about the ability of technological reproduction (the duplication of photographs, mimeographs, etc.) to destroy the nigh-religious "aura" of essential authenticity, historical location and cultural/spiritual mystique that accompanies the work of art (which Benjamin traces back to its cultic origins). A variety of factors allow this to happen - the lack of a single, "real" work of art thanks to photography and reproduction (never an issue with rock albums, really), but also increased access to the means of production, theoretically making artists of us all (which we've of course seen with mixed results via Reason and FL Studio). In the case of "Ghosts I-IV", it's the ease and speed of the distribution of the rock album that's stripping away its aura, and in turn affecting how we think of the production of a rock album.

The fact that we aren't going through the same media-enabled high drama of the birthing of a rough beast as we were with "The Fragile" suggests that we aren't as vested in the pomp and circumstance of The Album as we once were - we're instead identifying favourite tracks and deciding for ourselves how much we're comfortable shelling out for it. Trent's playing into this as well - by seeding portions of the album on PirateBay and eschewing song titles for (utilitarian?) numeric ordering he's helping tear down our (and possibly his own) inflated expectations for how revelatory we expect NIN material to be. Given the opulence and essentially legendary status of both "The Downward Spiral" and "The Fragile", this is no mean feat.

As for the music itself - I'm liking it. A great deal, in fact. I remember thinking when "Still" (the bonus disc on the generally unremarkable live album documenting the Fragility tour) was released that I'd love to hear Trent forsake the well-trodden teen angst territory (which, despite how much I loved "The Fragile" musically, was wearing pretty thin by 2002) for impressionist, stripped-down piano tracks on a more permanent basis. The welcome shift away from navel-gazing whinging in "With Teeth" and "Year Zero" made me forget about that passing fancy, but with "Ghosts I-IV" dropping flat out of nowhere, I'm reminded of just how well Reznor works when he's on a Debussy binge. Personal faves? 18 and 24 right now. Ask me again tomorrow...

A few years back, there was much talk about how Napster and the like would kill off the album - choosy consumers would just nab choice cuts from albums otherwise bloated with filler, and record sales would plummet. As a life-long fan of the album experience, this gave me some worry. I liked immersing myself in a lengthy, developed, conceptually grand if occasionally self-indulgent experience, and both "The Downward Spiral" and "The Fragile" were nothing if not all of those. If the death of the album (which still, like that of Mark Twain, seems to have as of yet been greatly exaggerated) means the emergence of new forms like this, these hopeful ghosts that apparate and disseminate without warning, then there might be a space for us esthetes in the post-Album landscape.

rude awakening

2007-10-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

London After Midnight, "Violent Acts Of Beauty"
Trisol/Metropolis/Iron D
Sean Brennan's become the goth Axl Rose over the past decade. No, seriously. Much talk of a new London After Midnight record was thrown about for years with little to show except a revolving-door parade of band members coming and going and the odd cover or oddity squeaking out on a movie soundtrack (I swear - the "Saw" soundtracks exist only to fulfill bands' contractual obligations with Trisol). The crucial question about a new record remains the same for both men: giants in their respective scenes and times, will they be able to release a record that doesn't make them sound hopelessly out of touch after all these years, yet won't alienate their loyal fanbase? Admittedly, the stakes are somewhat higher for Axl given all of the very public bad blood with former band members and the intense scrutiny and debate that arises every time another release date or canceled show crops up - ask yourself honestly, how many times have you asked yourself what London After Midnight were up to in the past five or six years - but unlike Axl, Sean still has his hips and hasn't opted for Dexter Holland-style braids. Chalk one up for pretty boy.

Anyway, the record. It's good. Excellent, in fact. No really, listen...

It's mournful in a majestic, rather than whinging manner, which, come to think of it, is a thin divide by which many goth bands live and die. Moreover, it's punchy and aggressive in a fashion that you just don't hear in goth rock anymore. In short - the band's roots in the second wave of goth are a big help, not a hindrance here.

This isn't to say that "Violent Acts Of Beauty" is a nostalgia trip - far from it. There's much here that's fresh and relevant. One could also point out a couple comparisons to more recent acts that certainly aren't a knock at LAF: there are occasional flourishes of the yobbish techno-pogo that Katscan have used so well in recent years in "Nothing's Sacred" and "America's A Fucking Disease" calls Snog's "The Human Germ" to mind, and manages to deploy jazz flute flourishes without falling completely on its face, an accomplishment worthy of praise alone.

On top of all this, the songwriting itself is spot on: as a rule it's compelling and memorable material that I'll wager will reward repeat listenings, aided in no small part by Brennan's excellent guitar work. The innumerable socio-political clusterfucks that have jarred the cultural consciousness since LAF's last album ensures that there's a minimum of the cheesy demon lover/dark desire lyrics of the "Your Worst Nightmare" ilk. There are also a couple of club tracks that'll likely make for adequate DJ fodder without compromising home listening. So good on Sean Brennan: he's proven the doubters (myself included) wrong and has with one album turned a band that was little more than a vague memory from the Cleopatra days of yore into a relevant force to be reckoned with.

"In The Shape Of A Ghost": An Interview With Forma Tadre

2007-09-25T08:40:00.001-07:00

What an update we've got for you today, kids: an interview with none other than Andy Meya of Forma Tadre fame and excellence. Like we mentioned a while back, after a ten-year hiatus there's a new Forma Tadre album in the works. We asked Andy about the past and future of Forma Tadre, as well as what he's been up to in the interim. We've posted a couple of mp3s at the bottom of this post for those who've yet to check out Forma Tadre, but happily Andy's just reissued the band's entire back catalog on iTunes. If you haven't yet, check out the history of one of dark electronic music's true innovators, before he drops what's sure to be another groundbreaking record.

IEI: "Navigator" remains a landmark album, not only due to its stellar club-friendly tracks, but also due to the theme of exploration that runs through it. How was "Navigator" developed? Was the theme of exploration specifically present from the outset, or did it only emerge as you began to produce the material for that album?

AM: It's difficult to speak from an outset - as such - concerning "Navigator". Large parts of the musical material ("Plasmasleep", "Looking Glass Men", "Celebrate the Cult" and two of the "Navigator" parts) were there even before OffBeat gave me the option to produce an album.

But I remember choosing a title for the album was quiet an easy decision. "Navigator" as a whole just reflects my thinking and my interests at that time - scientific exploration and scientific hybris, prospects of the future, my fascination with adventure, especially the polar expeditions of Ernest Shackleton and a certain cosmic connection I felt to the universe. Well, the last point sounds rather esoteric. I assure you, I have no pretty moonstones here lying around to cure me from odd diseases. If I dare say. I maybe had a similar connection to the universe, the stars and the planets an astronomer has. Outer Space was very real to me. Solar Fire. Stellar Dust. Utter Blackness. I felt like I could touch it. Walk upon the remnants of a bygone planet.

I wanted to share these feelings with the listeners - not totally unlike Lovecraft did with his literary concept of "Cosmic Fear". There's also one thing concerning the title of the album I probably haven't mentioned before. I recall I had a poster of Buster Keaton's movie "Navigator" pinned to my studio wall.

IEI: "Automate" obviously pushed the envelope even further than "Navigator" as far as atmospherics go. The album seems to be less about an overarching theme, though, and more about exploring certain sounds or spaces within the framework of individual tracks (or we could be entirely mistaken). What inspired you to move in this direction, and was this something of a prelude to your work in film and game soundtracks?

AM: The inspiration to "Automate" came from a trip to Paris, visiting the financial center and the suburban parc "André Citroen". A recreation area which would fit perfectly into any star trek movie. "Automate" was about two things: The obvious beauty of the landscape, that was striking to me and the intentions of the big companies (e.g. the Citroen firm) behind this - namely giving their employees an opportunity to relax. Not out of pure benevolence of course, but to ensure more functional "human resources". I thought that we were all "automized" (controlled to act in a predefined way) but more cunningly than in the past, e.g during the industrial revolution. I tried to work this concept into the tracks of "Automate", not with lyrics but with the shaping of sounds and the choice of certain song structures. The whole concept is more clearly laid out in the artwork of Automate 2.0 than in the original album. "Automate" wasn't exactly a prelude to my work in film and game soundtracks but helped me connecting to some movie directors.

IEI: If we're not mistaken, both "Navigator" and "Automate" are currently out of print, at least in North America. Are there any plans to re-release these albums, either on CD or online? Also, we've tried in vain for several years to track down a copy of "Automate 2.0". You mentioned on your site that an album of unreleased material from the "Automate" period might be forthcoming. Any chance that the remixes and bonus tracks added to "Automate 2.0" might be included on that?

AM: "Automate 2.0" should be released on iTunes very soon (like the original "Automate", the projected release is August 2007, "Navigator" has just gone online last week on iTunes!). [IEI: visit Forma Tadre's site to buy all three FT releases via iTunes] If all goes well and if I'm satisfied with the cooperation at iTunes I wish to release an online album this year, called "The Music of Erich Zann". The album is - obviously - dedicated to Lovecraft's short story and will contain solely instrumental tracks. It is not the album I am working on but a project a wanted to realize for some time.

IEI: How do you feel EBM and industrial (as musical genres or as "scenes") have changed in the near ten years since "Automate" was released, from both creative and business standpoints?

AM: I'm certainly not an expert on this. My impression is that - on the creative side - few people are taking musical risks. The dance scene often seems largely dominated by techno beats and technoid song structures. I'm more with the "old school" way of developing irresistible grooves like Front 242's "Headhunter" or Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" - both of which I think are still excellent and original dance tracks.

On the business side - musicians act far more professional than in the past, setting up their websites, writing newsletters etc. The fan contact through MySpace has become even more important. And there's of course the mp3 thing. Illegal downloads, bands selling less CD's, good labels closing (Dependent), good shops closing. The whole concept of selling physical CD's to get the artists some money and make a living is at stake at the moment.

IEI: When it was started, NEWT was a big sonic departure from the areas in which you and Daniel Myer were working in your respective bands. Was there a conscious decision to move in more of a drum n' bass direction, or was this just the organic result of you and Daniel working together?

AM: Our sound was an organic result but it's also true, that - in the beginning - NEWT started out as a drum n'bass pop project. Later in time it shifted to a more stellar, experimental sonic adventure. I think Autechre and other minimalist electronica have been our biggest influences then.

IEI: You also mentioned in January that you had some new NEWT material potentially in the works. Any developments on that front?

AM: No. I have postponed all my other projects until the new album Forma Tadre is finished.

IEI: It looks as though you've got another side project, Schattenfreunde, in the works with Christian from Distorted Reality, whose last album you produced. What sort of material can be expect to hear from Schattenfreunde, and when?

AM: The music is Electro/Wave with german lyrics. Christian writes most of the songs while I do lyrics and production. We'd like to release an EP next year. There's a preview on our MySpace site.

IEI: A few years ago you did a string of remixes we enjoyed a great deal (Assemblage 23's "Document" and Haujobb's "Penetration" amongst them) and we wondered at the time when new material of your own was coming out. Was remixing a way to "keep your hand in" during this period?

AM: I'm not certain, but I think I did a lot of scoring and sound design during that period. So doing remixes was in a way a nice "distraction". But I never stopped writing music for my own projects, especially for "Irgendwo Maschinen". I just didn't release anything, that was not my main focus at that time.

IEI: You've also begun to produce an increasing number of records for other bands over the past few years. How would you describe your approach as a producer, and have those experiences affected the creation of your own material in any way?

AM: As a producer, I made a lot of mistakes in the beginning. Especially with Distorted Reality, trying to force them into a direction they didn't feel wholly comfortable with. My vision for their tracks was rather "progressive" pure electronic while their sound developed more into a blend of acoustic and electronic sources. I refrained from to much interference later just trying to get their music to the point, shaping sounds and cleaning up the arrangement. This helped a lot with producing Cesium 137 although Cesium's sound is far more electronic by nature which made it a lot easier for me. I can't tell right now how the experiences as a producer have affected the creation of my own material. Maybe we should wait and see until the new album comes out?

IEI: Was there a specific reason for Forma Tadre being on hiatus for so long, or was it a case of other projects occupying your time?

AM: Other projects were occupying my time but it's of course always a choice of what you do with your time. I decided to explore other musical fields mainly for financial reasons. But although writing music for other people's projects is fun and exciting most of the time you certainly don't have the same kind of artistic freedom that you have when you develop your own ideas. I took me some time to realize this. On the other hand I'm most certainly some kind of control freak. I do everything myself. From production over to marketing, setting up websites etc. This also takes up some time.

IEI: Some time ago you expressed an interest in working with a cellist on the new Forma Tadre album. More recently you described the new material as "certainly not like Automate" and "a timeless electronic experience with a unique feel, style, atmosphere & heavy load of lyrics". What's the latest on the sound of the new material, and your feelings about it personally?

AM: I feel very confident. I am writing and "dreaming" lyrics at the moment. It's great to rediscover old ways and passages to give meaning to words. I rely on subconsciousness and intuition. Writing lyrics is rather an archeologic process for me. It's not invention. Not idea.

I feel like an archeologist or sculptor peeling off the shells of an object to get to the core. The tools aren't different either, maybe. Patience. Caution. Self-Esteem. If I do it right, all goes well.

Besides I have put most of the software-synthesizer into the garbage bin and started to use my hardware tools again (which I have done since 2005, when I started writing songs for the new album). This was also essential for me, maybe the starting point.

IEI: You also added "No Future-Pop, none whatsoever" to that description. Do you feel that Future-Pop is a genre or label that's outlived whatever potential it had, or is it simply a matter of something that has no connection or importance to Forma Tadre?

AM: In the past there has been an extensive hype about Future-Pop. At some time Future-Pop was almost the only imperative for commercial success. I just referred to this style as an example to explain that I don't feel my music to be bound to any narrow stylistic boundaries as such. But it's of course still electro/industrial in a way.

IEI: What concrete details can you give us about the new Forma Tadre album's release (name, date, label)?

AM: No name, no date, no label yet. The new album will contain 10-12 songs, most of them with vocals.

IEI: In the past you've cited HP Lovecraft and his cosmic perspective on humanity's significance as a major influence on Forma Tadre. Do you still read Lovecraft and will he be making his presence felt on the new album?

AM: I still read and reread Lovecraft. There are at least two tracks on the new album that are influenced by his shorter and longer stories, namely "The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath" and "Dreams in the Witch House". Right now I'm writing music for an independent short movie - "The Unnamable". A very faithful adaption of Lovecraft's short story written in 1923. The movie is in the tradition of "The Haunting (Original)", "The Mothman prophecies" or "The Ring". The score is almost completed.

IEI: Any other sources of inspiration for the new album that you'd care to reveal (themes, films, books, other music)?

AM: I am sorry, but I don't want to think to much about this at the moment. I couldn't name single influences either. I'm still in the process of creating.

IEI: Specific inspirations for the new album aside, what music (older or contemporary) are you currently enjoying?

AM: Currently enjoying: Deine Lakaien "20 Years of Electronic Avantgarde", Edgar Froese "Epsilon in Malaysian Pale", Jean-Michel Jarre "Teo-Tea", Kraftwerk "Tour de France Soundtracks", Faderhead & IAMX!

-"Plasmasleep" - from Navigator
-"Lo Rez Skyline" - from Automate

RIP Lee Hazlewood 1929-2007: Make the Little Flowers Grow

2007-08-08T15:46:00.000-07:00

Lee Hazlewood passed away on August 4th 2007. Although he is primarily known for his work with Nancy Sinatra (including the writing and recording of the oft covered "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'") and rockabilly icon Duane Eddy, Lee's solo material which combined elements of country, pop and psychedelia had a cult following amongst fellow musicians, as evidenced by covers performed by the likes of Primal Scream, Lydia Lunch, Nick Cave, Megadeth, My Dying Bride and Boyd Rice. He is survived by his wife Jean and his children Mark, Debbie and Samantha.

Einstürzende Neubauten - Sand
Slowdive - Some Velvet Morning
Snog - Make the Little Flowers Grow

There's an excellent overview of Hazlewood's career as a producer and songwriter with iTunes links over at Status Ain't Hood . Make sure you check it out.

"Please rise for the deconstruction of our national anthem."

2007-08-03T12:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's post by Alex on the new Laibach record got me thinking about the specfics of why Laibach's program of political satire works so well. To start with a quick nit-pick: I wouldn't say that Laibach's aesthetic is rooted in fascist imagery and music so much as it is rooted in totalitarian tropes. There's a black political humour that only comes from having one's tiny eastern European nation repeatedly steamrolled by harsh regimes from east and west, from right and left.

Anyhow, to my mind, it's pithy responses like "we are fascists as much as Hitler was a painter" that confirm Laibach as brilliant satirists. Truly committed conceptual artists (like, say, Andy Kaufman) never give the gambit away, because satire, unlike many "lower" forms of humour, requires some knowledgeable familiarity and conscious engagement with the material being satirized (as well as the formal elements of that satirization) on the part of the audience. On a side note, this is why I'd never be gutsy enough to say that any material of Laibach's wasn't conceptual. A song that they played at their last Vancouver concert sounded like a typically oontzy track in the "WAT" style until a friend from the former Yugoslavia approached me, laughing and explaining that the lyrics were from a folk song sung more than a century ago by Serbs as they were crossing a particular river, preparing to kill Croats. Or possibly vice versa. One way or the other, I didn't get the reference, nor why it would incite laughter per se. In short, my friend had the cultural language required to enter into the satire, unlike myself.

Confusion is Laibach's bread and butter: they bank on it. It's because they only muddy waters further when asked to clarify (at least for that AMG goober) that they are of such a higher calibre than all of those neo-folk ponces who run around wearing the runes and emblems of other cultures without any regard for their connotation and then explode into "defenceless artist" histrionics when anyone questions them. Blah, I don't want to get into all this again.

A point more salient to "Volk" - I think it's fair to say that their project on this record is a complete inversion of one of their most tried and true schticks: their remakes of pop songs which transform often trite original material into frighteningly epic anthems. There are a couple of interesting theories as to the nature of their intent in turning a goofy, touchy-feely song like "I've Got A Feeling" into Nuremburg rally call-and-response, or a song as lazy and crappy as "Live is Life" into a towering monument of glory (but to what?): they could be simply pointing out that aesthetics are substance, that form trumps whatever simple and base content these songs started with, or, and this is what I think makes those covers so compelling, they could be only drawing out and making explicit themes and possible readings of seemingly innocuous pop music that we'd never otherwise see - the supremacy of will, emotion and self within the tiny, insulated perfect world of the love song. We all take it as an indication of his insanity that Charles Manson heard personal apocalyptic messages in the white album (and rightfully so), but it's impossible to approach any of the songs on "Let It Be" from the same position of naivitee once you've heard what they "mean" within the context of Laibach's reinterpretation (with the possible exception of "Across The Universe"). To paraphrase Nietzsche, if you gaze for long into a spinning 45, the 45 gazes also into you.

What does all of this have to do with "Volk"? Well, the genre they're taking as their subject, national anthems, couldn't on the surface be any more different than the pop songs they've repurposed in the past (although, as I've tried to point out, surfaces are quite deceiving when it comes to Laibach). Instead of "sabotaging" the pop song by introducing questions of nationalism, power and politics that are normally anathema to pop, in "Volk" Laibach are creating space for commentary and criticism within a form that is explicitly meant for opposite purposes: namely the unquestionable celebration of nationalism and power. If the isolated would-be dictator can find inspiration in Top 40 dross, then so can the cultural critic, the anarchist and the dissident find fertile ground in the chest-pounding, anti-thought of the jingoistic anthem.

Laibach 'Volk'

2007-08-01T13:13:00.000-07:00

Laibach is by nature an incredibly political musical entity. When the foundations of your art are the confluence of totalitarian imagery and pop music, it's impossible to not have pretty much everything you do picked apart and analyzed, searching for a straightforward interpretation which may not even be there, a straightforward meaning which arguably can't exist at all. The strength of Laibach as a group has always been in their acceptance of the lack of easy answers in their own work, and in politically charged art and music in general. The eternal question that has always haunted them, the "are they or aren't they fascists themselves" question misses the point by a wide margin. It's the ambiguity that matters, a fact that the band awknowledges in their refusal to address it except with more questions (ie, vocalist Milan's oft repeated declaration "We are fascists as much as Hitler was a painter", a statement only an idiot would try to draw a literal answer from). Which brings us to 2006's "Volk" another in the band's series of concept records*, this LP finds our venerable satirists collaborating with Slovenian group Silence on a series of songs based on national anthems. The lyrics for each track address some social or historical aspect of the nation, while the arrangements twist the typical bombast and *ahem* anthemic qualities to be found in national music into something much more sinister. It's a natural fit, after all there isn't a piece of music simultaneously populist and political than a national anthem and that fact provides fertile ground for commentary on issues of national identity. On "Volk" the commentary often takes a more laid-back approach, "Anglia" is a light trip-hop style piece which skewers the arrogance of the English empire even in decline, while "Vaticanae" is almost reverent in it's simple Organ and vocal fuelled approach. There is confrontational work here however, not surprisingly on "Yisra’el" which includes within it verses from Palestinian national songs and "Francia" which criticizes France's hard-headed policies in dealing with civil unrest. It's fascinating to listen to both from the musical angle where the pomp of the music is frequently sent over the top as with "Nippon", or alternately stripped of extraneous meaning and turned into simple pleas and statements, as with "Slovania". Simultaneously, this may be the most obvious and most inscrutable piece of work from the latter era of the band's catalogue, driving home the point that Laibach is never about answers, but about posing questions, which in turn are answers in and of themselves.

*Can Laibach not make a concept record? Discuss.

catch-up

2007-07-31T15:37:00.000-07:00

Just tossing out some reviews of records from last year that I slept on (for better and worse) before tackling some fresher stuff.

Flint Glass, "Nyarlathotep"
I'm a sucker for any pop culture product that makes even the vaguest reference to HP Lovecraft. As a dedicated scholar of Lovecraft's fiction and philosophy, this typically results either in disappointment (from the tendency in other writers to reduce his creatures to beings motivated by petty and utterly human evil, to the sheer ridiculousness of "real Necronomicons" being taken seriously by gullible idiots) or the collection of some amusing kitsch (from the charming anachronistic film adaptation of his most famous story to Cthulhu slippers). Occasionally, though, something truly remarkable, like Rudimentary Peni's "Cacophony", crops up. Over twenty years later, we have "Nyarlathotep", a Lovecraft-based record of an entirely different cast.

Flint Glass' second LP is a sleek excursion through dark ambient territory that never bores or drones. As with HPL's use of his most awful creations (after which the majority of tracks on the album are named), stark and explicit horror is left off the record, implied instead by menacing implication. When beats bubble to the surface (as on album highlight "Nephren-Ka") they evoke Lovecraft's love for the exploratory revelations of science more than any noisy and chaotic beasts. Moreover, there's a paradoxical sense of calm that starts to temper the danger this record conjures upon repeat listenings. Perhaps it's no coincidence that Flint Glass' one member, Gwenn Trémorin, elected to name this record after one of Lovecraft's most ambiguous figures. While in some fiction Nyarlathotep is wholly alien, in other works he's clearly modeled after various historical gods of science, trickery and heraldry: Loki, Hermes, Prometheus and Osiris.

For the more pragmatically minded who couldn't give a toss about Lovecraft, this is a stellar dark ambient record, with gorgeous art and packaging as well as some decent remixes from the likes of Ah Cama-Sotz and This Morn' Omina to sweeten the deal. Recommended.

Flint Glass - "Nephren-Ka"
---

Apoptygma Berzerk, "Sonic Diary"
Enticed by the thoroughly stomping Mesh remake of "Mourn", I decided to wander 'round Stephen Groth's neck of the woods, to see what had changed since "Welcome To Earth". At this point, I don't think it's unfair to cast Apop as the EBM equivalent of Metallica: a string of albums loved by genre fans and critics, then a turning point record, half-full of classic jams, half-full of pitiful attempts at mainstream success, then nothing but boring faux-alterna schlock, alienating their fanbase. While Metallica and Apop might gripe that too much attention has been paid to the shifts in their respective images that accompanied their bids for crossover acceptance, I'll counter that it's more enjoyable to mock Groth's last-ditch emo-cut or Kirk Hammett's wannabe-Dave Navarro posing than it is to actually listen to "Load" or "You And Me Against The World".

Anyhow, "Sonic Diary" is a comp of cover tracks, old and new, plus a bonus disc of remixes. I'll be a weirdo and deal with the bonus disc first. The aforementioned Mesh remix remains stellar, a vengeful bootstrapping of a classic cut, but there's really nothing else of note. All but one of the other remixes are from the "Harmonizer" and "You And Me Against The World" eras and only highlight how threadbare the original versions were. That one exception is a complete remake of "Deep Red", and unless you want to know what that song might sound like if Good Charlotte covered it, I'd suggest avoiding it at all costs.

The main disc doesn't fare much better. Almost half of these tracks have already appeared on APB LPs and EPs, perhaps explaining the need for the bonus disc in order for any units to be shifted. Older covers like "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "Electricity" hold onto some charm, but recent takes on "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" and "Bizarre Love Triangle" are nothing short of criminal. Much of the newer material suffers due to Groth's attempts at stretching his voice well outside of his comfort zone, which wouldn't be half as bad if the tracks weren't structured so as to make his vocals their focal point. Just about the only recent track that does anything is "Cambodia", which chugs along nicely and I imagine might work well as the opening theme to an anime series involving airships. For real. No, no digs about a Kim Wilde cover beating out OMD or Kraftwerk - you can't hate on "Kids In America".

So, with the exceptions of "Cambodia" and the "Mourn" remake, "Sonic Diary" embodies pretty much everything that's gone wrong with Apop over the last seven years: egotistical yet pandering, bloated but short on substance, awkward and utterly forgettable. In closing, and by way of summing up how this record makes me feel, listening to it made the thought "this is a bad adaptation of a Keane song" pass through my mind. What could a "good" cover of a Keane song possible sound like? Argh. Damn you, Groth.

Apoptygma Berzerk - "Cambodia"

More Rhymes Than Leeb has Projects

2007-07-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

Hip Hop and Industrial have had a rocky history of collaborations over the years. Despite having a lot of common ground historically (Afrika Bambattaa would spin Kraftwerk records at house parties in Brooklyn, Throbbing Gristle was influence by the dub and reggae coming out of the slums surrounding their studio) and a penchant for wanton sampling, most attempts to combine the genres are pretty underwhelming if not ouright awful. That doesn't stop us wondering though, what some team-ups between the lights of both scenes might yield. So without further ado Inner Ear Infection Presents: Industrial-Hip-Hop Collaborations We'd Like to See!

:Wumpscut: vs. The Wu-Tang Clan

Obvious one out of the way first. Rudy's productions are never short on atmosphere, and he's still capable of bringing some fly hooks now and again. The sampled guitar and breakbeat on his last real club hit 'Wreath of Barbs' even kind of sound like something the Rza might have tossed off for one of his much ballyhooed soundtrack joints. And if you check out the unforgettable 'Torture' skit from the Wu's debut album 'Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)' you know that Shaolin's Finest can bring the enzeit vibe if they want to. So say you get Pope Ratzinger to crank out a slow jam, get Ghost, Raekwon and Mef to spit a few roughneck bars a la 'Protect Ya Neck' and zing! A song which could in no way possibly be worse than FLA's ill-advised 'Victim of a Criminal'.

VNV Nation vs. Nas

Ronan and Mark seem to deal almost exclusively in their uplifting trance rip off business these days, but they had a few slower atmospheric jams on the first few albums which maintained an epic scope but had a darker, more forboding sound. 'Tempest' the B-Side off the Darkangel single might be the best example of this (and is a great track to boot). Meanwhile, Nas is the rapper most likely to make ill-advised religious allusions (check the cover to his bloated double-album 'Street's Disciple') and as evidenced by Puffy collab 'Hate Me Now' he can rock an epic number with the best of them. So yeah, get these guys in studio, let Ronan's just vague enough references to Christianity mix up with Nasir Jones' blatant Jesus swagger jacking come into effect and I'd wager you'd have a song of biblical proportions *rimshot*.

Cypress Hill vs. Cevin Key

Okay, this one is kind of obvious. Mr. Key's best material from the past couple of years has been what my friend Rob likes to call 'Stoner Techno', albums like Plateau's recent From the Vaults release and his two solo records from a few years back all sound best when your visiting with "The Green Guy". And Cypress Hill's weed smoking exploits need no introduction, they almost singlehandedly popularized rhyming about mary jane, mostly by rhyming about little else. It goes without saying that their music sounds best when you've burnt a few. So yeah, Get Muggs, Be Real, Sen Dog and Kevin Crompton into the studio, get them a few bags of primo chiba chiba and BAM. Guaranteed to be better than the Cypress Hill/Fear Factory team-up off that record where Burton Bell and company jumped the proverbial shark.

Jim Jones vs. Suicide Commando

Jones (aka The Dirt Angel) having deposed former Jay-Z weed carrier Cam'ron, is the erstwhile leader of New York's Dipset crew. He's not much of a rapper really, but as evidenced on last year's megahit 'We Fly High', he sounds pretty good over hard, simple synth beats. Enter Johann Van Roy, who as Suicide Commando has been producing tracks that rely on one repetitive synthline and some harsh drums for years. So get Johann to pound out a pre-set melody, get Jim to yell "Ballin'!" a bunch of times over it and I'm sure you'd have something that wouldn't be too far removed from either oeuvre. No matter what stupid shit Jones comes up with to rhyme about, it can't possibly be much dumber than anything Suicide Commando has done lyrically, ever.

Kanye West vs. Gary Numan

This one is kind of tenuous, but stick with me. Kanye is one of the most frustrating figures in hip hop, a critically beloved star of massive proportions who never seems to live up to his potential as an MC or as a Producer. Numan is a respected icon in the world of electronic music and post-post-punk, a guy who made several classic albums before a slide into mediocrity followed some years later by an unlikely resurrection doing the style of pop-industrial informed by his early records. It stands to reason that a confluence of Numan's paranoid post-human schtick and West's larger than life, flawed superstar persona would push and pull each of them in the right directions creatively speaking. If nothing else, Kanye could sample "Are Friends Electric" kinda like he sampled Daft Punk on his new single 'Stronger' and the results would be decent if not awesome.

All nonsensical skylarkings aside, there has actually been a pretty good genre crossover track this year. El-P had Trent Reznor guest on his album "I'll Sleep When You're Dead", yielding the quite excellent track 'Flyentology'. Worth a peep no matter what side of the fence you fall on.

news shorts

2007-07-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

Andy Meya's in the process of creating a new Forma Tadre site. It's still in the middle stages of constructivitis (to cop a phrase from Uncle Mick), but there's some solid info on all aspects of the project's discography (even the photos in the liner notes!), and most importantly the news that a third Forma Tadre album is in the pipeline, making it the first in nearly ten years. Both "Navigator" and "Automate" are undisputed classics in my book, the former taking EBM into exciting orchestral and oceanic territory, the latter a stunning walk down twilight ambient avenues. Andy sez "the new album (no working title yet) will be a timeless electronic experience with a unique feel, style, atmosphere & heavy load of lyrics. No Future-Pop, none whatsoever." Boo-ya. Count another record under the FT banner one of the titles I'm most eagerly anticipating this year.
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Goth drama? On the Internet? Surely you jest! But no! And coming from the band with more "he said/she said/he released my demos in Europe without consent" history than any other: Christian Death. A new outfit, deemed Christian Death 1334 and featuring original "Only Theatre Of Pain" writers Rikk Agnew and James McGearty has been formed and is touring the classic material by "way of honoring our dear friend Rozz Williams and resurrecting the sound which is distinctly Christian Death."

Enter Valor, who retorts with "There is a bogus concert being organised by an unofficial 'TRIBUTE band', featuring the christiandeath name which is not christian death. It is billed as taking place in LA. Be warned that this is not christian death and steps are being taken to ensure that fans will not be ripped off as this is not the start of the long awaited tour."

I'll refrain from pointing out the hilarity inherent in Valor calling any incarnation of Christian Death "bogus" (if all of this is confusing, consult the wikipedia article on the band to catch up on one of the most confusing and bitter intra-band feuds EVR) and merely say that I'd be interested in hearing Christian Death 1334's take on the classic material. I'm not nuts about Eva O, never have been, but Rikk Agnew's a great guitarist and songwriter (peep his "All By Myself" solo record for some classic and classy SoCal punk), and there's no way that Christian Death 1334 can do anything but help restore at least some of the lustre to a legacy that's been tarnished for over twenty years by a bottomfeeder without a shred of dignity.

another failed idiom

2007-07-19T17:32:00.000-07:00

Bruce: So, them Internets are abuzz about the impending debut release by Blaqk Audio. Why, might you ask, are media juggernauts like MTV bothering to give virtual ink to what amounts to Just Another Futurepop Album? Because Blaqk Audio is made up of two jabronis from AFI. But before we get into what all this means, let's address the material at hand, thus far consisting of two tracks on the band's MySpace.

Like many tepid electronic projects, Blaqk Audio are trying to claim diverse points of comparison in an attempt to con the listener into mistakenly hearing non-existent depth in their tracks: in this case they've opted for Echo & The Bunnymen as the talking point. Clearly this isn't the case, and anyone who's been paying attention to Futurepop and other club-friendly EBM recently won't hear anything here that hasn't been beaten to death over the past five years. More specifically, the two songs are wildly unbalanced, with elements dropping in and out of the mix seemingly at random, and not in a good way. Basslines vanish without a trace, choruses come and go indistinguishable from the rest of the stale offering. There's no semblance of an ordering principle behind any of this, either. Y'know how buffet restaurants always seemed great in theory when you were younger? Pizza, lasagna and chinese food all at once? But invariably you were disappointed: each of the elements were a pale imitation of what they tasted like at real restaurants, and the combination of all of the hollow simulacra on your plate at the same time just seemed like a cruel joke. So yeah: Blakq Audio are the musical equivalent of Buffet World.

As someone who doesn't really have too much time for straightforward, emotive Futurepop these days, I'm not sure that I'm the best person to be taking a sledgehammer to Blakq Audio's output thus far, but I will say this: even when it's devoid of inspiration or novelty, Futurepop is a craft-based medium. A couple of months ago I was enduring a recent A Different Drum comp, and after a brief period of listening it became readily apparent within a few seconds per song which groups did and didn't have a talent for turning out solid product of this type, whatever you think of it. Assemblage 23 and Seabound have it, Blakq Audio clearly don't. Don't be fooled, this is amateur-hour type stuff. Blakq Audio are jumping on the Futurepop bandwagon years too late with precious little to offer the party but stale Cheetos.

Alex: Would you even call this futurepop really? I mean, as problematic is that term is, I'd say it has more in common with some more recent synthpop offerings, like say Depeche Mode's 'Playing the Angel' than with anything VNV or Apop has done. Of course it should be noted that we're basing all of this on two songs, god knows what the album as a whole will sound like.

Bruce: Fair point (although I'm not sure that I'm comfortable with calling "Playing The Angel" synthpop). I'm wondering if this is yet another recent case in which contact between mainstream rock and the long-suffering standard-bearers of "this thing of ours" results in...something else. I think this paid off in spades for Apop when Mesh redid "Mourn" after years of Groth's sad attempts to rebrand himself as a super-sexy bona-fide Rock Star, whereas the notion of VNV playing for tens of thousands of Radiohead fans this summer is far too little, far too late.

As for the specifics of Futurepop and whether Blakq Audio fits the bill or not, you might be right. That said, I don't need to use the F-word to trash this stuff: it's still painfully derivative and awkward.

Alex: More than anything else, I'm curious to see how this will effect the goth-industrial club scene as a whole. My first thought is that this has the potential to bring a lot of attention and exposure to the music that's been motoring along selling nothing at all. Those of you old enough to remember the early nineties will recall when Green Day's "Dookie" broke big, and suddenly So-Cal Punk was a going concern after years of fermenting in the underground. See also No Doubt's "Tragic Kingdom" for the abortive Ska revival and Robert Miles' crossover megahit "Dreams" bringing Trance into the mainstream. With that said, those scenarios usually didn't do much to break other bands or artists in any real way, moreso they just introduced a wide variety of people to music they were otherwise unaware of and a small portion of the people who bought the records became aficionados of the genre. Other possibility is that this goes off like that She Wants Revenge record on a grander scale, wherein it brings no new fans to the genre, but gets mad spins in the club and has people requesting five songs off the album every god damn night.

Incidentally, apparently the one dude who isn't the guy who looks like a bitch claimed in an interview with some guitar magazine that AFI's single "Love Like Winter" was originally written for this project. That song is better than either of the tracks on the Blaqk Audio myspace, I'd be happy to play something along those lines if the full-length album has anything comparable.

The Remix: Das Ich 'Destillat'

2007-05-03T19:08:00.000-07:00

Most of you who were frequenting EBM/Industrial nights just before the turn of the century probably recall Das Ich's 'Destillat', or at least the ultra popular VNV Nation remix. Not unlike Suicide Commando's 'Hellraiser', the chances of hearing the original or alternate mixes were pretty slim. After all this was all going down at the height of Ronan-mania, when DJs were looking for even more ways to cram some of that sweet VNV sound into their sets (and consequently dancers on the floor). I've always preferred the 'Club' remix of the track myself, and was pleased to see that Das Ich's new odds n' ends collection Addendum. It's the addition of the female vocals and the guitar sounding synth on the chorus that do it for me I think. Check this mix out and tell me it's not better than the VNV one. Seriously. Also, were the last two Das Ich records that came out on Metropolis any good? I kinda stopped paying attention after 'Anti'Christ'.

Das Ich - Destillat (Extended Club Mix)

And hey, there's even a video apparently!

Come Before Christ And Murder Kenny

2007-04-21T22:26:00.000-07:00

World Serpent South Park is likely the best send up of World Serpent and neo-folk stupidity in general since Boyd Rice moved in with the Tanners on "Full House". Butters P'Orridge might be the best of the lot.

no escape from heaven

2007-04-20T23:36:00.000-07:00

If yr halfway like me, you don't just think, you know that Curve never got half of the respect they were due before petering out 'round the turn of the millennium. Nowadays, with countless cross-over acts getting mucho play in goth-industrial clubs (is it more than usual right now or is it just me?), I'd push for the right label to do a best-of and/or remix release to showcase Curve's fuzzed-out to heaven, druggy goth-pop to a new generation of club kids.

But it's not a rehash of the past that we have to look forward to. I don't think it's unreasonable to claim that Collide more or less picked up picked up the torch left behind by Curve (Curve are still the cheap shorthand reference I pull out when I'm trying to sell someone on Collide), so the announcement of a collaboration between Dean Garcia of Curve and Statik and Karin of Collide under the name The Secret Meeting is both welcome and head-slappingly obvious. There are two songs up at myspace page (their actual homepage offers only a Katamari Damacy-esque purgatory of flash) which sound, well, like Collide and Curve, natch. The "Ultrashiver" album (I dare you to come up with a more obvious title for a goth/shoegaze record) is set for a June release.

(tip o' the hat to DJ Pandemonium for alerting us to this)

2006 In Review, Part 3

2007-03-24T18:45:00.000-07:00

The Knife, "Silent Shout"
I'm not sure that anything I could write about the most (justifiably) lauded record of '06 will come as a surprise. A few months back I wrote that:

...their presentation of electro as a covertly biological form kinda picks up on where Bjork left off after the first two solo records (kinda like Goldfrapp's nature fixation), but also has all of the medical/power anxiety of, say, The Klinik (they're reappropriating the outfits of plague doctors fer fuck's sake - maybe it's Jung, maybe it's "The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen", but there's always been something abject about those beaks)...

I'll stand by that, pausing only to add that their focus on family dynamics is as equally captivating and potentially deep as their nature and medical fixations. Instead of going any further, I'd like to talk about how the record circulated in 2006 and what it meant to people.

Odds are you've heard the record, and odds are you heard about it from a friend and/or told someone else about it. Obviously there's nothing new about net-aided word-of-mouth buzz, but people's reaction to "Silent Shout" seems different to me, and not only because, unlike so much blog-hyped product, "Silent Shout" doesn't sound as though it's aged or lost anything since the day I first heard it - I can quite easily picture myself listening to this ten years from now, maybe on a rainy April Sunday, just after "Script Of The Bridge" and just before a bootleg of the 2011 Cocteau Twins one-off reunion show (fingers crossed).

No, "Silent Shout" didn't just resonate with people, it seemed to invite sharing in the most empathetic sense of the word. No hipster "I was here first" bullshit, but a heartfelt belief that this was music that your friends would benefit from by hearing. A recently removed YouTube vid of the band playing a radically revamped version of "Heartbeats" on tour (The Knife had never considered the possibility of being a live act until the success of "Silent Shout" indicated that there was a demand) included shots of a wide-eyed audience singing along with every word. The comments beneath the video often noted the audience's enthrallment with approval, The Knife becoming a conduit for reciprocal empathy and love. People in 2006 didn't just want The Knife to succeed on their own terms, they wanted The Knife's music to affect others the way it had affected them. When you consider how introverted, quiet and sparse much of "Silent Shout" is, it seems remarkable that it would inspire active communal engagement.

I'm not exactly sure what this means or how to theoretically frame it (the first techno-communal attempt to resolve Derrida's problems with "the gift"?), but I do think that it's a moment of rare beauty and hope that the best record of the year also managed to bring out the best in people: kinship, empathy, love.
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Kirlian Camera, "Coroner's Sun"
Kirlian Camera's discography remains one of the most eclectic in dark electro: running from italo-disco to neo-folk to pure ambient noise, their albums have been alternately terrifying, compelling, deliberately opaque, playful, infuriating, and heartrendingly gorgeous. With 2004's "Invisible Front.2005" Angelo Bergamini and Elena Fossi attempted to combine as many of the disparate elements in the project's history as possible. Astonishingly, they succeeded at all levels and even worked in a stellar club track ("K-Pax") for good measure. Now with "Coroner's Sun," they've managed to produce an even more varied record, which shifts between ethereal gossamer ("Beauty As A Sin"), haunting dirges ("Koma-Menschen"), and pure, screaming madness ("Kaczynski Code"). And it all might just make for their best record yet.

Their craft refines as their scope expands. Their power magnifies as they age. Moves towards accessibility are countered by ever strengthening psychoses. No one save Angelo Bergamini would muddy a straight 4-4 EBM by the numbers floorpacker by overlaying the shrieking of one of Theodore Kaczynski's manifestos, let alone use an album track to distribute his actual phone number to the ghosts that haunt him. Kirlian Camera continue their improbable, magnificent ascent in their twenty-sixth year of existence.
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Katscan, "Weapons Of Crass Dysfunction"
Katscan's sophomore release gave DJs plenty of stomp-fodder to drop in 2006, and admirably expanded from where their "Feral Bios" debut left off. They've got their snakebite and speed pogo-synth formula down to an art ("A Time For Hate," "You Love It You Shlaaggs"), but aren't afraid to go for classic 90s EBM ("Damn You All To Hell" hearkens back to quality Leather Strip material), or bump-n-grind industrial rock that owes not a little something to Rob Zombie or Marilyn Manson ("Zombie Machine'). Satisfyingly crunchy throughout, and full of cheeky-monkey cockney irreverence.

Xynthetic Progress

2007-03-22T22:28:00.000-07:00

Vancouver's Xynthetic netlabel dropped a mammoth mission statement sampler a couple of months back which made quite an impression on us here at IEI, whetting our appetite for more tasty dn'b, electro n' glitch morsels. They've since expanded their menu to include four new EPs: I'd particularly suggest trying out the new Xyn release, "Blind Alleys," which builds shimmering atmospherics just beneath the beats. In an odd way I was almost reminded of Verhaeghen's recent Klinik stuff, can't quite put my finger on it...

Anyway, as with the sampler, all of the EPs are DRM-free, high bitrate, and absolutely free to download and disseminate under a Creative Commons license, but if you like what you hear half as much as we do, kick the boys some cash for their stellar efforts via the donation links.

Lynx and DAMN!

2007-03-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

Is there anything more disheartening to a music geek than feeling hideously out of touch? That's how I felt when I discovered Sublight signees Lynx and Ram. Not only is it the kind of new school punky-electro I feel like I should have been up on, they're a local Vancouver act. So you know, I feel like an idiot for not knowing about them. At any rate, their debut record The System's On And It's Flashing Red came out a few weeks ago, and features a sound somewhere in the neighbourhood of recent Adult., with the seduction turned way the hell up and the drums set to 'spastic'. Some tracks like the sublime 'Our Bodies are Real' would only need slight punching up in remix form for them to really work in a club setting. Seriously, considering how unimpressive 2007 has been so far, this might be my favorite new act to put out a record. You can order it direct from Sublight. Updates if I get to see them live, which isn't that much of a stretch is it? I'm still with it!

Lynx and Ram "Our Bodies are Real"

Lynx and Ram @ Myspace

Also, peep the tunes by member Julian Fane, who apparently has a record of IDM/Shoegaze coming out on Planet Mu.

No More "Suicide Commando"

2007-02-27T18:53:00.000-08:00

The signature track from otherwise unremarkable No/Wave Post Punk act No More, 'Suicide Commando' is one of those odd songs which is more remarkable for the breadth of its influence than its own qualities. Like a more immediate and engaging version of Kraftwerk's 'Hall of Mirrors', its repetitive keyboard line, cheap reverbed drum machine and unemotive vocals are a prototype for countless DIY electro and ebm tracks (not to mention giving fellow Belgian Johann Van Roy a name to work with), the likes of which are still coming out every day. Despite apparently refusing to perform it for a portion of the career, it seems that No More have now embraced the song recently releasing a 2-CD career retrospective entitled Remake/Remodel on which one whole CD is given over to covers and remixes of it. Unfortunately not included on the album is the excellent version by Vitalic, which we have provided below for your listening pleasure.

No More - Suicide Commando
Vitalic - Suicide Commando

Link: Suicide Commando der Song

The Rundown: Combichrist "What the Fuck is Wrong With You People?"

2007-02-26T08:11:00.000-08:00

"It's funny how Andy has become the hero of goths everywhere, since he acts like the jock in high school that they always complain about. He parties hard, drinks hard, is a big beefy dude and loves sluts." - DJ Sound.Wav

I don't know when it happened exactly, but it seems like Andy Laplegua's Combichrist persona has become the hottest shit to hit the Goth/Industrial club scene since welding goggles. Kind of odd considering the fact that like all the Icon of Coil singer's side-projects, it doesn't really seem to have it's own identity. Truthfully, whether recording as Combichrist, Panzer AG or Scandy, Laplegua seems to just do whatever he's interested in at the time without much regard for establishing what each 'brand' is supposed to represent musically. Thus far from Combichrist we've had an album with a Noisex-like blend of Electro and Power Noise ('The Joy of Gunz') and a largely instrumental collection of techno-fied club bangers (the ultra-popular, ultra-dumb "Everybody Hates You"). Considering that, it's pretty strange to think that "What the Fuck is Wrong With You People?" is so hotly anticipated by the club kids. For all we know Andy could have decided to make an electro-polka record.

DISCLAIMER: This is not intended to be a serious critical review in any sense, so much as it is a casual overview of the album on first listen.

5 A.M. AFTERPARTY

The obligatory, unecessary intro track. Apparently Andy has been making prank phone calls.

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?

The soon to be ubiquitous title track, somewhat reminiscent of Panzer AG's 'This is My Battlefield'. It's big, catchy and undeniably anthemic without resorting to the sweeping faux-grandeur of Futurepop. I dropped it at Sanctuary last night, people are already packing the dancefloor for it, shouting along to the chorus.

ELECTROHEAD

An instrumental version of this stompy club jam was released on the Industrial for the Masses Vol. 3 compilation a few months back, but didn't do all that much for me. This version with the addition of vocals seems way better, I'm starting to think it's actually the singing that tips these songs over from okay to entertaining.

ADULT CONTENT

You know, I get the impression that Andy thinks he's being kind of risque when he writes songs with cusswords in them. Also, I could be wrong but I think the 'Parental Advisory' warning on the album cover isn't a legit RIAA sticker, which is pretty hilarious. Anyways, this song is instrumental, and sounds like an outtake from the last album.

FUCK THAT SHIT

This is pretty fun and noisy. Word to Frank Booth.

BRAIN BYPASS

This is pretty boring and also 8 minutes long. Samples about drugs over a middling electro-beat. Whereas the album up 'til this point had been going at a brisk enough clip to ignore some of it's musical shortcomings, this derails things somewhat. If you listen to albums on your mp3 player, make a playlist and leave this off or stick it on the end for a superior listening experience.

GET YOUR BODY BEAT

Slightly different intro and outro than the single version released in '06, but otherwise the same enormous song we've been hearing for over half a year. This is possibly one of the best big dumb dancefloor tracks of the decade.

DEATHBED

Holy shit, this one starts off sounding kind of like "Too Dark Park"-era Skinny Puppy before going into a more terror EBM stylee. Totally unexpected and pretty great. Also, doesn't seem like it's trying all that hard to be a club song which is a nice change of pace.

IN THE PIT

Kind of aimless and lyrically profane but not terrible or anything. I stand by my earlier assertion that Andy's vocals can sell a song that would otherwise be fairly mediocre.

SHUT UP & SWALLOW

This one has a nice build before blasting off. It's probably a little long for what it is, but it fits nicely as the beginning of the final third of the album. Getting head seems to be the unofficial theme of this record.

RED

A slower, more shouty number. Perfectly serviceable. Bonus Industrial points for rhyming "auto-erotic" and "neurotic".

ARE YOU CONNECTED

This song title should really have a question mark at the end of it. But we'll overlook that as this zesty slice of EBM (which is not so far musically from some of the more aggresive Icon of Coil tracks actually) is just so darn enthusiastic.

GIVE HEAD IF YOU GOT IT

Oh wow. This transcends stupidity and enters the realm of the sublime. Andy wants sluts to give head, and doesn't mind saying so. Not since Funker Vogt's 'Shaven' has an attempt at irony been bungled so as to appear completely straight with such entertaining results. This is somehow completely awesome. An album highlight.

ALL YOUR BASS BELONG TO US

Although a quick google search yields no pertinent results, I can't believe this is the first time someone has used this as a song title. It doesn't have any vocals to speak of on it which is kind of disappointing, but is actually pretty solid anyways.

COMMENTARY: About as good as any club oriented record ever is with some outstanding moments. Get ready to hear "What the Fuck is Wrong With You?", "Electrohead" and God willing "Give Head if You Got It" a whole lot in '07.

Combichrist @ Myspace.

"What's left behind means everything to me"

2007-02-25T16:58:00.000-08:00

Canadian distributor Storming The Base has discovered and is
selling a cache of "Seven Steps Of Nervousness," the long out-of-print and sole release by New York-based outfit NCC. "Seven Steps" was put out by Gashed in 2000 just before the label folded, and the band seems to have vanished off the face of the planet for all intents and purposes shortly after. So what's the big deal, you ask? What distinguishes "Seven Steps Of Nervousness" from the hordes of releases by other EBM bands who fell into the memory hole? The fact that this record slays.

Recorded when the three band members hadn't even hit 20, "Seven Steps" shows none of the heavy debt to influences that mark the debuts of so many other bands who'd go on to do astonishing things with an EBM template (Gridlock, Haujobb). Instead, this is a record that brutally attacks just about every EBM convention in the book by slamming them seemingly haphazardly against each other: trance-influenced builds lead only to ambient plateaus, beats erupt and abort indiscriminately, tempos swing radically in all directions. The predictability of so much modern dancefloor EBM almost seems to be being parodied, your expectations suckerpunched. You'll never quite get the hang of these cuts yet they're nothing if not compelling, rewarding, and fun as all get up to dance to. All this being said, there's not a moment or sound on this record that's sloppy: instrumentation, production and atmosphere are all honed razor-sharp, giving NCC a richly developed sonic world in which to rampage.

The easy way out call this record the sound of a young band trying to find their fit or make their mark, swinging aimlessly for a mode they haven't quite located, but that's not quite accurate. Sure, there's the keening, passionate need to put forth a mission statement of sorts that can be found on the debuts of so many bands who actually give a shit about what they're doing, but there's never a moment on "Seven Steps" at which you don't believe that NCC are completely comfortable and confident in the chaos they're dropping.

Like I alluded to before, concrete information about this band is notoriously scant, but a myspace page has recently surfaced. Whether it's official or not is unclear, but the myspace and site of vocalist Jay Slack mos' definitely are. Even better, the latter features some tasty mellow electro tracks Jay's done more recently. Check them out, check out the NCC tracks below if you've yet to hear them, and buy a classic record of exploratory EBM while you still can.

NCC - Seven Steps Of Nervousness
NCC - Weiteck

From Ground Zero to Year Zero

2007-02-15T13:42:00.000-08:00

Alex: If you're the kind of person who reads music blogs on the regular, you've probably already heard that Nine Inch Nails have taken the ARG route with the promotion of their new concept album Year Zero. For those unfamiliar with the term, ARG stands for 'Alternate Reality Game', a kind of interactive narrative which rather than being presented as a whole is pieced together using real world resources i.e. websites, phone numbers and printed materials. In this case numerous websites (a comprehensive listing of which is currently available at Year Zero's Wikipedia page) have been found via clues in new NIN merchandise, which in concert with one another build up a pseudo-dystopian world that serves as a backdrop for the record's concept. Additionally, fans can call 310-295-1040 to hear a short message and clip of a new NIN song which serve to further flesh out the near-future setting. Even cooler, a spectogram analysis of the last few seconds of the leaked song 'My Violent Heart' shows 'The Presence' a hand like image(pictured above) referenced on iamtryingtobelieve.com and other websites.

What's most interesting to me about Year Zero as presented is that it suggests an enormous thematic departure from the standard angst-to-anguish spectrum that has been de rigeur for Trent since Pretty Hate Machine. Even a casual perusal of the near-future world suggested in the various Year Zero websites would seem to indicate that the overriding themes of the work are paranoia and disillusionment. Couched though it may be in the clothes of speculative fiction, the idea of despondency in the face of neo-conservative/religious zealotry, the continuing erosion of personal freedoms and a runaway military industrial complex doesn't sound all that far-fetched to me. Frankly, as much as I generally feel topical songwriting runs a high risk of smug sanctimony, I can’t think of any subjects that are much more relevant or deserving of artistic discourse in our current political climate. This persavive atmosphere of distrust and doubt is an incredibly fertile creative ground to sew, certainly more than the increasingly unconvincing adolescent turmoil Trent was still leaning on as recently as With Teeth. That's right: Trent Reznor has made the switch to a pundit cum prophet of post-millenial tension. I never thought I'd see the day either.

The Prospects

2007-02-13T22:49:00.000-08:00

Ubiquitous Nu-Industrial Juggernaut/Home for Major Label Cast Offs Metropolis Records has a loaded release schedule for the months of March and April. Aside from another two albums in the endless stream of KMFDM re-releases (seriously, I keep forgetting how many albums these guys put out), a single and full-length from electro also-rans Client and a B-Sides n' Remixes album from FLA, the big M also has releases slated for scene heavyweights Combichrist, Wumpscut, Assemblage 23, and VNV Nation. In the interest of judging albums I haven't heard yet, here's a quick rundown of what you might expect from these records based solely on 30 second sound clips, a few mp3s I came across and my own prejudices. Feel free to come back in May and call me out for completely getting it wrong.

Combichrist 'What the Fuck is Wrong With You People'
Icon of Coil frontman Andy Laplegua's last album under this moniker was some of the most obnoxiously catchy disposable EBM of recent years. The industrial club equivalent of cotton candy, it seems great at the time but is ultimately insubstantial. That said his 2006 single 'Get Your Body Beat' is probably the best stompy club jam of recent years and if the 30 second clip of the album's title track from Metro's website is indicative of anything, the album could actually be a barnstormer.

:Wumpscut: 'Body Census'
I didn't actually buy the last two :W: albums after betting badly burnt on the execrable 'Bone Peeler' (although I hear tell from my compatriots that 'Cannibal Anthem' was alright), so I can't say the impending release of 'Body Census' is a shoe-in to set my world on fire. Certainly, the easy to mock You Are A Goth is really kind of inexcusable and would seem to point to another stinker from Rudy. Then again, We Believe, We Believe is pretty decent, if the rest of the album leans towards the latter and stays well away from the former it could still end up being middling to fair.

Assemblage 23 'Meta'
Maybe it's the clubs I go to but it doesn't seem like the kind of emotive futurepop Tom Shear is known for is still getting a lot of play for the dancefloor. With that in mind, all the Ass 23 records have been strong from a songwriting perspective and have had impeccable production, there's no reason to think this one is going to be any different. Of the available samples on the band's Metropolis profile, I think the Covenant-like Dirt, a B-Side from the first single is the most promising sounding.

VNV Nation 'Judgement'
This one could really go any which way. The last album had some good songs, but didn't have the catchiness or appeal of their monster second and third records. Unlike the rest of the albums I'm being unfair to here, I haven't been able to locate so much as a snippet of music to judge it by. That said, their PR write up mentions that the song 'Nemesis' features "pounding bass-line and melody to its electric-guitar like synth sounds" which could be kind of neat. On the other hand, apparently 'Testament' "could be described as an electronic-indie anthem", which sounds awful but might make sense considering the fact they're playing Coachella this year.

A Split Second - Flesh

2007-02-12T20:32:00.000-08:00

First released on 12" in 1986 on Antler records (prior to that label's merger with Subway to form the imaginatively named Antler-Subway) 'Flesh' was the debut release from belgian duo A Split-Second. The track itself is a tasty slice of old school EBM, it's ultra-recognizable hook, pounding 4/4 drum beat and spoken vocals creating a sound comparable to more well-known contemporaries like the Klinik and Front 242 and paving the way for later acts like Bigod 20. However the most notable influence it would have would be in allegedly accidentally creating the mostly forgotten but highly influential genre of New Beat. According to legend (and Wikipedia), DJ Marc Grouls played the 45 rpm 12 inch at 33 rpms. Apparently the sound created by the slower heavier beats was like catnip to Belgian club goers and before long various acts (frequent;y the same people using different names) were churning out an endless string of sluggish electronic jams. Most notably, the musical trend would give birth to the Lords of Acid when producers Praga Khan, Jade 4 U and Oliver Adams teamed up to create their now trademark sex and acid jams. 'Flesh' itself was remixed and rereleased at a slower BPM, presumably so the record buying public could get ahold of the song in the form it was most well known in. This New Beat mix would become the most recognizable version of the song. The New Beat movement itself thrived briefly before its adherents and artists, perhaps intrigued by the sounds coming out of detroit and the UK moved on to other genres like techno, acid house and NRG, relegating the short-lived genre to footnote status in the history of electronic music. 'Flesh' itself however would show up again in the form of numerous remixes that would port it over to other contemporary forms of electronic dance music. A raved up remix by Koen Tillie would appear on A Split-Second's 1991 remix album Flesh & Fire and Paul 'Perfecto' Oakenfold would release a Trance version in 2001*. Concurrently, A Split Second founding member Chrismar Chayell released another remix album called Transmix which featured a track labeled 'Flesh (Jungle)'**.

A Split Second - Flesh
A Split Second - Flesh (New Beat Remix)
A Split Second - Flesh (Koen Tillie Mix)

*If anyone knows where I can hear even a sample of this version hit me up with a link.
**I don't know whether this refers to the genre of music or is just the name of the mix.

2006 In Review, Part 2

2007-02-09T15:47:00.000-08:00

The Prids, "...Until The World Is Beautiful"
It would be easy to lament that a band as long-standing, as tight, and as potentially life-changing as The Prids released what is only their second full-length last year. Those of us who can't see them rock out almost once a month in Portland may be tempted to bemoan how lineup changes, label problems, and a gut-wrenching touring schedule have kept them out of the studio and fresh Prids product out of our grubby hands. "But," as the band (or anyone not myopically lost in their own self-interest) might counter, "would The Prids be The Prids without those factors? Would you still listen to 'Love Zero' whenever you go walking while it's snowing at night if you had six LPs and four rarities comps to choose from, if millions of screaming teenagers kept Mistina and David on the cover of Teen People every other month?" "Well," you stammeringly attempt, "if that meant that a percentage of those teenagers went vegan and bought Chameleons records..." But 'what-if?' is a rube's game when it comes to rock, you'll just end up with Keith Moon alive and officiating Ian Curtis' fourth marriage (to Amy Winehouse), so tell yourself to quit playing it, and just deal with the matter at hand: a fresh fucking Prids record.

And what a beast it is. Critics worth their salt should be well past the cop-out of name-dropping The Prids' influences (which they've never made any bones about) as short-hand for describing them. Whether it's a matter of them coming into their own or just the perspective that a second record provides listeners (that they never really sounded too much like various earlier bands - a position I maintain), "...Until The World" is a record by a band confident in what they are doing and capable of bringing fresh vitality to every track they lay. They refine their talent for lively dynamics between bass and guitar, keeping the listener aware of the tension and movement within the songs' very structures. When they care to, they can exploit this to devastating ends, maintaining a frenetic anxious anticipation throughout "All That You Want," or constructing epic columns of noise in "Infection" which hearken back to their earliest material. Most impressively, though, they deliver two songs any band would give their eyeteeth to be able to drop on unsuspecting crowds seeing them for the first time, at the end of a hazy Thursday night show rife with lager, hope and beauty: both "Like Hearts" and "Before We Are" evoke the blurry nostalgia of high school drama, Very Important Things being discussed walking through rain and streetlights, the reclamation of an inner essence of love of live, now impossible to distinguish reality from false memory. Bare tree branches layer winter twilight. Put more lucidly and bluntly: they're gorgeous fucking songs that'll stop your heart.

So raise your glasses to The Prids: we're luckier than they know to have them, and "...Until The World Is Beautiful" is the strongest proof of that yet.
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The Dresden Dolls, "Yes Virginia"
This sophomore release may not have the immediate kidney-punch impact of their eponymous debut, but knowing how to listen to the Boston Weimar freaks this time around yields new levels of enjoyment. Oh sure, they can still establish teen angst tension instantaneously with a quick minor trill, but we know what to listen for now: the songs. And a good batch this is: honest, funny, driving, and not married to their aesthetic to a fault.

Once your ear's trained to pick up on Amanda Palmer's double-entendres and general dirty wordplay, the cabaret shtick becomes merely a feint for pragmatic, domestic tales of alcoholism, masturbation, and e-mail checking, rather than the actual substance of what the Dolls are doing. In this way, "Yes, Virginia" has much more in common with Geoff Berner's klezmer-krazed front for beer-hall wrist-tippers than, say, the oblique pantomime symbolism of Cinema Strange. Bukowski, not Baudelaire. This isn't to sell the theatrical elements of the Dresden Dolls short: while it's not on the album proper, one has to give credit to any band that appends a bonus track called "Lonesome Organist Rapes Page Turner" for the import market.

The last time the Dolls came through town tickets were in the $70 range as they were in the opening slot for the downright execrable Panic At The Disco (no, I'm not gonna play their punctuation reindeer games). While I was pissed at having to miss them, the chance that at least some of the kids at the shows would hear something different, something the radio wasn't giving them, was heartening. As I write a girl or boy with smudgy makeup and misapplied nail polish is no doubt strumming their way through a post-Cobain anthem like "Sing" at a suburban coffee shop for an audience made up of kids from the smoke pit.
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Welle: Erdball, "Chaos Total"
I read an interview with W:E around the time of the release of "Die Wunderwelt der Technik" in which they stated that their only plans for the future were to "sound more like Welle: Erdball." Might've been an inaccurate translation, but it's a sentiment uniquely suitable for the German retro-synth-poppers. They've always had their style and shtick down to perfection: decked out in swank 1950's duds, they present themselves as a radio station broadcasting songs about technology (hydrogen, the pros and cons of various modes of transport, and why Nintendo and Microsoft's resistance to open source projects is evil) across the world. The issue of their sound, however, proves a tad thornier.

Both "Wunderwelt der Technik" and its predecessor, "Der Sinn des Lebens," were coherent packets of synthpop perfection, delivering the full range of their themes and moods within unified structures of sound. Since then, things have become a tad muddied: an EP which grew to LP length ("Nur Tote frauen sind schön") and mixed new tracks with various side and solo material, contemporary and historical challenged the going wisdom about W:E (that you can identify them within the first five seconds of a song) for the first time. A Speak-N-Spell themed EP ("Horizonterweiterungen") was deliberately obtuse: vinyl-only, 45RPM on one side, 33RPM on the other, their technological archaism becoming increasingly obscure as they began to work more prominently in the demoscene. As their first full LP in four years, then, "Chaos Total" is faced with the challenge of making a unified statement about what Welle: Erdball is now, or at least what they are about.

Ironically, the album starts by bailing on the traditional test by which a W:E album's sound can be gaged. Their eponymous "station identification" song which has opened every single one of their LPs, always retooled to fit their current sonic palette, is cut to nothing more than a brief recording of its lyrics delivered in computerized monotone. The album continues their recent trend of experimenting with an ever-increasing slew of song structures with varied results: "Das Souvenir" opts for bare-bones surf-rock chord progressions, which amuses for a moment, but isn't anything lasting. Inexplicably, one track lifts the instrumental track from an earlier song, slows it down slightly, and adds new lyrics. Even more redundantly, another old song, "Bill Gates, Komm F... Mit Mir" is imported wholesale: that the vocal track of the now-departed female vocalist have been replaced by the current one does nothing to lessen the irritation of this.

But "Chaos Total" isn't all fracture and failed experimentation: "Mathematique" delivers the goods by laying their trademark fluctuating bleeps overtop an inescapably club-styled beat, putting it in the tradition of tracks like "1000 Weisse Lilien" and "Super 8." "Graf Krolok" offers the same sheer melodic bliss as "VW Kafer," with hints of the melancholy of their earliest material. Other cuts ("Grusse Von Der Orion," "Das Sternenkind") are far more difficult to pigeonhole, but point to exciting new directions while staying true to their classic aesthetic.

So: not their best, not their worst, not the "classic return to form," not the best introduction for newcomers, not too schizophrenic to function. For long-time fans, "Chaos Total" throws more heat than smoke, and offers enough callbacks to the glory of the past and tastes of good things to come to remind us of why we love them, and why Welle: Erdball remain the only band who could ever be Welle: Erdball.

Xynthetic Net Label "Statement of Purpose" Compilation

2007-02-05T21:29:00.000-08:00

Vancouver based net-label Xynthetic Records is releasing a download comp tomorrow, entitled "Statement of Purpose". As you might surmise from the name, the comp is designed to show you the wide range of electronic music the label will be dealing in as it's stock and trade. Coming in at a whopping 26 tracks of Drum n' Bass, IDM, Techno, Electro and Ambient, the comp features a healthy mix of familiar names (Keef Baker, Displacer, Urusai, Mochipet and Portland all contribute tracks) and new artists on an international scale. And it's FREE. That's right, the whole download is being offered completely free of charge under a Creative Commons License. In other words, as long as you give credit, you're allowed to download it, distribute it, copy it and otherwise disseminate it as you wish. All it's gonna cost you is the bandwidth it takes to suck it down. You can click right here to be taken to the download page. Of particular note is the debut of Chris (Frontline Assembly, Will) Peterson's Revelstoker project with the simultaneously creepy and spastic 'Twister' and as a special treat, the return of N5MD label honcho and Gridlock alumni Cadoo's Dryft project with the appropriately titled 'Resurrection'. If you want to check out some tracks while you download, a happy selection is available via Xynthetic's myspace page. Mad applause for labelheads Graeme Foote (aka DJ Pyxis) and Josh Garret (aka compilation contributor Xyn) for putting this together, more updates on their upcoming schedule of releases to come.

The Retrosic doesn't suck now apparently?

2007-02-02T12:40:00.000-08:00

No, it's totally true! My homey DJ Sickbot has been telling me for months that their 2006 album 'Nightcrawler' was hot fire for the dancefloor, I assumed he was either pulling my chain or possibly going deaf from coming into the booth after me when I've had the monitors turned up. I've been laid up for a few days with a nasty pulled muscle, and at his behest checked the record out via the magic of the internet. I didn't have high hopes considering their first domestically released record 'God of Hell' was a mediocre :Wumpscut: impression at best and just kind of awful and unlistenable at worst. Imagine my surprise when rather than the standard Enzeit electro of yore I was treated to a hybridized sound featuring elements of big beat style techno and even a touch of old school stabby rave synth. They aren't the first Industrial group to dabble in jacking the Prodigy, but given how nuts people still go for 'Smack my Bitch Up' and 'Voodoo People', you'd think more EBM kids would have. Of particular note is the track 'Bloodsport' whose breakbeat and growly sounding bass synth and weird middle eastern sample on the chorus particularly evoke the works of Mr. Howlett and company. ('Bloodsport' also bears the distinction of being better than any song on Spetsnaz's album of the same name by a considerable factor). The vocals and lyrics are pretty much what you would expect (complete garbage) but I can't say I listen to elektro for that. I just can't deny how much I really like about 3/4s of this record, which puts it way ahead of most recent releases in it's genre. Go figure.

The Retrosic - "Bloodsport"

Also, here's the video for the single 'Desperate Youth' which has a bassline veeeery reminiscent of The Prodigy's 'Diesel Power'. Better production values, than most industrial videos though.

"jamais je ne pleure et jamais je ne ris"

2007-01-29T21:39:00.000-08:00

EBM fans talk a good game about how lyrics "just sound better" in German, but this might be a case in which the genre's Belgian roots pay off in spades: Modern Cubism is an electronic project whose selling point is nothing less than Jean-Luc De Meyer singing the poetry of French symbolist, critic, noted alcoholic and all-around decadent bad-ass, Charles Baudelaire. The music is pleasant, if not earth-shattering (nice analog feel, kinda reminiscent of the various mellow post-Battery projects as well as C-Tec), but as a massive fan of Baudelaire, hearing De Meyer wrap his trademark guttural voice around so many of his poems is a treat.

Ostro or Visi?

2007-01-23T09:54:00.000-08:00

Sound samples are up on Metropolis' website for Wumpscut's forthcoming "Goth Census" single. All of it sounds pretty standard for das :Wump:, but of particular note is the snippet of a Yendri club mix of the amusingly titled 'You are a Goth'. Being that Rudy hasn't had a ubiquitous club hit since 'Wreath of Barbs', it might well be that he's invoking Razed in Black's Law: "Any song using the word 'Goth' in it's name or lyrics shall receive mad spins in the club, regardless of quality or suitability for that purpose."* Which isn't to say that it won't be a good club jam, although personally I'd feel pretty ridiculous dancing to a song with lyrics like "This is your race/You are a Goth". Also, does anyone else find it odd that Pope Ratzinger tapped Yendri for not one but three remixes on the single? He's been using her pretty steadily for two albums now, but it’s not like her remixes on the limited editions of Evoke or Cannibal Anthem set the world on fire. Who does he think she is, haujobb or something?

*Seriously, before "Oh My Goth!" RiB were mostly known for providing filler on Cleopatra's increasingly ridiculous "A Gothic Tribute to Whomever" series. Which is kind of a shame, because they had some really good tracks, 'Damaged' specifically was a really good club record.

New Majesty

2007-01-20T16:34:00.000-08:00

In The Nursery have have composed music for or licensed music to more films and television (including my beloved Rome) than you or I have ever seen. The self-described "Gods of the Bombastic" have been smashing you with martial drums and thunderous cellos while you imagine yourself decapitating umber hulks in the Underdark (or maybe that's just me), before lulling with delicate clarinets and vocals for over 25 years. "L'Esprit" is a stone classic guaranteed to enliven your D&D campaign, night-time Umberto Eco reading, or pasta cooking (if, y'know, you like to cook pasta with dramatic flair). Their new record drops this Tuesday and looks to continue their tradition of making any other "pop" music which describes itself as "cinematic" sound like your uncle's off-camera mutterings on old home movies by comparison.
In The Nursery, "To The Faithful"
In The Nursery, "Retaliation"
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New all-female side project from Elena Fossi of Kirlian Camera fame and elegance, apparently permanently taking the place of the Siderartica project: Spectra Paris. Two tracks on MySpace, album in the works for spring. If you've liked the sweeping melodic electro tracks from the last couple of Kirlian releases ("K-Pax," "Coroner's Sun" etc., and really, who didn't?), this should be cause for much excitement.
Siderartica, "Lucky Village's Oversight"

Fallout.

2007-01-18T21:42:00.000-08:00

The recent announcement that dependent is calling it quits raises some interesting questions. Obviously some of the bands on their roster were'nt finished their contracs, and likely won't be by the time Dep shuts its doors in the spring/summer.
So the big question will be, what happens to the bands? We've seen many scenarios in the past where a label dies, and then bands can't release anything for years because they're locked up in legal hell. Will all of the bands on Dependent get some sort of release? If so, will they be shorted money for not getting to live out their contract? Will some of them owe money?

Another interesting question is, what will happen to their back catalogue? Will all of dependent's stuff go out of print? It may not be TOO big of a deal, since a lot of it has been licensed to Metropolis...but some albums, like SVD's "Hope," were not.
It's fair to assume that there may be a special clearance sale on Dependent titles in the near future, coming to a retailer near you.

This whole situation has stirred panic in some people. Battery Cage, for instance, who should probably just feel lucky that 3000 people even downloaded their album. In the end though, it's important to remember one of nature's eternal rules: The Strong Survive. Bands putting out product that's solid enough to make a connection with its audience will do fine. Good records inspire loyalty. Look at Combichrist. "Everybody hates you" was released right in the prime of the downloading era, yet it has gone on to become the biggest selling album ever released on the Out of Line label. It will be interesting to see what happens when "What the Fuck is Wrong with you People?" is released in March.

I'm also curious as to why Tommy T keeps bitching about iTunes. I guess if you run a shop dealing strictly in pre-recorded music on a physical medium, yes, it would be a pain in the ass...but the train rolls on. Consumers have the right to choose how they want their music delivered, provided it's legitimate. iTunes pays the labels approximately 70 cents on each song sold (assuming the song is the usual base price of 99 cents.) Of that 70 cents, the actual artists typically sees maybe 10-15%. On 70 cents, that adds up to 7 to 10.5 cents per song. Most albums sell for 9.99, so for a full album sale they're looking at 70 cents to a buck-o-five. So really, itunes isn't serving the artists any better or worse, so it's pretty ridiculous to be calling apple the fall of western civilization.

Cashing In, Cashing Out

2007-01-17T18:23:00.000-08:00

Alex: So, the announcement of Dependant going under has started off some delightful flambé on Side Line's message board. The fact that Stefan seems to be laying the demise of the label firmly at the feet of downloaders has kicked off the old debate about the perceived value of mp3s both legal and illegal. Cue DSBP label head Tommy T with a well-reasoned and stated opinion on said topic:

"I always noticed the people who love downloads so much are usually never in a band or run a label...its always the people who think that music should be devalued are the ones who don't create music..sounds like extreme jealousy to me...since they can't make music no one else should be able to make cash off of their creations or music either...its like all these free "netlabels"hahahah thye are a joke...any fool can do this and pay nothing to do so...no overhead is good for the cheapies in this scene...they are free cause their shit is so bad no one would want to buy it..so they have to give it away for free, and then this continues that vicious circle of training fans to think it should all be free....the wussies that do this are just trying to get in with the trend and think that free music is the way it should be...cause no one would buy theirs anyways....its called giving in and selling out to the sheep."

Thought provoking! On the other hand, perhaps it's not just illegal downloading leading to generally lower sales for Industrial artists. Quote Dr. Chop:

"i think the real problem here is a combination of a) traditional "labels" having far too much overhead to be supported by bands who only sell 5000 copies of a record, and b) the vast amount of bands creates so much noise that the scene is unable to be dominated by 5-10 groups as in the past. thus, as the amount of bands increase, total sales get spread out over more bands, thus *everyone's* sales go down. add in some random additional factor to account for illegal downloading and there you have it."

Now we have no way of drawing a direct correlation between downloads and declining sales, however a member of Battery Cage chimes in with the following:

"the MP3 site that he references in the statement, to see what the stats on the latest Battery Cage album were. well, it was posted to their site almost two full weeks before street date, so we can thank some fuckheaded "member of the press" for providing them with that. and the downloads were well over 3000 copies, which sort of helps explain why Metropolis is telling me that we aren't selling jack shit. who knows if we will even be able to release another album at this point? i don't!! why should i even bother? it's not like it's free for me to make this music...why should i keep pouring money and blood into giving thieves my soul for free?"

This of course assumes that everyone who downloads a CD illegally would have bought a legit copy in the first place. And finally, we have Tommy T again:

"CD's, industrial music, DSBP and Metropolis, etc. were all here before itunes, and we made this scene happen...not itunes....so...instead of going off on me or anyone else actually doing something cool with music instead of just following trends to be accepted you may want to reassses the facts and figures and see that some of us are just trying to help the scene and CD format stay alive and thats it...."

I understand the part about iTunes, presumably we'd be happier putting our money into the hands of our local CD importer instead of Apple computers, but I find the particular dedication to the CD format over actual content kind of puzzling.

---
Bruce: Dr. Chop makes a good point regarding the wider distribution of a finite number of consumer dollars spread across an ever-increasing number of bands. The increased access to means of production and distribution that we've seen in the past eight or so years means more bands and also theoretically means broader reach to new audiences that might not have heard a particular genre or band had they been active in the late 80s, but there's no guarantee that legitimate, lasting interest in any genre or band will be correlative to that effect.

In this sense, Dr. Chop's comments obliquely brush upon the uspeakable elitist heresy: that the disappearance of a certain amount of less-than-stellar bands might actually be good for a scene. It's a delicate balance: when a genre is in its infancy, or is trying to find a foothold in a new town or country, talk of unity and scene support is used to rally the troops and generally build the scene. But there's a point, a "critical mass" (groan) if you will, at which point the comparative strengths and weaknesses of a scene's varying bands come into focus, and niches are found or they are not. To be clear: I'm not saying that label and distribution factors don't have an effect on a band's success or failure, they have a profound effect, likely more than any content-based factors when it comes to major label releases (I'm a good McLuhanite, I suppose). I'm just saying that not every band that puts a record out on an independent label has an automatic right to success. Unfortunately, we've all seen too many great bands go ignored due to label politicking while many bastards succeed (to quote Gira). For every jaw-droppingly awesome band whom you foist on your friends whose records get overlooked in the shuffle of ineptitude (I'll be bold and say The Tear Garden), there's another astonishingly craptacular band whose promo material you can't help but trip over (Aghast View? Um...I'm struggling for a contemporary example. Alex, who do we hate? Alex: Cesium 137. We hate Cesium 137).

...One other short point: DSBP seems to price their releases well below many other independents (looks like $12 US is the average). In that sense, Tommy T's putting his money squarely where his mouth is, and he definitely deserves to be yielded some moral high ground in this debate on that account.

Alex: I don't know that he is actually. As is apparent by the first quote posted by him, he feels net labels and anyone else who offers content for free must have product which is of inferior quality. So if we take that to it's logical extension, doesn't that mean that in Tommy T's world if you charge less than another label for a CD, it must be of a lesser quality? Not a belief I subscribe to, but not a huge leap in his logic either.

2006 in Review, Part 1

2007-01-17T14:33:00.000-08:00

I'll be posting reviews of records released in the past year which made an impression, or failed to, in three parts, culminating with my favourites. Up first: the decent and the awful.

:wumpscut:, "Cannibal Anthem"
The second law of Ratzingarian physics is clear enough. Preserving the original Elizabethan spelling (while :w: did not come into being until the late 20th century, its theoretical groundwork was established centuries earlier by John Dee, in his little known gnostic text "The Lawes of Rivetting and There Applicashun," originally thought to be a cryptographical diatribe against metalworking guilds), it is as follows:

":w: recordes shalle vary in there quality in binary fashun: there can be no bunkerator withoute boese junges fleisch, no embriodede withoute evocation. Lette any man who sayeth otherwyse be subject to bone pealer on repeate."

(The first law, of course, reads that "You shalle notte compleate one songe without grieving the Englishe tongue by way of heinous mispronounciasion or awkwarde metaphore. Perfection is notte of this worlde and alle industrial recordes have sinned and falle shorte of the glory of "Fronte By Fronte.")

While many have tried to interpret the second law as meaning that the quality of :wumpscut: releases alternate in quality in a binary fashion, there's nothing inherent in the law that states that the records will oscillate between sucking and ruling, and such a myopic point of view ignores the double-whammy of awfulness that was "Evoke" following "Bone Peeler." Those who try to customize the :w: discography to fit their own historical agendas (cherrypicking European vs stateside release dates, incorporating remix albums and previously unreleased compilations at will) are revisionists of the worst kind.

Instead, the law merely indicates that a balance must be maintained between the good and the evil in the catalog. Previous to "Cannibal Anthem," there were four major releases in each camp, making this a record which could easily upset the balance. The verdict? "Cannibal Anthem" is good, but thankfully, not overbearingly so. Beginning with some classic cold crunch n' yowl of the "Slaughtering" era ("Wir Warten," the album begins work in many of the electro elements that dominated the last two (abominable) records, but with much more taste and subtlety, blending them with the more loop riff-based material found on the interminable "previously unreleased" compilations. I think "Jesus Antichristus" is trying to sound like "Assimilate," but ends up being much closer to "Doctorin' The Tardis." Not that there's anything wrong with that. The end result is an album you'll pull two or three tracks from for mixed playlists or DJing, but will also find its way onto your speakers once or twice a year, possibly while you're cooking pasta.

If we expect the second law to persevere (and who'd question John Dee?), then we can look forward to a record that's the complete inverse of "Cannibal Anthem" in 2007. Something brash and embarassing which may contain a sleeper dancefloor hit eight months after its release. What's on deck, Rudy? Ah: "Body Census," with lead single "Goth Census" presumably being a hybrid of the title track and other album cut (no, I'm not joshing you) "You Are A Goth." Gee, this just smacks of restraint and quality control. I'm interested in the methodology and nature of the "Goth Census." Is it determinative, ie: check "yes" or "no" on the goth census so I can say with conviction that "You are a goth"? Or is it proscriptive, ie: I know that "You are a goth" and are ergo mandated by the Goth Domestication and Naturalization Act of 1988 (passed in the wake of Spike wearing a Mission t-shirt in the Degrassi Junior High opening credits) to complete and submit the goth census? I can't wait to hear how Ratzinger addresses key domestic issues such as cassis shortages making snakebite in short supply and the current administration's inability to bring Valor Kand to justice for the commission of Atrocities against humanity.
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Covenant, "Skyshaper"
It's a shame when what seems to be the first real experiment by a band whose success is almost wholly due to craft falls flat on its face. Such is the case with "Skyshaper." After album after album of increasingly refined dancefloor gold, the boys in the sharp suits got it into their heads to shoot the moon and gamble it all on quirky sounds, new structures and whatnot. Unfortunately, the end result is a gelatinous mess which shuffles about aimlessly, never yielding purpose or beauty, which is all the more tragic given the apparent zeal with which they laboured through this project. "Ritual Noise" is a par-for-the-course Covenant dancefloor track which has been remixed quite nicely on several occasions, but as a rule we've got tracks polished to abstraction with very little substance. And the lyrics. Oh my. "Sweet and salty / Tears of joy / Liquid lies / Cheeks on fire / Loud and noisy / Girls and boys / Ancient rites /Late at night" When Ratzinger engages in this sort of mutilation of the English language, at least there's the vocal distortion to muffle the effect. With Eskil's deadpan baritone front and centre, there's no way to avoid the lyrics' pained awkwardness, which is endemic to "Skyshaper" as a whole.
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Panzer AG, "Your World Is Burning"
Or, as I like to say, your bagel's been in the toaster too long. I'm of the opinion that every single one of LaPlegua's records under the various monikers up until this one is solid and matches the respective aesthetics and purposes of each name he records under. Fine. So how does adding leek soup thin alterna-geetar and keening rock radio song structures follow suit from the war-themed stomp-fest that was "This Is My Battlefield?" Ah. It doesn't. We all have our off days.
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Clan Of Xymox, "Breaking Point"
...And this might the titular moment at which I part ways with future Xymox releases. I don't even grudge Ronny Moorings for shifting gears from the heart-rending atmosphere of the 4AD material; he was able to release one truly exceptional "modern" goth record with an eye to the dancefloor ("Hidden Faces"), but it's been eight years since the reappending of the "Clan Of" prefix to the band's name and "Hidden Faces" is about all there is to show for it. This is calculated to the point of banality, and aimed at an audience that has no reason to care anymore. What have you done for me lately? A cruel question, but a fair one once you've put out four consecutive mediocre records.
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Gary Numan, "Jagged"
Like Ronny Moorings, Numan's settled into a comfortable niche within a subgenre that formed in his absence from the spotlight. Numan seems to be able to churn out chugga-chug industrial rock accented by his whispering wail in his sleep (although this missive was delayed by almost three years). As far as I'm concerned, he's more than earned that right after having been a commercial and critical pariah for over a full decade. Having seen younger bands who dominated while he languished, it's only fair that he draw upon them upon his return as they did him. That being said, there's nothing particularly essential about this, his fourth record post-comeback in black. There's nothing wrong with it either, per se, but unless yr a devotee yr better off checking out "Exile" or "Pure," both of which cover most of the same territory with some better tunes.

Point of interest! The website of a Christian Numan fan whose broken ranks with the Numanoids due to the anti-religious sturm und drang of the last four releases. Warning: a "Cars" MIDI will start playing at you.

Dependant Records to Close Up Shop

2007-01-17T07:50:00.000-08:00

According to a post in Dependant record's official forums, the label will be ceasing to operate in the near future. Label honcho Stefan Herwig:

"It wont be at immediate effect, and we are not bancrupt (sic). But we do refuse to release records in a maret were coopyright is being systematically undermined. I refuse to work and constantly loose money by trying to build up artists careers. I refuse to release CDs where a majority of the users decides to leach the content instead of really buying it."

He goes on to say that the label will be active until at least Summer 2007. This means that a huge number of EBM and Neu-Industrial groups including Seabound, Flesh Field, Suicide Commando, Babyland, Dismantled, Interlace and Rotersand are gonna be looking for a new european label soon. (As an aside, I'm unsure as to how many of these bands were signed to Metropolis and licensed to Dependant and vice versa.) It's a shame, if a noted label like Dependant dealing exclusively in Industrial club music isn't able to turn enough of a profit to make it worthwhile to continue operating, it leads one to wonder who IS going to keep putting it out. I mean aside from Metropolis, although I daresay it seems like they're probably seeing more success from artists outside the genre like Electric Six or straddling the line like MSI. So long Dependant, when you get to the afterlife (presumably post summer) say hi to Fifth Colvmn, 21st Circuitry, Gashed!, Inception, Bloodline, Pendragon and the rest. We miss them.

The Remix: Apoptygma Berzerk - Mourn (Mesh remix)

2007-01-14T14:44:00.001-08:00

Here's a great Mesh remix of Apoptygma Berzerk's "Mourn" from the otherwise execrable recent album of covers and remixes Sonic Diary (Sonic Diahrrea?). Oddly enough this is a very successful attempt to do what Apop has been flailing at for a few records now, that is to find a crossover point between their EBM roots and stadium alternative rock. Kind of hard to figure out how much of that success is attributable to Mesh's efforts versus what they had to work with. The vocals sound rerecorded from the original version, I certainly wouldn't be surprised to find out that El Grotho and company were redoing all their older hits in their new style. At any rate, this is probably the best sounding thing they've had anything to do with since Welcome to Earth, hopefully it'll be making it's way to a playlist near you soon.

Apoptygma Berzerk - Mourn (Mesh remix)

2007-01-13T09:02:00.000-08:00

There's an excellent new Skinny Puppy song available on their myspace. I gotta admit, I was particularly wary of their comeback record The Great Wrong of the Right when it came out. Considering Cevin Key and Ogre's decent but not exceptional solo output after the dissolution of the group following the death of Dwayne Goettel, it didn't seem prudent to assume that the two of them getting back together would yield results comparable to their creative heyday. The album actually ended up being quite good, mostly because rather than aping their own glory days style or content-wise, they set out to do something altogether different. Even when it didn't succeed, it at least felt like weren't on artistic auto-pilot, the curse of many a comeback record. The new song "Pasturn" actually hearkens back a little bit more to classic Puppy then anything on TGWotR, with touches of Rabies-esque guitar and a really nice sweeping synth pad that reminds me of the chorus from "Love in Vein" from Last Rites. It's a nice appetizer for the highly anticipated new album Mythmaker, I daresay you'll be hearing more about that one in these parts when it's released.

Victory Not Ven-wah?

2007-01-12T07:19:00.000-08:00

According to Metropolis records' website, VNV Nation will be playing the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival this year. It's a surprising move, if Ronan and Mark were going to play a big crossover festival it seems like it would have happened a few years back when they were the hottest thing to hit the goth scene since synthetic hair extensions. Maybe it's just Vancouver, but it really doesn't seem like they have the same presence in the Goth/Industrial club scene that they did back in the heady days of the early 21st century when their ebm-inflected vocal trance (or "futurepop" as they would have it) was shaking black clad booties hither and yon. Having a healthy dash of goth street cred seems to have always been part of Coachella's purview having featured performances by the Bauhaus, Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Cure in previous years. They always have a few token electronic acts on stage as well. Maybe this is an attempt to combine the two for maximum appeal. If you take into account VNV's not-so-subtle use of Christian allegory in their lyrics it might even be an attempt to tap into the Jesus music market. Can't even imagine how their two-man drums n' karaoke show is gonna go over on a giant Festival stage.

Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World

2007-01-11T21:25:00.000-08:00

I wanted to continue with the issue of fascist imagery and satire in pop as alluded to by Alex previously.

There's an art to deploying totalitarian imagery in pop media, and Laibach are the undisputed masters thereof as far as I'm concerned. I have no qualms with such subjects and imagery being explored, but if you've got the cajones to do so, you'd best also have the cajones to withstand accusations and misunderstandings. Getting your panties in a twist as though you didn't expect any backlash or offering mealy-mouthed defenses about how people need to lighten up and not take things so seriously doesn't cut it - I'm looking at you, Hanzel Und Gretyl.

Questions to consider before applying fascist tropes to your band's image or music: What do you hope to accomplish by doing so? Are you attempting to draw parallels between fascism and other current political regimes/discourses? Or between fascism and other structures (love, sex, pop music itself)? I'm not saying that explanations and justifications must be clearly stated and passed through a Nazi-detection machine before being released, just that you'd best be giving your audience something to think about rather than trying to score cheap hype via poorly planned shock. Doing the latter earns you the loss of every opportunity extending from your decision.

Some related mp3s:
-Ramones, "Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World" A somewhat obvious choice, and not the most well-developed, but the title perfectly demonstrates Hegel's idea of man's need to make history, first within the domestic sphere in youth, then in state-regulated (and generally imperialist) expansion.
-Foetus, "I'll Meet You In Poland, Baby" Again we've got parallels between between sexual and world conquest, executed with all of the panache and lyrical double-entendres that are JG Thirlwell's trademark.

Some further discussion on the subject:
-A scathing indictment of Death In June written by avant art historian and literary enfant terrible Stuart Home.
-Mick Mercer goes off on Nazi fetishism with righteous indignation, although old Uncle Mick might be throwing the kinder out with the baderwasser as far as condemning the entirety of neo-folk. From a semiotic standpoint, though, Mick's 100% right: it's never "just clothes."

Thoughts meander

2007-01-11T20:50:00.000-08:00

As a bit of a unicorn chaser to the sturm und drang of the previous post, I thought I'd offer up Laibach's cover of "Across The Universe" from their "Let It Be" record in which they reinvent every track of the Beatles original (save the title track). The simple beauty of this version offers some short respite from the terror of "I've Got A Feeling" reimagined at Nuremburg et al, and may be, dare I say it, the only move ever made by Laibach not laden with satire and political subtext.

Slovenia is a Land of Contrast

2007-01-11T16:15:00.000-08:00

I remember Bruce and I once had a conversation about how little satire was left in Industrial music. Aside from Snog, and the occasional Foetus release from Thirlwell, it seems like the genre is pretty devoid of any clever social commentary. That is to say that if random EBM group A writes a song about a social issue or what have you, I'm not expecting them to have much to say about it other than "Sweat Shops are bad!" or whatever. Anyways, during the convo, Bruce pointed out quite rightly that the all time kings of Industrial satire Laibach are still going strong after a quarter of a century at work. You'd think that a band who made their name doing militaristic covers of pop songs might have run out of creative steam some time back, but those wacky slovenians are still hard at work using our silly songs to make points about european politics and the contradictions inherent in western democracy (for real!). Seeing as their use of imagery is so central to what they do, I figured a quick video rundown would be fun.

Life is Life (from the album Opus Dei)

This is what I'm talking about. Cover of a lame reggae song, made over into an ultra-fascist anthem. So ultra-fascist in fact that one questions how anyone could have ever doubted it was parody. I could say something about how this makes a salient point about lyrical context, but you already knew that right?

Sympathy for the Devil (from Sympathy for the Devil)

I don't really have much to say about this, except that I saw this on TV when I was a kid and it scared the hell out of me. This was back when Much Music showed videos, and not reality TV shows. Although I must admit combining the two for a Laibach reality TV show would be pretty slick. Anyways, I gotta admire a band that makes a video where they march right into hell like it ain't even a thing.

Anglia (from Volk)

From last year's Volk, an album where each song had a theme for a particular nation, including elements from those nation's national anthems. This is a little more direct then you might otherwise expect from them, but it's still pretty neat. See if you can figure out which country this is about!

Your blog is dead/And no one cares

2007-01-11T15:43:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Inner Ear Infection. I ain't gonna get all fancy on you, give you a statement of purpose or nothin'. This is a blog for us and (hopefully) a rotating cast of music obsessed cronies to wax philosophical about the tunes we like. Could be old or new, stuff for the club or just whatever we're feeling at a given moment. I'm big on the show-don't-tell school of bloggery, so I'm a just get on this right away. Blog On!