21st of July saw the release of the single “Burial” by Milwaukee based ChokeChain, the project for MarkTrueman. Written and produced by Trueman, while the mastering is by EricOehler, at SubmersibleStudios. Excitingly, this single heralds the new album Mortality, which will be out in September the 22nd, on PhageTapes.
You can almost taste the anguish in Trueman’s vocals, raw and reproaching. The rhythms are unrelenting in their pounding, while the wailing in the background is like klaxons going off, creating an atmosphere of cloying terror that you still must find yourself moving to. Propelled by claustrophobia, each throbbing note is driving your heartbeats. They say death is cold, but the industrial aggression of “Burial” by ChokeChain is smoking hot.
As a kid, were you enchanted by movies such as BladeRunner, Tron and JohnCarpenter’sTheThing, and their futuristic soundtracks? Then the music of NikkFail might be for you. Milan based Fail has also found inspiration in this genre, and has released his debut EP FuturoPresente.
As the title of the EP infers, the instrumental “FuturoPresente,” is the now futuristic sounds building your anticipation, as the blatting bleeps mix with the tinkling synths, giving a sense of foreboding in the current climb. You have the “Supervillain” given a voice by Fail. Like a modern day PinkPanther with only evil intent. This alter ego however does his villainy in plain sight with the acclaim of the people. Can someone say politician.
There really is something very old school industrial about “Sirens“. Possibly the anguished vocals or the stalking rhythms and swirling electronics, but this is possibly my favourite off the EP. The last track is haunting instrumental “SerialK.G.“, that winds its way uncomfortably through your subconscious.
The premise behind FuturoPresente is the fact that so much of our subculture science fiction made in the 80s, had their future timelines set in what is, now, our present day. Did some of it come true? I will that leave thought with you, but if you need a soundtrack for those inner thoughts, or just damn well enjoy retro electronic music, then you really can’t go past NikkFail.
Australian’s love claiming New Zealander’s as our own, and quite frankly, the talented KierenHills is no exception. His crust punk, crossed with industrial stylings with the project SchkeuditzerKreuz, is perched to release a new full length album on the 25th of August, named NoLifeLeft, and a packed tour of Europe, over this September and October (which is well worth every cent). For now, you are able to listen to “SecondLife,” the latest single off the album.
Photo by Jeremy Belinfante
Instantaneously, the pummelling, heavy as fuck rhythm grabs your ears, with a taste of black metal gloom, as the claustrophobic pall tries to suffocate the breath out of you. Hills snarls and growls lyrics such as ‘free to kill, free to take a life away’, a protest of the constant gun related killings in America, where the victims and families seem to have no voice. The loops and synths ooze discontent at the failing system.
“I’ve always had a policy of playing anywhere and everywhere with SK. I’ve played in a lot of weird and wonderful places in the last 3 years – in sheds and video stores, in the forest and in car parks, house shows, club shows, in-stores, and pub shows – under bridges and in skate parks. Anywhere at all. So, I wanted to do that for the video.
I found an alleyway choked with long-dead street bounty – sofas and white goods and old guitars, and pots and pans and cupboards and sheet metal, and building waste and everything that gets left behind when people move on or move up. All long left in the elements to degrade and die. So, I set up there and played to a few friends – interspersing my usual walls of sound with throwing stuff around and bashing on things in the pile, more or less rhythmically along with the music.‘ – KierenHills on the video for “SecondLife“
The video is beautifully shot/produced by Shaye at DMWCFilms, filmed in an alleyway in Sydney. This track hits hard, not only in the voluminous reams of auditory crush, but also the overwhelming disappointment in a society where guns mean more than people’s lives. The vinyl records for the album are already on pre-order from BadHabitRecords (AUS) and SorryStateRecords (USA)
Kicking off July with a bang. We are talking the new industrial single “ROTATIONS” from UK artist MATTHART, with the added extra bonus of a remix by SERAPHIMSYSTEM, aka JonStancil, from the USA. This is the ongoing human versus machine, cyber saga of epic proportions.
“8 HOURS AWAKE. 8 HOURS ASLEEP.THIS IS THE WAY OF THE TIME MILL.” This is the mantra here, for there is not time for anything, except digging into the ground beneath, for the humans to escape their electronic assassins. The synths are ripe and juicy, while the beats are rampaging, forcing you to move that body. HART’s vocals broker no argument for this is how thing must be, as the shifts rotate through continuously, like a colony of ants, slaves to the rhythm for survival.
The SWAGGROTATIONSREMIX has the massive slamming beats and screaming electronics. It summons a feeling of utter panic, suddenly dropping into drum and bass, before whirling off, pounding your skull into a pulpy mess.
MATTHART’s original version is chock full of scintillating synths, club floor filling rhythms and rounding vocals, building the air of a will so stubborn, one shall do whatever to avoid elimination. With the SERAPHIMSYSTEM mix, we definitely find ourselves with a different beast. Harsher electronics, mixed with dub and dropping bass, combined with the crushing beats. All of this is a reflection of the desperation and even loss of humanity by the survivors…. ah well, at least they are doing it in style, while carrying out “ROTATIONS“.
German industrial project NeonInsect has released another single as of May, with the title “Implant“. NilsSinatsch is NeonInsect, whose forte is delving into a cyber-punk future of apocalyptic proportions.
The flesh screams in defiance as the cybernetic additions consume the body, taking away pain and everything else that makes a human feel. Nils‘ gruff vocals are the programmes and nano bots seeking to assume control, as they pulsate through their victim,
It starts with a few changes of enhancement, until the machines decides mankind is frail and prone to breaking. The road to human race’s doom seems to be paved in the industrial dance rhythms of NeonInsect and his “Implant“.
The wizard of techno-industrial dance, SimonCarter, is inviting you to join your weird brothers and sisters in the mystical coven through the latest EP, Initiation. Released at the end of May, Simon has said that these four tracks were cut from the up coming 2nd album with collaborator Fabsi, because they didn’t quite fit the overall sound but gelled well together for the EP.
The curtain raiser is “Seher(Initiation Countdown),” a call to the floor for all the warriors of dance and a taste of what is to come. There is a mixture of psytrance with EBM in “HexennachtRave” that interchanges, giving the track ebb and flow, building the energy, bewitching your senses. Big bass beats wub into your chest cavity, cut by the voice speaking at you about reality versus dreams, and you are waiting for your next techno hit in “DancefloorDelusion.” The last track, “TheMagicCoven(Welcome To the Coven),” is slower and pulsating with power, hypnotic suggestion from Carter’s deep spoken words, that you join the witches circle.
May black cats and bats fill your dreams while Carter fills your ears with techno delights of the strange kind, bidding you to indulge in the Saint Vitus dance macabre. Welcome to the Initiation.
Today’s quickie is from Swedish electronic band, FatalCasualties. They are Stefan Ljungdahland Ivan Hirvonen, and we are bringing to your attention a cover of The Cure track “One Hundred Years” with guest vocalist Alex Spalck of Pankow.
This track has always been a favourite of those who love the 1982 album Pornography, and the dark electronics follow this paradigm. Spalck’s wonderfully crazed and mournful vocals capture the essence of the track, while FatalCasualties manages emphasis the heavy feeling of longing through their manipulation of synths and programmes. The music video is a must watch affair, and this twist on the gothic tune is so well done.
Take one very enthusiastic New Zealand punk, living in the Blue Mountains of Australia, give him electronics to play with, and you get SchkeuditzerKreuz. KierenHills is back with a new single. “Joy“, before the release of his new album, No Life Left, on the 25th of August, and for the lucky people in Europe, he is going to be touring there between September and October.
The electronics are under stress and screaming, while voices can be heard from within. The laboured rhythm kicks in, as does the ear ripping vocals from Hills, exploding over and over again, slamming in the perfect exultation of destruction.
The anguish of crust punk, mixed with the harsh machine of industrial noise, somewhat describes SchkeuditzerKreuz, and yet there is elements of gut wrenching internal pain balanced by frenzied highs, incorporated into the music. Destruction often heralds in a time of recreation, and perhaps this is the “Joy” for SchkeuditzerKreuz. It is a banger of a track.
What is a dream? There are many theories but they are definitely made up of past experiences, but also plum the depths of human aspirations and creativity. This brings us to the experimental Australian project lixly. Whom or what is lixly? No idea but as far as I know, their release, a leopards head, is their first, and is based on lixly’s dreams.
The surreal hissing before the acoustic guitar throws you slightly, and it seems to be recorded in a room where other things are happening. The spoken vocals are eerie and prophetic, as the track is called “i cannot forget“. Maybe “the song of ereshkigal” is a falsetto version of NeilYoung, if Neil was being particularly creepy in a delicate way. Distorted chiming notes, herald in a terror filled and oppressive atmosphere, settling uneasily in the back of your head, in the instrumental “i don’t want to look at the baby“.
“a leopards head” has the heavy and electricized vocals, while the wavering electronics assault your ears with their hit and run tactics, hissing and fizzing with the undefined rhythms. Classical piano strains greet your ears, ghost like, in “a royal audience“, but there is the pitched overriding electronics and what sounds like a person cooing behind it all. The final track “it is no mask“, and the deep voice is back. The music around it is full of violence on an epic scale, brooding and aggressive.
Is it an EP or is it an album??? Mmmm, I leave that up to the listener, but there is no doubt that there is a lot of horror in the dreams of lixly, as they waltz between ambient industrial, acoustic and classical, building tension. This is a dream leopards head with the disturbing and very interesting lixly.
Label InfactedRecordings, have brought you the latest single “Surrendering“, by United Kingdom artist j:dead. JayTaylor (j:dead), who also is the live percussionist for TyskeLudder, TacticalSekt and HarmJoy, has also included remixes by fellow Brit, MATTHART and Germany’s Faderhead.
When the world goes to hell, perhaps including betrayal, do you give up or fight on? This is the premise behind “Surrendering“, with Taylor’s warm clean vocals in stark comparison to the agonized screams, married to a musical score that is so dynamic. The Faderhead remix is a brilliant dance orientated version, up tempo and with heaps of movement in the chiming electronics. The vocals have been brought to the fore, while the synths wind throughout building the tension. If you know MATTHART, he has brought with him, his cyber industrial style, but this is definitely tempered with his very sympathetic handling of the clean vocals, whilst causing the roared lyrics to be pain ridden.
I don’t think I can pick a favourite version, as they are all so good. Taylor’s vocals and song writing are stellar and really, HART and Faderhead are both masters of their style of industrial music, lending their talents and creating a monster of a track. There is no “Surrendering” for j:dead.
Onyx Music Reviews 