No More "Suicide Commando"

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?"

"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"

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

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

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

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

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.
---

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.
---

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

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?

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"

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?

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

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"
---
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.

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

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

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.
---

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.
---

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.
---

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.
---

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

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)

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)

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?

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

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."