Kevorkian Death Cycle was a band that stormed the industrial scene in 1996 with the release of the album Collection For Injection. The music was raw, uncompromising and high with energy, perfect for dancing too. In 2022, Kevorkian Death Cycle are now on the Negative Gain label, with the core members Ryan Gribbin and Roger Jarvis joined by Rob Robinson and Sean Whitman. The group is releasing tracks from Collection ForInjection, modernised, as a group of EPs and the first, Injection: 01, was released on July 15th.
The four tracks include fan favourite, “Veal” and it stonkingly good. I had forgotten how brilliant it actually is with those machine gun beats. Real body music with overwhelming heart. The fabulous “Man Made“, “SendMe The Machine” and “Spring Heel Jack” make up the rest of the quartet, really there isn’t any chaff as each track holds it’s own.
When I first heard of this, I wondered what it was going to turn out like….. you wonder if you are going to feel sad about how they have changed something close to you memories. I really should not have been concerned. These four tracks have been lovingly treated, a few rough edges smoothed off, the sound quality is much better but it is still fucking amazing, drilling into your head and splashing around in your brain with abandon. Nothing sounds like it was written in the 90s and this is just as much a testament to the band’s song writing skills as much as the mixing done by Robinson. If you are a Kevorkian fan, don’t be afraid to give this a listen because it has the ball ripping intensity and if you are new to the fold, I can’t think of a better way to immerse you into the Death Cycle. Bring on the next EP.
In California, you might meet a “Deal3r“, in the form of the latest Male Tears single, released independently, on July 15th. Comprised of members JamesEdward and FrankShark, this goth/ darkwave duo have been going from strength to strength, after being started by Edward in 2020.
Might be more than a touch Euro dance style mixed with future pop and lashings of creamy dark, sexy vocals. Instantly likeable with those club friendly rhythms and spiralling synths.
I’m sure you have probably met these creatures in your clubs and bars. They are seen as the pinnacle of perfection in the scene with all the right accoutrements and connections but it is all a facade, a lure and a means to an end. There is a huge cavernous sound to this track, almost verging on what could be taken as being live and if MaleTears sound anything like this on stage…. what a glorious thing to behold.
Have to say I have liked Rotersand, since I first heard them many moons ago and their remixes for other musicians are great. Now we can enjoy the German’s mixing MATT HART‘s “ABSOLUTE ZERO“, off the album, BELOW THE TERRA. PT. 1 and came out on the 26th of July.
There is a looping and sensuous flow to the beeping and bleating rhythms. It is a near sublime background which makes HART’s anguished rant standout further. The electronics mesmerize you with their epic flow and yet there is something urgently wrong amongst the dance beats.
The machines in the storyline are bringing the temperature down to “ABSOLUTE ZERO” and the electronics, which Rotersand have brought to the fore, are the intent of the aliens while HART gives the vocal resistance of the humans. The mix is so smooth and flows beautifully, a balance of crushing brutality and perfect symmetry.
People might recognise the name Jasyn Bangert and that is hardly surprising as the lead singer of the ever popular God Module but he is also the fellow behind the synth pop project Hexheart. Funeral Flowers is the second album from Hexheart, which was released on June the 17th.
From the first track, “Erase Yesterday“, there is actually a profound sense of joy, as if the whatever happens, there is always a tomorrow or sparkling rivulets of synths such as “RED“, which for some reason reminded me a little of early New Order. “OV ME” and “(bottom of) BELOW” feel like the lead up to the first single off the album, “The Funeral Party“. If that sounds familiar, then you would be correct as it is a cover The Cure track, though this version has a far more jaunty vibe to it than the original, off the vaunted Faith album.
Keeping in that mode, “See In The Dark” with the chiming guitars and dance beat, while the cosmic “PsychicFriends” spirits you away with the pulsating rhythm. There is the wending “After This“, that bops it’s way through to the last track, “(so far) BELOW” which is the only song that sports a slightly harder edge in it’s melancholy.
Most electronic/industrial artists seem to have more than one project on the go and Hexheart is very synthpop orientated, so utterly different from God Module. There is a air of Birthday Massacre, mixed with The Cure’sDisintegration, with that lilting guitar . I am still not sure if I like an album completely with electronically altered vocals, though I know Bangert is using them to create a theme throughout, the semi human or slightly detached to humanity but I would love to hear him sing a few of these tracks in clean vocals as I think that it would be magic to hear these dreamy pieces given extra soul breaking warmth.
About eight months ago, German EBM giants, Tyske Ludder released the single “Peststufen” but now you can get another bite of the cherry with Infacted Recordings‘, J:dead remixing and bringing his own vocals, in English, for this bi-lingual track. UK based, J:dead is Jay Taylor, who incidentally is also the live drummer for one Tyske Ludder.
The J:dead remix is a very polished affair, smooth and flawless synths in complete opposition to the growled out lyrics in German, with Jay Taylor’s dulcet vocals silkily sliding through. There are so great changes in tempo all building to a wondrous vortex in this dance friendly track. “Peststufen” has gone from a great, raw industrial track, to a great, sinuous and elegant remix….. and you can’t get much better than that.
MATT HART has been crafting his own science fiction world with music, over the last few years. A dystopian world, visited by alien machines whom have no interest in terms of peace but rather to overrun the planet and rid it of the human vermin. The machines lower the temperature to suit their needs and force the original inhabitants to burrow into the very ground to escape the tyranny and also keep warm as a global ice age ensues.
This brings us to BELOW THE TERRA PT.1, the latest of HART’s album releases, which follows the human’s plight as they scramble to ensconce themselves deep underground, though this is surviving, is it living? The three singles that have so far been lifted, give you a good gist of what this album is about but also a feel for the general earth crackling ambiance in the thumping rhythms, bristling electronics and, of course, HART’s howling, gravelly and often defiant vocals.
Techno married to an angst ridden industrial abrasiveness, each track telling its part of the story, such as “THE LAST RAVE” which is the humans coming to terms that their numbers are dwindling and this might be the last hurrah or “TO THE CORE“, where humanity is digging to escape and the machines can be heard in their triumph. All extremely catchy and very dance floor friendly but I noticed this album has less of a guitar influence and a lot more synth. Why may you ask? Well, I did just that, plus a few other burning issues…..and a word to all aliens, don’t mess with MATT HART because he will totally fuck you up, stone cold….
Welcome to the rabbit hole MATT HART, our domain. In case of alien robot attack, the exits are here —>, <—-here and under the dining table.
Matt, you are a pretty busy guy. Your paying day job is a musician, you have DJ’ed at London’s Slimelight Club amongst others, you have your own Twitch DJ channel, recording and playing live gigs. How do you fit all this in and do you like to be this busy?
Honestly, I’ve no idea how I fit it all in! I’ve got a lot of energy and so I guess keeping this busy is a good way to burn it all off, but I definitely know how to relax too. On the promotional side, my awesome wife helps massively with that – networking, sending my music out, keeping my bio and FB updated. She’s highly organized and I’m a complete creative, so it’s a good balanced system we got going. Also, with my job, I’m travelling on a coach/train often so that gives me opportunity to put my headphones on, turn my laptop on and just plug in and write. Some of my favourite tracks came from using “on the road” hours to focus.
So talking about recording, your new album BELOW THE TERRA PT. 1 is a corker! How long do you think it took you to write and record it?
Thank you! BELOW THE TERRA PT.1 took around a year to write, in a slow process as stated above – about grabbing time here and there while travelling. All the other busy hasn’t allowed me to write much faster! That said, when I’m on a roll I can write a track in a few days! It’s just getting that space time to do it! Hmmm, guess that gives me some food for thought, if I cut all the other busy things out, just think how quickly I could get music done! But, but, I do love the other things I do too, balance, right!
Do you find song creation an easy thing or would you say that you find it a painful process at times?
It’s generally easy. I have quite a good template process that I can dive into and start creating quickly, however, sometimes writers block does strike and I just can’t get anything down. When this happens, I know to just walk away and give myself some time. Stepping away from something gives you opportunity to gain fresh perspective on it. I’ve also found a great way to get past a hurdle is to work on someone else’s music, so I really enjoy doing remixes for that reason.
BELOW THE TERRA PT. 1 is part of a much bigger storyline. Can you tell us about this apocalyptic tale you have envisaged?
Technically, BELOW THE TERRA PT.1 is a sequel to my album TERRA 3808 (Nov 2019), which was about the war on the machines. This album, BELOW THE TERRA PT.1 is about humanity surviving in the icy wastelands of 3808 and below the machine overlords on the surface. Being as this is a PT.1… there’s going to be more to the story, just not sure what that will encompass as yet.
Have you always been a big fan of science fiction?
Yes, as far as I remember, I have. I love the Matrix and the Terminator movies. I think I watched the Matrix so many times I wore out the vhs! I’m particularly interested in machine worlds, and how/what that means for humanity. Could we survive, are we headed to that future? Machines already run so much of our lives, and there’s different ways to measure the positive/negative aspects of that. I’m also a huge fan of the Halo world: books, game etc and definitely the visuals – you can likely see that in my album artwork a bit.
Industrial music lends itself so well to this genre, do you think that is another reason you are compelled to perform this style?
I was always a fan of heavy metal and industrial metal but I think as I started clubbing in London I was influenced by the harder dance floor sounds of EBM and dark electro and found myself gravitating in this direction more strongly. Being able to write and perform industrial music, basically as a solo artist (though I have an excellent live guitarist Jerome Badoux) has allowed me to have control over the whole process. The bonus of creating without hardware, provides a different type of freedom — will mention again about all my travel, so this works for me. That said, I regularly record the guitar parts and wouldn’t give up any of my guitars hanging on the wall – I just don’t use them as often as had done in previous years. Sharp edge sounds and aesthetic, what’s not get onboard with!
This album seems to less guitar based and becoming more electronic focused. Was this a conscious thing because the machines have taken over?
Haha! Great observation and comment, but no, it was driven from a place of not having my guitars readily available to me, during a lot of the writing process for BELOW THE TERRA PT.1. Writing solely on a laptop allowed for the focus more on the electronic elements. However that’s a really interesting point that I hadn’t really thought about! I was also wondering that since the humans have spent all their time simply working to survive and get away, that they too in a way have become machines, shadows of their former selves in the current situation…… Society certainly has become less of a military faction and more of a resourceful entity but there is definitely still humanity residing inside them. It’s actually a theme I’ve been batting around for writing new stuff, and in another vein, that as they band together that their humanity actually becomes stronger, as they actively work together.
Which track off the album did you enjoy recording the most and why?
To be honest I really loved what I did with LAST RAVE! I set out to write a heavy club track and I totally feel I achieved what I was going for. I had it in mind that I wanted it to include guitars as well, as I’d intended for it to be done live with my guitarist, Jerome – so it has an extra heavy chug chug sound to it. It was just fun writing a classic rave-centric track that was heavy at the same time. Am also quite pleased with the video produced for the track. It’s footage from appearances at Elektro Vox and Resistanz festivals, both in April 2022, London and Sheffield respectively and premiered on Communion After Dark – wowza, right! If you want a glimpse of the kind of energy I bring to a stage, it’s a good video to watch. It’s up on my YouTube >>> https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1VrlDE2gaDJJJfMjGqo4UQ/videos
Covid is such a bugbear for live music currently. Are you doing or going to be performing live shows?
So, since the UK came out of lockdown I’ve had a few gigs/festivals as noted above and recently I opened for Leaether Strip in London and the weekend of 9 th July, I performed at a post-apocalyptic festival a could hours outside of London called Road 2 Ruin. Talk about a fitting environment for me! Wasteland crew and fire, it was incredible. Up next, in chats about a small gig in Scotland in August, tying that into some holiday time up there. But I really want to start putting some good focus into writing new music for the next album…… I’m really pleased with how tracks from BELOW THE TERRA PT.1 fit into my live set though, heavy, driving and really danceable – great elements to a gig!
You did a brilliant remix on Simon Carter & Fabsi’s new album and you have been popping up as a guest mixer on many other tracks. Who else have you remixed recently and is this one of those things that makes you really happy?
I do really enjoy doing remixes. Sometimes it’s the perfect break from your own music too. To be honest, I’m not a fan of recording vocals so when I get someone else’s vocals on a track to remix I jump at it! I love reconstructing other bands tracks and making them different, often giving them a more dance floor sound. Recent ones out are the Synapsyche “Silvertongue feat Danial Graves” and the Antibody “I Don’t Understand” remixes! Haven’t seen this done by anyone else (so feel quite innovative about it), but I’ve got a page on my Bandcamp where I list all the remixes I’ve done (a compilations page too). Think it’s a great way to cross-promote and the list of artist names I’ve worked with is impressive and I’m proud to have worked with them. There’s more I’ve done, that haven’t been released as yet — but watch that page, things just waiting in the wings
Your world is invaded by crazy alien robots and the only way to stop them is by being the ultimate DJ and up loading a song into their collective hive mind. What do you up load and why?
John Cage – 4’33. Don’t give them anything to feed off. Just silence.
What is in the future for MATT HART?
As I said I have a few MATT HART remixes for other artists to come out and I have the first remix from BELOW THE TERRA PT.1 coming out very soon… ABSOLUTE ZERO (ROTERSAND classic ride rework) releases 26 th July, 2022. This is a real banger, it’s entered the DAC (that’s the Deutsche Alternative Charts https://www.deutsche-alternative-charts.de/) at position 4 and that’s mega mega!
2009 is when Australia’s goth rockers, IKON, released the album, Love, Hate And Sorrow, and last year was the band’s 30th anniversary. Elenor Rayner is Robots In Love, ex-Aussie now based in New Zealand and she has taken the fourth single that was taken off that album, “Torn Apart” giving it an electronic makeover in the form of a remix, that came out on the July the 11th.
The beginning bell like notes herald something a bit special and those tones pepper through the track, giving it a mystical effect, in stark contrast to the electronically altered vocals, metallic and slightly cold. The bass heavy beats kick in, drowing in sorrow, while the vocals come clean, giving the song an ever more keenly felt expression of sadness.
When I compared the original to the remix, it was surprising how much more emotion Rayner pulls out the track, as well as making it sound almost like a different song. IKON have always made amazing music and Robots In Love has really capitalised on this talent for songwriting, polishing “Torn Apart” with an electronic pearl essence shimmer.
It is good to see more women creating music for themselves in the electro-industrial scene and Nuda is no exception. Seattle based, she has previously been a guitarist for Possessed Tranquility and started Nuda in the beginning of 2019, so far with 2 albums under this moniker. June 23rd, saw the latest single, “Trigger“, drop from the soon to be released third album, Stranger.
“Trigger” starts with all those nice reverbing, cycling electronics, before kicking off. There is electric guitar in there but it blends so well with synthesizers. There are wallowing lulls, followed by frenetic movement.
You can hear the old school industrial creeping through but still this is kept in check, throughout this instrumental track. Nuda bends the music to her will giving it a cleaner sound. “Trigger” and the album Stranger, are based in the topic of mental health/illness, stress and rauma.
Portland’s Xibling (Sibling) are a synth lead duo on the experimental edge and on March the 1st, the label Young And Cold Records, combined two previously released EP’s, Yesbody and Maladjusted onto one vinyl. Moriah West and Julian Thieme have so far released four original EPs, plus other livestream material.
“Hello Stranger” exudes the enthusiasm that this band seems to be all about with a rhythm that thrusts you forwards, glitching with the howling vocals replicating a wolfs’s call. The single, “Butterfly Curbstomp” is a brutal space oddity of having your teeth kicked in, with an strangely B52’s feel while “Fold” could have come from the early 80s with its manic robotic intent. To be a model, you might have to be made of “Plasticine” to keep your looks and figure, which is exactly about what this song is about, sung with such passion. “Schadenfreude” or the pleasure gained by someone else’s failure, the male German style vocals in staccato, all over this piece and this mixes so well into “Maladjusted“, with the rap inspired spoken word that melt into beautiful, silken tendrils of singing and who can say no to lyrics like a maladjusted little shit, dropping the bass. There is a slow burn to”Slow Fold“, as it curls around you, fingers digging into your throat.
“Butterfly Curbstomp IV” is possibility what it is like to be on speed in a formula one vehicle, an insane ride for a remix. The darker allure of fetish and sexual angst is “Latex Gloves“, which is going to stalk you with those commanding beats, though this all hits the brick wall in “Vine“, with the echoing, glossy attitude. The bleeps and electronic distortion vie with the vocals for control with “Contract“, while “Puppet” has an air to it like the Siouxsie/Budgie project, Creatures, especially vocally. There is this beautiful synth line that runs through “Reflection” and though the lyrics are not a happy affair but the music itself whirls around you. The last track is one of the title tracks “Yesbody” and it had an amazing vibrancy and a pop like perfection.
Bloody marvelous and such a fun collection of tracks. I love how they manage to pull so many different sounds out of their electronic equipment and it is all about the passion behind the music. You can hear the enjoyment Xibling exude when they play and while they might play electronic music, but they really have a very punk attitude behind it all.
End of last year saw the debut album, Blacken The Skies released on MetropolisRecords, by the South African band Terminal. The end of June, they released the official video for the track “Godfire” which comes off the aforementioned debut album. It is an epic track with driving guitar, huge drum beats and a bludgeoning chorus that should have you up on your feet and dancing. “Godfire” or holy war, but who is right and who is wrong and when does God’s name mean peace instead of war in the name of religion? The video is full of confronting images of modern warfare but as always it is the music that has last word. So if this tickles your fancy, then you need to check out Terminal’s whole album.
Onyx Music Reviews 