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Nikk Fail is an Italian retro synth project and his second EP, End Of The Line, was released in June. Consisting of six tracks, now Nikk Fail has brought some friends with him to play this time!!!

As soon as I heard the title “Bugstompers,” all I could think of was Starship Troopers, the rather questionable 90s movie about taking on alien bugs. The track itself has science fiction effects at play and seems to be promising slightly violent intent. First guest vocalist is Eleonora Ferrari on “End Of The Line,” an ominous portrayal that she is the end of everything, and will happily end everything. Ferrari goes from cooing into blood curdling gurgling squeals within a split second. The next instrumental is “Living Dead Lights,” and the music is both eerie and haunting, to the point that one could say, light as an apparition and cool as a tomb.

You cannot get many more light years away than Star Wars, so in a galaxy far, far away the synths pass and whirr as if they are lightsabers in a duel in “Anakin Rampage (The Ballad of Vader).” If you listen carefully, I am sure you can hear the Cantina band. Next guests are BelvaSXE and William Baxter featuring on the track “Troma Boy,” and here we hear a harsher side to Nikk Fail, between the growling guitar and the equally growling vocals, and all the while the electronics keep up to the wailing pace. Last track is the contemplative “Commuting Paradise,” though this song, in its own way, is sassy and has teeth, with vocals from Giulia Finazzi and guitar by Baxter again.

Already, you can see since the first EP, Nikk Fail is evolving and incorporating more into his sound. Collaborating with other musicians is a great way to extend yourself and push what you can do, and I think you can hear this on End Of The Line. Makes you wonder what is next for Fail and who he might tap into the helping him fly even higher.

End Of The Line | Nikk Fail (bandcamp.com)

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Just when you thought you might finally be safe from space invasion and laser beam, pew pew extermination, you find more DEATHCOMET in your life, and he’s back with album DEATHCOMET 16!! Hmmmm…. the last one we reviewed was DEATHCOMET 14. Sooo, it seems we skipped an album, however, that just means more for your experimental electronic listening pleasure, from the New South Wales region of Australia.

I find my teeth are set on edge listening to the disturbing drone of “new hunt for alien life” which stops and becomes the guitar torturing oddity, “desperate attempt,” as it tumbles over itself, creating a tubular vortex of sound. A looping guitar screaming greets your ears, perpetuating an overload for the ten minute long “neptune belial,” as you wait for the subtle changes in pitch, but this does nothing to prepare you for the track “satanic dimensions,” where you are almost assuredly hearing the anguished voices from the pit itself, as the harsh noise eviscerates your senses.

“all systems go” continues from where “satanic dimensions” left off, however it has incorporated an eerie demonic electronic choir, which is driving the unholy star drive straight into the inferno that is “cosmic ball,” yet another track clocking in at over ten minutes. The psychedelic effect of “masks” really hits you after listening to such constant noise, and it feels as if the aliens really are invading your brain, which leads in nicely to the last track, “aliens calling“. Yes, finally the little grey guys are melting your brain with their sonic vocals as everything burns to the ground.

DEATHCOMET 16 is experimental noise that starts by rubbing your brain against sand paper, and then just builds into a new world order, intent on cellular annihilation, so the alien hordes don’t have to worry about cleaning up the carbon mess. Alien industrial metal in the form of DEATHCOMET is a mighty powerful thing.

DEATHCOMET 16 | DEATHCOMET (bandcamp.com)

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Today I added a new tag to my list. Industrial space music.…. I’m pretty chuffed about that. The reason behind the new tag is the debut EP from Perth ambient electronic/industrial project, Open Mirror, called Contact Void, out on Western Australian label, Lightarmour Editions. Grant Slee is the human component of Open Mirror, as they windup for the release of the full length album, Contact Mortis.

The three track EP starts with “Contact Void” with its vast tendrils of sound and synth wavering out into the reaches of unknown universe, amongst the stars, quasars and heavenly bodies. Expansive and glittering. Somewhere in the back of my head, “Oxygene Pt 4” by Jean-Michel Jarre is prickling at my concious, because it reminds me very much of the space sound scapes created by the electronic French genius. The next track is “Contact Void” revisited as the Liminal mix, longer than the original. Brusque, more drawn out, as if this wasn’t the shiny and smooth trip expected. There is hesitation in the music as it plucks up the courage to sail forth. Those brighter synths are there but also an underlying ground swell of harsh noise creeping into the rhythm. Maybe contact with aliens beings, in the transmissions.

Sequentially, the tracks keep getting longer, with “The Dead Hotline“, clocking in at 13 minutes and 40 seconds. This is the Signal Extended mix, a different concept in some ways as it is not space related. There is a sadness in the music and the harsh noise is making its presence felt now, like the static on the radio, unable to find a channel. The music is now a spirit box, a conduit for the voice of the dead. A very Australia voice asks the aether questions, with the hope of a rely.

Though one is Earth bound and the other about space, there is a common theme… discovering what is it, there in the dark, or rather who. Well played Open Mirror because not only is this EP thought provoking, it’s genuinely both fascinating to listen to and very enjoyable. So how will you Contact Void?

https://lightarmoureditions.bandcamp.com/album/contact-void

https://sptfy.com/M2mQ