Four sedated tunes from Beau Wanzer coming on Nation. Subtle and not so subtle frequencies drag aside gloomed out rhythms and beat less malfunctions.
industrial
Unknown Artist – Wargames #1 [WAR001]
Mysterious, dark & distorted heavy hitters on 7”. Definitely not for everyone. Limited press which won’t last. ”Shout out to Matilda & the Paris regiment.”
Ron Morelli – Periscope Blues [HOS405]
The LIES bossman delivers the third chapter in his ongoing series of electronic concoctions for Vatican Shadow’s ever-brooding Hospital Productions. Whereas Spit was an LP which wasn’t sure whether it stood in the techno realm or the noise pool, Periscope Blues is firmly grounded in Morelli’s most experimental frame of mind. It feels like a continuation of one concept over 30 minutes, a testament to his obvious passion for beatless, chest-pounding hardware experimentation. Comprised of eight tracks, Periscope Blues is the culmination of a mission gone wrong. Music for the stranded, the lost, those backed into a corner with nowhere to go, or maybe a reflection of sad individuals panicking on a tropical vacation gone awry. Somber yet very tense drifting off radar machine electronics that feel like a blistering sun beating down on decaying beach remains as time crawls on. That or the equivalent to working the grill summers at Jones Beach and stealing from the register just to get a little more.
Further Reductions – Woodwork [CITI013]
Cititrax presents the full length LP by Brooklyn duo Further Reductions. Shawn OSullivan (Vapauteen) and Katie Rose formed Further Reductions in 2008 as an outlet for their shared passion of electronic dance music. O’Sullivan, known for his recent techno releases as Vapauteen on L.I.E.S., 400PPM on Avian and Civil Duty (with Beau Wanzer of Streetwalker) on The Corner has been quite active lately blurring the lines between techno and noise music. With Further Reductions, O’Sullivans rhythmic sensibility is fused with Roses pop leanings to create super lush and atmospheric tracks that work both on and off the dance floor. Informed by the sounds of classic techno and early house, they subtly substitute the structure of functional club music with a more primal absorption based in their unique collaboration. Seductive vocals coupled with organically evolving sequences create a complex narrative that penetrates the subconscious in a way that conventional club music rarely threatens to.
Xosar – TRAX.102
Jorge Velez – Territories [LIES046]
Jorge Velez returns to L.I.E.S. with his first effort since 2012’s Hassan LP. Through this six track LP we see the ultra versatile Velez weave seamlessly through numerous strains of electronics. From menacing drones to EBM influenced floor tracks to Sakamoto-esque melodic experiments, he creates an atmosphere equally suitable for home listening or adventurous club play. All of this very much reminding us of the days when Mute, Factory, Cherry Red, or Fetish Records were at their best.
Syncom Data – Sweet Sadness [SD034]
Raw, analogue-drenched album by Syncom Data. Ranging from deep and dubby to detroit-inspired electro and industrial-influenced bass music.
Musumeci – Untitled (Traxx edit) [MNQ050]
Musumeci tapes reissue, with their brutal body music plus, similar to DAF, CHBB and Liaisons Dangereuses, was one of the most acclaimed in the Mannequin Records 2013 productions. Traxx, the Chicago-based head of Nation Records, redesigned a raw live version of ‘Tag Fur Tag’ with what he described as a ‘hugly-tape Kode’
Vril – Torus [FORUMII]
Vril debut LP on Giegling sublabel Forum. After appearances on other labels like Semantica and Delsin, Vril has now returned home to Giegling to release Torus, a surprise eleven-track LP with track titles that seemingly combine HTML-speak with Roman numerals. Vril’s productions combine elements of booming dub techno with murky reflections of rave with his own patented and progressive synth sound. Torus sees Vril deliver more of this, but he’s also extended the remit on this album to include other elements of dance music, with what sounds like Clone-inspired (west coast) electro, Chicago house and flashes of Adam X-industrialisms.
Asss – Halt Sex Mi [HAR001]
Florian Kupfer – This Society [LIES045]
Florian Kupfer is back with a new ep diverging from his previous efforts and delving interesting results. Nasty one from this very talented young upstart. This Society turns out to be a massive floor board ripping cut in a similar to old Acid Planet or Bunker tracks, no bells and whistles just bare bones warehouse mayhem. Resistors teases in start/stop fashion throughout pushing to the point of no return and never getting there leaving the listener in limbo. Finally, taking up the entire b-side, Reach Another System is an autistic 909 driven piano track in the most unconventional sense which implodes upon contact.
Helena Hauff – 1028 [PANZER1028]
Hamburg’s saviour of the Reeperbahn darkness, ‘la belle dame sans merci’ from the notorious ‘Golden Pudel’ club, her menacing and ruthless sound strongly reminiscent of ‘Beverly Hills 808303/Interr-Ference’ from The Hague’s sinister ’90’s
Psyche – Re-Membering Dwayne LP [DE061LP]
At the end of 1981, brothers Darrin and Stephen Huss and schoolmate Dwayne Goettel performed for the first time as Psyche in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Their live show was a combination of horror and electronics that was completely unprecedented in Western Canada. Although Goettel and the Huss brothers parted ways before Psyche was to release any material, the masters containing Dwayne Goettel’s performances were preserved in the band’s vaults. Now, 19 years after Goettel’s untimely passing in 1995, Dark Entries records presents ”Re-Membering Dwayne”, the original Psyche-Dwayne Goettel sessions. All tracks were recorded and mixed on 4-track during a single day in March of 1983. Psyche’s early material is visceral and abrasive, a far cry from the sleek, dark synthpop they’d later become known for. Psyche disquietingly conflate the organic and the mechanical, calling into question the limits of the human form. Each LP includes a 12-page booklet with excerpts from Darrin Huss’ diary, unpublished photos of Psyche with Dwayne, and an essay by Darrin reflecting on Psyche’s past and the Goettel legacy as well as lyrics. This collection is a glimpse at the early Canadian industrial scene and the roots of Skinny Puppy. Go take a walk in the past with an ear for the future; you just might learn something.
Lassigue Bendthaus – Matter [DE060LP]
Lassigue Bendthaus is the electro-industrial project of Uwe Schmidt aka Atom or Seor Coconut from Germany. Uwe Schmidt began making music in the early 1980s, first playing drums, then switching to programming a drum computer after he had heard a Linn Drum on the radio. In 1986 he co-founded the cassette label N.G. Medien, on which his first musical work under the name Lassigue Bendthaus, ”The Engineer’s Love”, was released. Soon after, he started to work on what would become his first official record release, the album ”Matter”. The recordings and production began in 1986 and took almost 4 years, until the album finally came out in 1991 on the German Parade Amoureuse label. Musically somewhere between late ”Industrial” and ”Electronic Body Music”, yet already anticipating ”Acid” and ”Techno”, this production managed to cause quite a stir, due to its advanced production techniques. Songs pay strong homage to Kraftwerk, approaching the early industrial dance scene with a softer sequential approach than most of his contemporaries. ”Matter” is a hermetic reflection about the relationship between perception, nature, science, technology and labor. This reissue comprises the entire 1991 ”Matter” LP, as well a bonus 7” record containing 2 tracks never before released on vinyl.
Sandra Electronics – Want Need EP [MW054]
Minimal Wave presents a 6 song EP by the UK/US duo Sandra Electronics. Originally formed as Sandra Plays Electronics by Karl O’Connor in 1988, the project has evolved over the years to become a collaborative endeavor with Juan Mendez (aka Silent Servant). Three of the tracks were first released as an Untitled 10” on Downwards in 2010, and the record quickly sold out. Those songs have been re-edited and remastered for this EP, and three more rare demos and live versions have been added. The songs can be described as hypnotic industrial electronic mantras with enigmatic keyboards and treated vocals. Each track draws the listener in, with its repetitive psychedelic percussion and dark affected vocal.
Crash Course in Science – Signals From Pier Thirteen [DE059]
Crash Course in Science are a post punk band that formed in 1979 in Philadelphia.The band members, Dale Feliciello, Mallory Yago and Michael Zodorozny, met while attending art school. They began to experiment with crude electronics and off-beat writing. CCIS avoids conventional instrumentation by using toy instruments and kitchen appliances to augment the distorted guitar, drums and synthesized beats. Their first single, Cakes in the Home was released in 1979 and their 4-song 12” EP ”Signals From Pier Thirteen” in 1981. Pier 13 was an abandoned coal-loading pier along the Delaware River near where CCIS rehearsed. The band went there often and was inspired by the huge silent machinery, shapes, shadows, ghosts and debris. The songs ‘Cardboard Lamb’ and ‘Flying Turns’ quickly became club favorites during the early 80’s. This EP’s raw, percussive sound influenced both techno and industrial music in later years. CCIS feel a strong connection to Throbbing Gristle, although they consider themselves as working in a parallel universe rather than being influenced by them. Crash Course in Science go above and beyond what is considered ‘New Wave’ in attitude and sound.
The KVB – Run Away [AMPLA075DD]
The latest release for The KVB comes via Ample Play, a London label that’s best known for releasing the music of indie rockers Cornershop. The two-track Run Away EP sees the duo on form once again, with more curtailing synths, straitlaced drums and vocals clear as mud. Both tracks on the EP are somewhat contrasting, the title track being dancey and melodic, while “436” is a grungier version of sounds you could expect from Tropic Of Cancer or HTRK.
Ron Morelli – Backpages [HOS406]
Ron Morelli returns to stare down the ‘floor with four pieces written during the stress-busting sessions for ‘Spit’. The muggy, droning welt of ‘Public Consumption’ kicks off with the sound of New York techno shot from the hip, while ‘Another Hit’ vents a vintage era-Regis style built on skull-chipping snares and effluent acid modulation. The album’s writhing batacuda banger, ‘Crack Microbes’ reappears here as an extra-ferric extended Version, sustaining the hypnotic intensity for nine minutes of panic attack acid and febrile cowbells, while ‘’Rushing Again’ escorts us to a close with triplet techno shook down by railgun snares and a grotty synthline.
An-i – Kino-i [CITI011]
Cititrax presents a new project called An-i, the latest musical moniker for Berlin based former New Yorker Doug Lee. Doug has been DJing and producing records for the last decade under various aliases and collaborations. The Kino-i EP will be the debut release and home for An-i, a showcase of his love affair with machines. It fronts a hard hitting sound beyond category, moving from techno to jack to punk and to noise. It suggests an anything goes attitude perhaps dictated more by the will of machines themselves then any author.
Salo Mentale – Golden Twilight [SD032]
Krautrock and EBM inspired post-industrial techno. Next-level electronic music made by one of The Hague’s most original producers. Must have for fans of Unit Moebius Anonymous and Shitcluster.
The Hipodrome Of Music 