Review: There's a delightfully celebratory feel about this debut volume of Cititrax Tracks, a new 12" series from Minimal Wave offshoot Cititrax. As beautifully presented as we've come to expect, Tracks Volume 1 boasts a quartet of dancefloor-ready smashers from a blend of new faces and label stalwarts. Amato (aka The Hacker) kicks things off with the glistening EBM funk of "Physique" - all restless synth refrains and pounding bottom end - before LIES affiliate Tsuzing go all dark, psychedelic and twisted on the thrillingly intense, acid-flecked "King of System". An-I go all DAF (with a touch of Front 242) on the fuzzy and dystopian stomper "Mutter", before Cititrax regulars Broken English Club delivers a storming chunk of industrial-tinged analogue funk ("Glass"). Bravo!
Review: Who said music has nothing to say these days? In an age of plastic people distracted to the point of distraction from the shocking atrocities, privilege, inequality and prejudices that are frogmarching society into a death trap of a future, Benefits stand out like a beautiful sore thumb - battered, bruised, and British, they are the epitome of an 'issues band' and we welcome any opportunity to listen and write about them.
Like some sort of rabid Idles, here the Middlesbrough one man crew make noises that defy logic, twisted cacophonous bars of ravenous distorted sound, and then layer council estate spoken word over the top. Angry enough to make you feel like there is still hope, and innovative enough to make you wonder whether - in an increasingly risk-averse music industry - enough people will get to know and love them. Make sure you do.
Review: Ascendant Berlin duo Blame The Mono return with their latest outing on French label Molekul titled 'Riot Toys'. There's no holds barred on this hard techno onslaught: the adrenalised energy of opening cut 'Gazellehorden' (feat HerrClem) fires up the engine in style, followed by the hyperaware energy of 'Switch The Pilot' and its jacked-up big-beat influence which also lunges straight for the jugular. Over on the flip, 'Funk Herald' will keep you tripping out under the strobelight, plus one more peak time banger to hammer the message home in the form of 'Bad Disco' which will keep the heads down on the dancefloor.
The Sixteen Steps - "Signals From The South" (6:28)
The Sixteen Steps - "Promises On The Run" (7:17)
Review: Rampant and 'up for it' as usual, the Cititrax label is back with a new set of wayward technoid experiments for the more trained ears on the dancefloors. This time it's Romania's Borusiade and newcomer The Sixteen Steps who share two sides of a wax plate and, of course, proceed to annihilate any idea of a quiet night in. The former sets off with the mechanical acid bumps of "Infatuation", guided by an eerie set of vocal blurs, and that's followed by the comparatively more beat-centric techno of the apocalyptic "Confutation". On the flip, The Sixteen Steps first lands on "Signals From The South", a house banger with noxious levels of mutant bass at its core, followed by the single-minded industrialism and sheer techno brutality of "Promises On The Run". WOWZAH!
Review: CyberindustrialEBMwavepost-punkIDMmutantelectro. No commas, no punctuation, just one throbbing, convulsing, dystopian mass informed by the bleakest visions of a sci-fi future we deserve but definitely don't want. Originally hailing from Australia, but long-since relocating to Berlin's eastern ends, Kristian Bahoudian, AKA Kris Baha, has clearly absorbed his surrounds, grown through them, and learnt how to channel that brutalism into something truly potent. It's also narratively driven, with the titular spirits in the system a reference to humans in the age of advanced artificial intelligence - beholden to dictatorial codes that rob us of our essence, vitality and individuality. An awakening among a select few means a small number of people become self-aware, again, and can begin pushing back. And this point of tension, between human and machine, plays out sonically. Talk about painting a vivid picture.
Study For Tape Hiss & Other Audio Artefacts (12:01)
Apparition 5 (2:14)
Review: Selected from a decade of recordings, this release showcases Bass Communion at its most experimental and texturally rich. Tracks are layered with analogue imperfectionsitape hiss, wow and flutter, static noiseithat are transformed into haunting soundscapes. The mellotron, buried beneath layers of imagined rust and dirt, adds an eerie, organic depth to the fragmented drones and spectral noise. The carefully constructed album feels like an excavation of forgotten sonic artefacts, with each piece offering a narrative rooted in decay and texture. Pressed on 2xLP, this is a striking addition to the Bass Communion catalogue, perfect for fans of sonic exploration.
Review: We're starved for two-sided 12"s in the world of ambient music, but Chris Madak aka. Bee Mask has refreshingly graced us with one this week. It should be said that there's Skee Mask and then there's Bee Mask; the latter is far more unsung, undeservingly so. Madak's music is abstract and cerebral enough to have lent him credo enough to have released on the likes of Weird Forest, Spectrum Spools and Room40. But this latest reissue, 'Versailles Is Not Too Large Or Infinity Too Long', hears him plunge the ethereal heights for the US label Unifactor. Originally released on cassette on Chondritic Sound in 2008, these pieces deserve the renewed attention and the fresh laying to wax, since they're not 'regular ole' ambient cuts in the slightest. Unafraid of indulging the high end freqs, Bee Mask fleshes out a mood of uncertain, urgent bliss - sizzling, crunching and soaring the drone, as if its maker were a modern Icarus flying too close to the sun.
Review: First released in November 2024, Belief Disconnect's Desire & Discontent follows up on the preceding Decadent Yet Depraved, and cements their status as commentators of our times. If last time took a sledgehammer to the monstrous face of a world presenting as one thing but actually something more brutal and savage, this marks our arrival in different time. Masks, like gloves, are off, sides drawn, and the knife edge society and civilisation now rest upon is cast in sharp relief. This is dark, and we mean very, very dark, stuff. It's industrial. Like, super factory-sized industry. Tracks are full of rage. There's the sense that human aspects, a vocal for example, are emanating from solitary confinement somewhere in the depths of a Borg ship. And yet hearing and listening are acts of catharsis - Desire & Discontent is as much about giving us an outlet as it is reflecting a dystopian sci fi narrative which may be on the verge of coming true. Belief Defect certainly seem to think there's a chance, anyway.
Review: Belief Defect's Moe Espinosa and Luis Flores bonded over a love of early industrial music - and even now, some six years on from the pair's debut album, its influence is still very much in evidence. But that doesn't mean that this, their eight track sophomore effort, harks back to the days of Throbbing Gristle et al. Rather, the Berlin duo take their taste for the uncompromising and sonically shocking and twist it into new shapes, equally informed by experiments from the leftfield of electronica and sharpened up by acute sound design. 'Apprehension Engine' is technically ambient - it's certainly beatless - but the way it steadily frazzles and burns itself up is edgy and unsettling rather than being chill out material. 'The Witching' splices doom-laden, deep voices with lumphammer kick drums, while 'Celebrate Me!' is a gloriously half-Suicide, half-Autechre mix of cyborg aggression and throbbing sequencers. Not one to be listened to with the lights off we reckon... It'll be all fright on the night!
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