Back catalogue: All genres

Review: BOOM! Our favourites, Cititrax, roll the third editions of Tracks out onto our shelves, and the results are unsurprisingly strong on this excellent various artists comp. It's a mixed bag of skills, as per usual, and the sounds are those of a new NYC, fuelled by a new sort of post-industrial sensibility. Amato Y Mariana open with the tight beats and groove of "Queires Bailar", followed closely by the ominous compositions of the EBM-flavoured "Montgat" from The Sixteen Steps. On the flip, His Dirty Secrets bleeps out some morphed acid on "Structures", and "Another Stranger" from Further Reductions churns out a slow, mild-mannered house experiment with its roots clearly planted in the coldest of waves. Sick.

Review: Front 242's re-release of their timeless classics on crystal clear vinyl is a true gift to electronic music aficionados. Originally unleashed in 1983, the Endless Riddance EP, following their debut album Geography, remains a pivotal moment in the genre's history. This release served as the bedrock for the group's influential sound, shaping industrial and EBM music for decades to come. Front 242's dedication to their craft and relentless innovation is evident in their ongoing influence on electronic music. As they embark on their final tour in 2024, it's a fitting tribute to their enduring legacy. With their mantra, "always ahead," Front 242 continues to pave the way for future generations of electronic artists.

Review: "Eclectic digital dub" are the words Digital Sting use to describe the latest from Feel Free Hi Fi. Given Feel Free Hi Fi also run the label, we can take the phrasing as gospel. A few minutes into 'Blood' and you'll be short of any evidence to suggest otherwise, too. Bringing together the timbres, aesthetics and tones that have defined their preceding short form and extended play output, this is a debut album which defines the idea of an amalgamation of sounds. Drawing on their own experimentations, but also a multitude of canons and sub genres, industrial meets weirdo dancehall, meets broken techno, meets spacey stepping beats, meets frog sounds, and then some more. Cinematic, au naturel, yet also born from machines as much as Mother Earth, if you're not hearing this come 10am at one free party this year we'll eat our steel-toed hemp shoes.

Review: This reissued album from Justin K. Broadrick follows the sold-out 2022 CD release from Fourth Dimension Records. Since 1983, Broadrick has worked under the Final moniker, evolving from power electronics to a more expansive yet still intense sound over the years. This record features nine tracks all named and numbered after the title and they delve into murky textures, crepuscular guitars, harsh noise and dissonant bursts. The relentless, unforgiving sound captures anger and despair and prove Broadrick's ability to transform early power electronics into contemporary, boundary-pushing forms with deeper emotional resonance.

Review: Front 242 are reissuing five timeless classics on stunning crystal-clear vinyl, with their 1982 debut Geography standing as a particularly seminal record in electronic music history. This influential album played a crucial role in the development of industrial and EBM music throughout the 80s and beyond, forming the foundational sound that defined Front 242. The reissue offers fans a chance to experience the album's groundbreaking tracks anew, appreciating the enduring legacy of this iconic band.

Review:  But back in the early 1990s, it was feasible that neural implants could remain a lofty form of spycraft forever. Front Line Assembly's 'Tactical Neural Assembly' is built thematically on the excitement of that assumption; it's an album of blistering electro-industrial music, drawing heavily on the Mute-Factory-4AD tradition while appropriating contemporary acts like Nine Inch Nails - and with arguably even better mixing. Eight absolute units from 'Mindphaser' to 'Gun' raise sonic hell, and all cement the industrial as a formidable and well-defined genre.

Review: Legends of EBM, Canadian electro-industrialists Front Line Assembly should need no introductions, given their work stretches back to the mid-1980s. Nevertheless, they occupy a relatively obscure space - made for dance floors, but twisted, dark cornered, writhing, distorted dance floors where many fear to tread. With that in mind there will be some newcomers, and The Initial Command is a great starting point because it's the starting point of the band's back catalogue.

Originally released in 1987, this is the first album from an impressive 17-LP-strong body of work. And it's also the most definitive of their sonic style, setting a benchmark for all that would follow. Fiercely original, not least for 'it's time', from the glittering synths and harsh metallic percussion of the unarguably cinematic 'Casualties' and the abrasive white noise on 'Ausgang Zum Himmel', to the punchy breaks and dramatic strings of 'No Control', re-releasing Command is an essential act of unearthing.

Review: Ben Frost's Aurora has inherited a rare, lucky crowning achievement: it's one of those "introductory" records - touted by new ambient music neophytes online - used to initiate rookies into the so-called true ordinances of real taste. Divesting ourselves of this knowledge for a hot second, we prefer to draw attention to the fact that Aurora has reached another milestone: its tenth anniversary. Frost, the renowned Iceland-based Australian composer, crafted a tense yet glacial record back in 2014: Aurora's implicit takeaway seems to be the that to explore a polar land isn't a far cry from the act of exploring another planet; little context is grafted onto the sheer, real cold sound of the record, though the references are tentative if obvious: 'Nolan' and 'No Sorrowing' allude to "epic" cinema imagism - the lost causes and "no, go on without me" moments native to the seat-edge nailbiter soundtracks of survival flicks - whilst the utter dystonia of 'Diphenyl oxalate' lends a chemical influence, recalling a harrowing, cliff-edge SOS scenario aided only by the dim glimmer of glowsticks and flares, brandished by hazmat-suited heroes, lost, stranded far from the research station. Frost now shares a limited edition red vinyl edition here, limited to just 300 copies and including alternative artwork as well as an exclusive download of his blistering 2014 live performance of the record, at Berlin's Berghain.