Label: Mute Format: CD/Ltd. ed. CD + hardback book As far as I know, no-one since Stockhausen has attempted a major re-interpretation of the national anthems of the world, and anyone but Laibach would be foolish to try it. There’s little sign here of the triumphalist bombast of “The Final Countdown”, “Jesus Christ Superstar” or “Leben Heisst Leben”, which is surprising given that some of the most notorious imperial […]
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Label: 13th Moon Format: CD Alien Sex Fiend were always a strange beast. A lo-fi Electro-Goth Punk band fronted by a demented Alice Cooper obsessive with a scatological sense of humour, they were a bit of a pie (probably a poo pie) in the face to the Goths’ sucky-cheeked solemnity, but still they lapped it up. Odd, yet strangely exhilarating, and quite unforgettable as a live experience, though […]
Label: Mute Format: CD,2LP As purposely obscure and enigmatic as ever, Laibach‘s return to the world of record releases and live shows steps up the pressure they bring to bear upon the listener’s expectations of what this most uncompromising of groups might actually intend and ultimately mean. Presented in German, English and occasionally Serbo-Croat to thumping beats of an orchestral Techno bent, WAT kicks off with one of […]
– Iranair Inflight Magazine – Red Madrassa – Jebel Tariq Label: Muslimim Format: CD – Arabbox Label: Soleilmoon Format: CD –In Search Of Ahmad Shah Masood Label: Nexsound Format: CD Recent months have seen the continuing flow of Muslimgauze releases slow down considerably – given that it is now five years since Bryn Jones‘ untimely death, this is hardly surprising, but that it has taken this long is […]
Sunrise Label: Ektro Format: CD Alotus Label: Klangbad Format: CD Operating at the junction between hard rocking metal and psychedelic space exploration groove melodramas, Circle‘s sound is certainly enveloping in a total manner with nods to the Kosmische sounds seeping across the other side of the Baltic Sea to their native Finland for the last three decades or so as well as the leather-clad tomfoolery of Judas Priestand the single-minded starship thrum of Hawkwind. Alotus opens and closes […]
Label: Threshold House Format: CD The last Coil album proper, The Ape Of Naples marks a tragic end point, a conclusion to one of the more remarkable groups to grace the annals of electronic and deviant music. Completed under the direction of his longtime collaborator Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson and bringing together tracks recorded in many locations over the last decade or more, this album marks the last such […]
Label: FatCat Format: 2LP,CD Sometimes there are groups who are so off the wall that it’s a bit of a trip just hearing them for the first time. With Animal Collective, it’s fair to say that their oddness continues for the second, third and pretty much every listen, and Feels is one of their strangest and most compelling releases to date. Fortunately, it’s also one which is so […]
Label: Mayan Format: CD So Bush got in again. Fuck. Well, look on the bright side, at least it means Al Jourgensen still has something to be angry about. Small comfort I know, but you take this shit where you can find it, I guess. I mean, a better world would obviously be great to live in, but I’m not sure my mind could cope with the ontological dissonance that would come with […]
Label: Probe Plus Format: CD And they’re back. Nigel Blackwell‘s lads are here to give anyone, and anything, they think worthy a damn good kicking. And they’ll do it catchily too, and with some great jokes. Quite some expectation, and opener “Restless Legs”, while funny, seems remarkable targetless. After this breezy opening, though, we get one of the two most acerbic tracks on the album, “CORGI Registered Friends”, […]
Label: Planet Mu Format: 2CD,2LP London duo Vex’d are to be found operating at the murky point where dubstep meets bleep, where grimey shivers fuss and bass drops rumble. The sounds collected on Degenerate take the momentum of dark drum’n’bass into yet edgier territory; the kind of places Witchman was hinting at years back, but with a particular atmosphere which is yet more gloomy — if that’s possible […]
Label: C.I.P Format: CD First there was Sand, whose 1974 album Golem was a lost masterpiece of Kosmische psychedelia. The album was re-released and annotated by David Tibet and Steven Stapleton along with other unreleased material from various related projects in 1996 as the Ultrasonic Seraphim double CD set on their combined United Durtro imprint, and with the dissolution of World Serpent Distribution is now sadly unavailable once […]
Label: Planet Mu Format: CD Bringing together a selection of 12″ tracks and a scattering of remixes by DJ Hellfish, One Man Sonic Attack Force showcases his penchant for mashing together Hardcore Techno and Gabba with HipHop and making the results bleed. “U Don’t Quit”, with its rumbunctious MC extolling the vitues of party-busting breaks demonstrates just how much better the uptempo beats of chart-friendly acts like … […]
Label: Planet Mu Format: CD,2LP If anything is going to show the diversity and breadth of Aaron Funk‘s talent, Rossz Csillag Alatt Született should. Taking a breather between bouts of full-tilt Breakcore insanity for a little lighter – but not lightweight – electrical string-led conceptualising, this album is nothing less than a meditation on what it would be like to be a pigeon living atop the Királyi Palota […]
Label: Planet Mu Format: 2×10″ (Vol. IV only), CD Updating the sound of Drum’n’Bass as he’s been rinsing it out since the early days, Bizzy B‘s Science EP Vols. III and IV CD doesn’t so much re-invent Junglist mania as restate it with extra oomph. There are no obvious surges into Grimey territory or cheap nods to Garage, but plenty of fun to be had from Bizzy B’s […]
– Does The Cosmic Shepherd Dream Of Electric Tapirs? Label: Space Age Format: CD – The Penultimate Glactic Bordello Also The World You Made Label: Dirter Promotions Format: 4CD With a band as prolific and expansive as the Acid Mothers Temple, it’s somewhat difficult to select a “typical” release to settle on, and perhaps (perhaps not) Does The Cosmic Shepherd Dream Of Electric Tapirs? is as good as […]
Label: Mute Format: 2CD Only a few weeks ago I was bemoaning my shortage of Laibach material – just a couple of albums’ worth out of a repertoire that spans well over two decades – so I was more than a little chuffed when this new retrospective landed on my lap. This is not really an album for Laibach fans of long standing, given its near-lack of new […]
Label: Mute Format: 2CD No question has ever divided the civilised world more than this one: “What did you think of Nocturama?” For every devotee willing to bask in the righteous glory that was “Bring It On”, there’s a hater who’s all too keen to remind you of the less-than-spectacular “Rock Of Gibraltar”. Me? Well, I liked it. Except for “Rock of Gibraltar”, obviously. That was shit. That […]
Label: Aalfang Format: CD Bit of a weird one, this – even by the usual standards. It consists of two tracks, the first (“Geschwärtzte Milch” – blackened milk) lasting four minutes long and sounding a bit like late Swans in strummy guitar instrumental mode, and the second (the title track) being three quarters of an hour long and comprising a textbook example of Surrealistic klang-honk-tinkle-“boo!” Electroacoustic tomfoolery in […]