Cititrax presents remixes for The KVB by Regis, Shifted, Silent Servant, In Aeternam Vale and Worn.
industrial
Vatican Shadow – It Stands To Conceal [HOS369LP]
In it’s third year of operations Vatican Shadow became an unavoidable issue on the international noise and techno agenda. Following Type, Blackest Ever Black and Modern Love editions, Dominick Fernow aka Prurient aka Vatican Shadow ploughed forth with his project, resulting in three tapes ‘Jordanian Descent’, ‘Ghosts Of Chechnya’ and ‘Atta’s Apartment Slated For Destruction’, collected here on vinyl for the first time. Disc one features both sides of his extended ‘Jordanian Descent’ meditations, some of his longest in this guise and given to incredible, unfurling loop repetitions; Disc two holds ‘Ghosts Of Chechnya’, one of his most concise and varied issues, eight tracks wide and tending towards gloomy, urgent, cinematic arabesques including the outstanding ‘Voices Came Crackling Across A Motorola Hand-Held Radio’; Disc three comprises the four parts of his amazing ‘Atta’s Apartment Slated For Destruction’ including the impeccable darkness of ‘Once This Fire Gathers Strength’.
Covered In Sand – Heaven’s Gate Suicides [MIRA003]
Shifted unveils yet another cloaked figure with his Covered in Sand project, the first release on the Avian sub-label Mira following two impressive turns from the mysterious Bleaching Agent. The title track to Heavens Gates Suicides is saturated in overdrive with cloudy Regis and BMB influences evident. Vatican Shadow remixes “Heavens Gates Suicides” adding subtle musicality to his version, almost throwing the track out of sync with it’s awkward snare hits – if you can call them that. “Russian Gold & Blood Diamonds” is like a beatless Severed Heads piece pulling desperately at your heartstrings while “Pale Skin” is another electronically shambled scuzz of hollowed hisses and jittery sound design.
Container – Treatment [DOSER016]
VA – Exploitation [ENFANTET017]
‘Exploitation’ is the new film by Dutch independent filmmaker Edwin Brienen. Enfant Terrible produced the soundtrack for this gothic-noir satiric fresco. 90 minutes of music to be enjoyed both as true soundtrack as well as a sequel to previous Enfant Terrible compilations… but more dramatic and ritualistic in the way the record is building up. It will please fans of minimal electronics and (post) industrial music but also moves into different styles such as idm, tekno, angst pop and chanson, while always keeping a dark and cold mood and/or dream state feeling throughout.
Unit Moebius Anonymous – Perambulator Two [CHANS003]
Sharp, nasty and brilliant; like licking out the wrap. Avant-garde / post-tekno tracks from the beautiful mind of Unit Moebius Anonymous.
Factory Floor – Fall Back [DFA2369]
“Fall Back” is the first single from the forthcoming debut LP on DFA Records. The track is 8 minutes 30 seconds long. The B-sides are exclusive to vinyl and feature 3 separate loops taken from the single, created each by Dom, Gabe & Nik.
Henning Baer – Consumption EP [NWHITE002]
Henning Baer has released his Consumption EP on Psyk’s vinyl only nwhite. The release features 4 stunning, psychotic and dark techno monsters. Consumption EP is Henning’s third solo EP to date showcasing his very own raw Techno sound.
Charles Manier – Charles Manier [NAT013]
Ill new Charles Manier album on Chicago’s, Nation. This self titled album takes that noise and cranks it right up over tipping point. Nation, a label designed to push the underground to a new level of electronic sound thru experimental styles of musical consciousness. In our recent releases the idea is to never go with the same formula twice. Jakbeat introduces a new concept of productions, music with a sense of novelty that can be accentuated in a certian setting a state of mind. This is a rare assemblage of recordings and live performances from the archives of the Ballard and Ridgewood-Cantullinix Studios in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Recorded 2001-2012, these are the solo visions of Charles Manier. He summons the spirit of early industrial music and breathes in it’s corpse again. Not unlike his previous releases on Ghostly International,here are virtigo endusing arpeggios that twist around a futuristic pulse, and occasionally sting. Here are ritual themesongs for the heathen cyberpunk and experimental landscapes, built from old metal and old plastic, that were designed for a lost future recommended for people who dance to Esplendor Geometrico, Severed Heads, Suicide Liaisons Dangereuses, DAF, Psyche, Executive Slacks & Das Ding.
Smersh – Cassette Pets [DE035]
Dark Entries has dug deep in the New Jersey basement of Smersh to release the double LP compilation “Cassette Pets”. Smersh was the duo of Mike Mangino and Chris Shepard, who started writing music together in the late 1970s. They were uninterested in traditional notions of songwriting or live performance. Everything they needed was in Piscataway NJ: a basement full of musical toys and instruments, novelty space microphones, a TR-606 (the same “Roland” who was listed as a member of Big Black), a SH-09 (Cabaret Voltaire’s favorite synth), and — perhaps most importantly — a couple of tape recorders. By 1981, this dedication to spontaneous creativity had already produced countless recordings, and the duo began releasing cassettes as Smersh via their own Atlas King label. On “Cassette Pets” are 17 songs, featuring some of the many highlights from Smersh’s vast discography, spanning 1981-1994. Smersh’s sound is a lush hybrid of techno, industrial, dance, and experimental. Sometimes easy, sometime not. Most songs revolve around driving EBM style beats, intricate industrial noise manipulation and synth melodies. The Smersh sound has so many faces it doesn’t fall into any one category.
Profligate – Videotape [NNF265LP]
The retirement of Noah Anthony’s Night Burger alias dovetails fluidly into his latest / greatest burned-mind industrial vehicle, Profligate. Anthonys new musical operational model retains the eerie bleakness and concrete atmospheres of his previous project but sculpts them into more maximal, dynamic constructions. Videotape is his vinyl debut, and lays out the agenda with stark, menacing clarity. The title track is a pummeling ascent of chugging drum machines, flatliner synth electricities and strobe light sequencer detailsa digital bloodrush to the head one can (almost) dance to. “Conditioning Trench” rides a buzzing, dystopian bass-pulse strafed with vintage Roland claps, while a paranoid synth melody runs through a dubbed-out void into an exquisite vanishing point. Shadows of Sandwell District-ish negative techno flash forth here and there, but it’s refracted through a rawer, more physical post-noise basement worldview.
Raime – Quarter Turns Over A Living Line [BLACKES001LP]
‘Quarter Turns Over A Living Line’ is the long awaited debut album by Raime. Moving away from the sample-based strategies that characterized their early work, Joe Andrews and Tom Halstead have looked increasingly to live instrumentation for their first full-length work, mounting intensive recording sessions for percussion, guitar and strings before painstakingly piecing the album together at their home studio. The gothic and industrial signifies in their music remain, but more submerged and oblique than ever – no less pronounced as influences than jungle’s rhythmic dynamism and doom metal’s oppressive weight or aspects of techno, modern composition and dub. ‘Quarter Turns Over A Living Line’ is the first original artist LP on Blackest Ever Black.
Vatican Shadow – Ornamented Wall [LOVE080]
“Ornamented Walls” is the most intense, brutal and, in many senses, most substantial work from Dominick Fernow’s Vatican Shadow project yet. Released to coincide with his first tour of Europe, the album incorporates the live mix rehearsals of “Operation Neptune Spear” with tracks made in their aftermath, recorded straight to tape and mastered by Matt Colton at Air Studios. Anyone familiar with Fernow’s live set-up will recognize the distinct nature of this material — making use of stems and partial tracks separated into a cassette system which is then re-layered and mixed, effected with electronic processing. In short — Fernow uses his tape machines like turntables in a mix, weaving a hazy and intuitive narrative of sounds that never quite head in the direction you expect, all imbued with an almost feral attitude that’s exhilarating to witness, their limitations and their mechanical machine qualities used to devastating effect. Side A features all three parts of “Operation Neptune Spear,” originally made available in a measly edition of 17 cassettes and sold at the first-ever Vatican Shadow live show in L.A. back in May 2012. Side B features an additional 25 minutes of previously-unreleased work made in the aftermath of the show and using the same set-up, including an astonishing revision of “Cairo Is a Haunted City,” dis-assembled and re-wired, lending it a shortwave quality that’s nothing short of revelatory.
Vatican Shadow – Ghosts Of Chechnya [HOS361]
The heavily sought after “Ghosts Of Chechnya” cassette finally sees a digital release. Vatican Shadow is unstoppable at the moment, his alchemistic beats and military themes marking him out as a singular talent. This LP champions the sound of Vatican Shadow, with its dubbed-out, reverberant noises, that make him stand out among his peers. The aptly named “Voices Came Crackling Across A Motorola Hand-Held Radio” is another beast, where chugging kick drums meet ominous pads and crackling static. “Chechnya’s Ghosts Loom Large In Death Of Former Spy” is another fine example of his creative ability to mould techno into any shape he sees fit; but it’s the filling spaces made up of eerie melodies and stripped beats, like “Snipers As A Breed Tend To Be Superstitious” which make his recordings so enchanting. Highly recommended as usual.
Surgeon / Svreca & Skirt – Untitled [SEM050]
Semantica celebrates release #50 with this double A-side by Surgeon and labelhead Svreca, teaming up with Skirt. Dark techno from the off.
Zsa Zsa Laboum / HNO3 – Something Scary / Doughnut Dollies [DONT021]
The new release from Don’t imprint features two sublime 1988 Belgian New Beat classics from Zsa Zsa Laboum and HN03. Laboum’s “Something Scary” is perhaps the archetypal New Beat track, commencing with a sample lifted from the dodgy 80s B Movie “The Entity” and displaying some excellent percussion and a powerful and obscure acid line – it still sounds excellent some twenty four years later. On the flip is the R&S classic “Doughnut Dollies” from New Beat icon Eric Beysens under his HN03 moniker features. It’s grubby industrial arpeggio sounding equally vibrant today – especially pitched way down to -8 like the New Beat guys used to do!
Sumerian Fleet – Sturm Bricht Los EP [CREC012]
New release from Sumerian Fleet on Creme Eclipse. Big Menacing Darkwave with an industrial tinge from this mysterious West Coast super group, like someone finally removed those damn sunglasses from the Sisters of Mercy dude and showed him the world was an even sadder place than he imagined. Little was heard of him since.
Violetshaped – Violetshaped (Remixes) Part 1 [VPN003]
The third release from Violet Poison label, featuring three industrial remixes by Vatican Shadow, Roly Porter and Kanging Ray.
Factory Floor – Two Different Ways (Remixes) [DFA2341]
Factory Floor offer up a substantial distraction while the band put the finishing touches on their debut album, due out on DFA Records in early 2013. Their last single “Two Different Ways” is remixed by two different electronic music leaders. Richard H Kirk, co-founder of both Cabaret Voltaire and Sweet Exorcist, puts his own warped spin on the single, while Perc aka Ali Wells, takes the original and piles on his signature throbbing bass for the main remix. Perc also offers up a ‘Noisy Mix’ taking avant waves of feedback and noise and shaping into something unexpectedly beautiful.
Silent Servant – Negative Fascination LP [HOS357]
Silent Servant (aka Juan Mendez), a member of the now-defunct minimal/dub techno collective Sandwell District, makes his stunning album debut with the poised fusion of epic techno, primitive post punk, and industrial electronics on Hospital Productions. Now nine months since he stopped recording with Sandwell District, Mendez has explored his divergent yet compatible tastes to their fullest, recognising and reconciling their congruent rhythms, atmospheres and intentions with alchemical ability. If you’re familiar with his previous trajectories you’ll no doubt be seriously impressed with his balance and contrast of time-honoured elements, from the bellicose sci-fi romance of ‘Process (Introduction)’ to the full flight techno escapism of ‘Utopian Disaster (End)’, and if you’re new to his sound – whether you’re a noise freak wondering what the f*ck Hospital Productions are doing releasing a techno album, or a techno head who’s baffled by the raspy drums – you should be quickly realising that this stuff is the way forward. From the wave-scanning intro he spins a bleakly noirish narrative, slowly building tension with ‘Invocation Of Lust”s acid hypnosis and the stoic deployment of drones and agitated drum machine slaves on ‘Moral Divide (Endless)’ that resolves with gritted techno determination on ‘The Strange Attractor’. Yet perhaps our favourite moment is ‘Temptation & Desire’, sounding like the converged darkroom visions of Front 242 and Stephen Morris, but if any cut shocks us the most, it’s ‘A Path Eternal’, revealing SS at his most unreservedly sublime and vulnerable without his usual, armour-plated chassis of beats. It all surely adds up to one of the most impressive examples of modern industrial techno you’ll hear this year, one which doesn’t merely pay deference to its roots, but nourishes and augments them with the kind of vision that imparts the strong feeling that he’s really been biding his time, ’til now…
“Negative Fascination” is a 7-track affair said to couple Basic Channel vibes with post-punk and shadowy industrial cues.
